Cadillac has had several unsuccessful swings at the European market but this time there are some surprising elements to its battle planMust admit I have a ghoulish fascination with Cadillac’s trials and tribulations in Europe.
Maybe it stems from attending the launch of the Seville in 1998, another chapter in a long history of trying to persuade Europeans that it is a credible luxury brand. And, of course, another heroic failure.
So it was interesting at the Paris motor show to talk to Caddy’s new boss, Johan de Nysschen, a veteran of both Infiniti and Audi and therefore someone who should know their onions when it comes to the luxury car market.
Indeed, he’s already making waves that include moving the company’s headquarters out of the Detroit mothership and down to the trendy SoHo area of New York.
He’s well aware that although the US and China are the main glittering prizes for Cadillac, you can’t ignore Europe if you are really going to see huge success. And he isn’t going to get that with the current line up of saloons and SUVs, all exclusively powered by petrol engines.
I expected him to say that Europe was on the agenda – the target is to start playing here properly in 2019 and it’ll do so with diesel engines and smaller capacity petrols.
It wasn’t a surprise either to learn that a smaller car was on the agenda – something to rival the Mercedes A-class and Audi A3. The big shock was that this is highly likely to be rear-wheel drive, "in order to be special and differentiate ourselves". A small SUV is also on the cards.
Big, bold words from the new boss, then. But Cadillac’s task of conquering Europe, selling more cars here than Jaguar currently does, is a huge one. Not least because the brand image is painfully skewed in Europe and there’s been many false starts.
I guess the key question is: if Caddy made the ‘right’ cars would you be tempted?
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