People buy an SRX, not a Cadillac?

[Bruce Nunnally]

http://www.thecarconnection.com/Shoppers/C...189.A12068.html

Interesting article on car names; I laughed at the bolded part of the quote:

At Cadillac, they have taken their name off the car. At a recent press event, Cadillac designers were showing us the new Cadillac styling on the XLR. The name Cadillac did not appear anywhere on the body of the car, presumably so that a new generation of car buyers won't associate the XLR with Cadillac. As Dr. Melfi might say to Tony Soprano, "I think there's more to this than what you're saying." Is Cadillac trying to hide their name so that people won't think they are buying a Cadillac?

Jim Taylor, the head of Cadillac told me in an interview two years ago that people don't buy Cadillacs. They buy SRXs and XLRs. Maybe. But they sold more Cadillacs when they were called Eldorado, DeVille, and long gone Fleetwood. The switch to alphanumeric names DTS, STS, CSX, XLR, SRX - drives everybody crazy. Did someone at Cadillac actually think if they copied Mercedes and Lexus, maybe customers would think they were Mercedes and Lexus? That's what it looks like.

This move to alphanumerics is foolish by itself but damaging because it strips Cadillac of that emotional connection - even romance - that comes with a great name. The big success at Cadillac has been the Escalade, the one vehicle in their portfolio that has a name. Cadillac still sells more Escalades than any other model. So maybe Cadillac will look at what is going on in Dearborn and say, "If they can return to the romance of names, we can do it too." I hope so.

[JasonA]

The big success at Cadillac has been the Escalade, the one vehicle in their portfolio that has a name. Cadillac still sells more Escalades than any other model.

I think it's funny that they correlate the Escalade's popularity with the fact that it's the only named vehicle in the line. Never mind the fact that SUVs and trucks, in general, continue to out-sell passenger cars by a wide margin, depsite fuel costs.

I think their suggestive way of saying that Cadillac sold more cars back when they had real names, and that any lack of sales is due to acronyms, is also a fallacy. Cadillac and Lincoln were really the only players in the game back during the "romance" names were on the decklids. The 1990s was a huge transition time, during which Cadillac began to use acronyms in earnest and also during which many more players gained populary in the luxury market in a significant way, like Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Infinity, and Acura. The luxury segment pie is only so big. If Cadillac had 30% of that pie 20 years ago, it would be next to impossible to maintain that market share among 10 different competitors, vs. having only 3 or 4. I suppose they can blame Cadillac's acronyms for loss of market share, but I think they're really missing the real cause.

[Cadillac Jim]

Most of those car mag articles are monographs. One man's or woman's opinion, and the person is selected for entertainment value of the articles.

[Spurlee]

If they ever make another El Dorado I hope they call it an El Dorado...not an ED2.5i or something dumb like that.

I've had a Baraccuda, a Duster, a Savoy(!), a Saratoga (double!!), a Newport, an American, a Karmann Ghia, a Silverado, a Corvette and a girlfriend with a Gremlin, just to name a few.

[OynxSTS]

I guess I'm in minority on this one... Most of my cars since the early 80s have been an acronym or a bunch of numbers and letters with only a quasi meaning... Except my Allante and Intrigue... I've driven a Z28, 442, F150 XLT, STS, and the 4Runner (ok thats sorta a name).

I think the XLR deserves a better name... Allante, a meaningless word, was a cool name...

But would the XLR's boring name stop me from buy one?

No way...

[rmac-etc]

yep, two thing have bothered me about Cadillac's naming:

The new names ... no strike that ... the new monikers ... xlt, xll. ytt. sst, vsl whatever. Yeah, I know those aren't real current models designations, but they could be.

I drive a slightly older generation, but fast, kick asse Eldorado, and if there were an eldo that was a world beater or even close, it would be first in my list for next car. As it is, I have to figure out what set of meaningless, passionless, letters describes the Cadillac that I would drive next. The letters are not even acronyms, if I understand right. OK, maybe they are, but there are too many sets of them and I don't know what they mean. I have too many acronyms floating in my head from my job, just give me a name, and maybe stick a 'v' or something on the end so I know what level of menace it may offer . I was satisfied with the ETC vc ESC thing, and maybe all the current models kindof have that meaning .... naaa, they don't, or it's too much to decipher. The Germans, for instance at least have some context to the model designations. Some letters to define a 'series' and some numbers to designate the engine displacement. If the current Cadillac monikers have some intelligence, I have not been informed .

And sadly, "the big success at Cadillac has been the Escalade".... oh give me a break. This is the most likely gm vehicle to be shod with spinner wheels accompanied by obnoxious high decibel thumping. Throw me off the board, but those things (the spinner wheels) are the most stupid, useless waste of money, they don't even look cool, just stupid. Every time I see an Escalade, I have to turn my head and wince, just in case (of course I unhappily live in Ca where this atrocity is most like to occur). If you own one, and its really a great appropriate thing for you and your family, that's great. These comments don't apply to you...

But, where ever one lives, you are more likely to see this stupidity on an Escalade than any other vehicle. Maybe I am wrong, but can you picture the Queen of England being driven in a Land Rover with spinner wheels? Cadillac should exude class, and mostly it does. It saddens me that the 'big success' has the least class of the model line.

ok. I'm sorry, I should not post this late at night ... I am going to learn to play the banjo and everything will be happy ... if I can just get the people at my old folks home to gimme one ...

[Poobah]

I wish Cadillac would give up the alphabet soup names and go back to real names like Deville, Seville, Eldorado, etc. Given the current trend, the next logical move would be to take a que from BMW and rename the whole line CLV (Cadillac Luxury Vehicle) or something else equally foolish.