March28
Last week, a report by AutoWeek magazine claimed General Motors had approved development of a Cadillac sedan designed to tackle the Mercedes S-Class. The report said testing of a new V12 engine for the car was “well underway” by Holden in Australia. GM product planner Bob Lutz and Holden’s engineering boss have both flatly denied the report.
“It’s definitely not happening,” executive director of engineering Tony Hyde told Australia’s GoAuto. The AutoWeek report claimed GM vice chairman Bob Lutz stated in an interview that development had already begun at Holden for a 7.2-liter V12 made from two 3.6-liter V6s joined at the crankshaft.
“We are definitely not doing it,” Hyde said. “It might be possible to join two V6s, but we are not doing it. None exist in our part of the world and we are certainly not testing anything like that at Lang Lang.”
“We are not working on any Cadillacs,” he continued. “Nothing. We’re full-up in terms of resources with Camaro and our own cars. The G8 is a challenge from a timing point of view.”
Lutz denies
In an email response to a member of the GMInsideNews chat forums, Lutz also denied the report.
“Sadly, that article was about 90 percent pure invention,” Lutz said. “We have kicked off no such program.”
Baseless rumors?
It’s not known how AutoWeek could make an error of this magnitude. The report was based around a purported interview with Lutz at the opening of a dealership in Europe. While Lutz may have commented on a super sedan project, it appears he didn’t state anything near what the magazine claims.
The report also cited “sources” within Holden that were adamant about the Australian firm’s involvement in the project.
In December, AutoWeek claimed Ford was developing sedan and station wagon versions of the popular Mustang for the 2011 model year. After the report was published, Ford was inundated with hate mail from Mustang fans. This prompted Ford to take the unusual step of issuing a press release denying the baseless rumors.
I knew GM wouldnt do smart things
Its not smart to offer a V12. Even Mercedes and BMW V12s depreciate enormously…its just the nature of the beast. GM is not in a financial position right now to create this sort of car, they need to focus on drastically improving their core products first.
So basically this is a story saying AutoWeek is full of **** and has been in the past? I don’t know if I believe that seeing as Crain’s Automotive News is pretty accurate, and AutoWeek gets their news from that..
If Cadillac does not have at least a v8 powered very large RWD sedan than Cadillac cannot count itself as a true luxury maker, end of story. It may not need a V12 but Caddy needs something to take on the Sclass and LS460. The current STS doesn’t even come close. It’s too small, harsh, cheaply made and subtle to be a true contender.
And I’ll add this too…if you thought Volkswagen was out of place with the Phaeton (which is actually a great car) Cadillac would be similarly scoffed at and out of place the the world of 100Kish sedans.
quite sad news
i was actually pretty excited when i heard Cadillac might do something smart. but wouldnt two v 6’s welded together at the crank make it a w12 and not a v12??
Autoweek even made this their cover story this week! They must have truly believed such!
Lutz = dementia
GM’s problem with a V12 is that they have, to my knowledge, never built one before aside from prototypes and concepts. They never fielded one even for competition, to my knowledge. GM is rather famous for their work with V8s so a V12 coming from this company would be a red letter day, to be certain, to those that actually know anything, besides their own waning opinions, about GM.
As for GM’s Financial position, quite right. They have only just gotten their traction back. It’ll be a few years before they really start kicking it up to “Wow!”. For now, be patient, things are getting better… after they almost couldn’t get worse.
HEY FORD! Take a look at what really trying looks like! It pays off too.
Disappointing, but I suppose it makes sense from a resource point of view. We’ve barely seen a fraction of everything GM has planned. They still have half a dozen new Zetas to build in the next 2 years.
i thought gm was working on a northstar replacement with larger displacement, the v12 story was a little odd to me.
Sadly, I’ll have to agree with Madcapp. GM is not in the position to waste time, energy or resources to build something like this…perhaps in 5 years time, who knows.
Dammit GM, just throw this sexy body on the STS and give us something cool.
