Cadillac and Lincoln in California

[Yawn]

http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/20/autos/cadillac-lincoln-california.fortune/index.htm?iid=HP_LN

Unless you live in California you dont realize how bad the domestic luxury mark is here.. Doesnt Cadillac and Lincoln utilize fleet sales more than the typical luxury make as well? Most of the time I see bar codes on the rear windows..

[TurboDan]

I don't think this is particularly limited to California. It's been my observation as well. The issue is that the other two areas that are arguably the next biggest markets for luxury cars (the northeast and South Florida) have higher senior citizen populations. Florida and New Jersey are the destinations for a lot of retired New Yorkers, for example.

If these anomalies were to be taken out of the equation (which they will, eventually, through natural selection) I think the same issues would translate. Cadillac and Lincoln have huge, huge image problems in regards to their reputations as big boats driven by old people. Cadillac is valiantly fighting this – I think the ATS is going to be an awesome, awesome car – but Lincoln is floundering.

Even though it is iconic, if I were Caddy I'd ditch the vertical, big taillights. They look like something an old lady like Cruella De Ville would have on the back of her car as she's kidnapping puppies. It may seem trivial, but IMO it matters.

[Atomic]

great thread... all of the stories available with the link are worth reading.

i do agree with dan. however, south FL, where it was not that long ago that the mercury grand marquis lead all new car sales, has its share of lincoln (TCs) and cadillac (STS, DTS) judging from passing traffic. it will be interesting to see if sales of the restyled lincoln MKS, funkier MKZ and all new caddy ATS and XTS models take off. my guess: yes in FL and an optimistic maybe in CA.

[Yawn]

Even though they may come up with better designs that appeal to the greater buying crowd, their dealer network sucks here.. BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, and some of the others have a strong established dealer network..BMW and Mercedes are constanly expanding and remodeling their dealers.. Audi just spent a ton on 2 completely remodeled dealers... They will definitely need to invest if they want to attract here..

[Vinsanity]

Cadillac actually has at least as many dealers in SoCal as M-B; they just don't sell as much volume. That's actually been one of GM's ongoing problems that needed to be addressed during bankruptcy; they had a dealer network set up to support 50% market share, whereas reality has been nowhere near that for the past 40 years.

Compare this to M-B, whose handful of high-volume dealers actually seems to be working out ok. The fact that they sell cars in very high volumes through any one of the given local outlets doesn't seem to detract from the luxury image of the brand.