Prepare to bid farewell to most Cadillac sedans
The automaker will streamline its sedan offerings to better align with buyers' tastes.
If you're a fan of the Cadillacs XTS, CTS or ATS, you're not going to enjoy the news from Cadillac's CEO one bit.
Cadillac will seriously pare down its current sedan lineup as its models reach the end of their respective life cycles, Reuters reports, citing an interview with Johan de Nysschen, Cadillac's CEO. "We have to rebalance our sedan portfolio," de Nysschen told Reuters.
The CTS, especially in 420-horsepower V-Sport trim, is one hell of a fun car.
The plan involves axing direct replacements for the XTS, CTS and ATS sedans. The CTS and ATS replacements will be folded into a single successor, CT5, which will appeal to buyers in the $35,000-$40,000 range. Its bigger brother, the CT6, will soldier on and aim to appeal to those shopping around $50,000.
Cadillac is also planning to release a compact luxury sedan that will compete with the Audi A3, probably called the CT4. It will be built at the same Lansing, Michigan plant that will build the CT5, which currently produces both the ATS and CTS.
I'm assuming the compact sedan will be called CT4 because Cadillac plans to release a compact crossover called the XT4. There will also be another, larger, three-row SUV within the next two years, built to compete against the likes of the Volvo XC90. The Escalade will probably still live atop the SUV lineup as its body-on-frame flagship.
Cadillac's been doing pretty well on a global scale, reporting a 27-percent increase in global sales through June 2017. But its US sales are down nearly 2.0 percent, and its sedans' sales are down 16.3 percent through the same period. With gas remaining cheap, buyers are still content to flock to larger, thirstier crossovers in lieu of the traditional sedan.