How many times has this rumor come up just to be denied? We could hope GM is just keeping it a secret…
That’s… really too bad. Really. I’d have expected Cadillac to start making V-12’s after their initial turnaround. Bob Lutz should take note of the interest this news blurb has generated, however incorrect.
Just the same as he should be taking interest in the demand for more rear-drive and AWD performance cars in the GM lineup. For instance, why don’t we see a 2+2 or four-door hardtop car based on the rear-drive turbo-4 Solstice?
Come on, Lutz.
Of course it’s not happening. It’s not happening because GM is lame. They build nothing exciting with the exception of 3-4 cars from all of their brands. The rest are just pathetic.
They build cool prototypes and then never build the cars and wonder like retards
why the bull**** cars the do make are not selling. GM brands are at the bottom
of my mind position. I don’t even consider GM or Ford when I’m buying a new vehicle.
Neither do most people who make a bit of money. This is why they lose money. People
that used to buy or consider GM vehicles no longer even think about GM as an option. Sad, but true and it’s GM’s fault.
The Pontiac, Buick and Chevrolet brands are so tarnished I doubt they can ever be restored.
i was excited to see the project but i dont blame GM for not doing it, they dont have the resources right now. Get over it enzomedici.
It’s a shame they didn’t do it because it would have destroyed the S-class, but I can see why they wouldn’t want to do it.
enzomedici….
I think part of your answer lies in decades of mismanagement and debt. In 2000, GM had approximately $136billion in debt. From 1990 to 2000, GM only earned $34billion or $3.4billion a year. At that rate, it will take GM about 40 years to pay off all it’s debt if all it’s earnings went to repaying it. Ford is in the same financial situation. Imagine buying a house 40times more than your net take home pay?
With that sort of debt, it will be hard to attract investors to raise the capital needed for innovative products. Yet, they will probably need the financing to do such innovations. So it’s a catch 22. It’s a grim situation for these companies.
GM is looking at the XLR not selling well. High prices for a parts-bin product is difficult in a market full of top priced BMWs and Mercedes and Jaguars with the status that Cadillac USED to have……then lost.
Someone said Cadillac never had a V12. Not in the modern era, but they did have V12 and V16 powered cars in the 30’s. The whole argument about the source of a possible V12 is moot point anyway considering GM has had a 7.5 liter V12 in development since at least 2001.They had to resort to testing it in a truck chassis to have enough space. It may have been shelved for financial reasons or gas consumption,etc. A high-end supersedan is almost inevitably in the works down the road.
__________BRING BACK THE V8-6-4!__________
.
LMAO. Remember that abomination?
Ricardo Head wrote “__________BRING BACK THE V8-6-4!__________ …”
It’s now called Active Fuel Management and an important part of GM’s efforts to reduce fuel consumption.
Rerone is correct. MacArthur’s V-16 Cadillac in the ’30s was a hit in the Philipines and the same old car was a hit in occupied Japan.
Comment by V-series, posted on March28
“It’s a shame they didn’t do it because it would have destroyed the S-class, but I can see why they wouldn’t want to do it.”
Why wouldn’t Cadillac want an S class competitor?
GM needs to be broken up so the individual car brands can focus on their strengths.
Riachard Head,
It’s called DOD or Displacement of Demand now and GM’s been using it for almost a decade now. DCX calls their’s MDS or Multi-Displacement System. You don’t hear much about them because, I’ll assume, no one cares or it’s not being offered as frequently anymore.
Let them get their 6 cylinder down first. Then graduate slowly. Just what the public is really crying for—a 12-16 cylinder caddie
GM has a tough time with being perceived as being a GREEN company. Hummer seems to be the poster child of NOT being GREEN. A V-12 car would hurt GM more than help them.
However a hybrid version with turbo V-6 might work. It would need guts. Electric motors have amazing torque. If they could utilize the capacitor idea to throw out surges of power it could work.
Make a luxo sedan along with the Cian (sp?) using the same hybrid drivetrain except one is front engine & the other rear engine. Different is good, price it as required!