C/D: ATS coupe 2.0T 6M

[kevm14]

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/201 ... est-review

Sounds like a great car to drive. Still impressed by the light weight of this Alpha platform. The 5-60 is 0.9s slower than the 0-60 because turbos. But I guess that's not too bad considering.

[kevm14]

A/W: http://autoweek.com/article/car-reviews ... dailydrive

It seems the turbo has a revised engine calibration. Reviewers seem more complimentary of both the refinement and torque characteristics than they were when it originally debuted.

They felt the need to opine about Cadillac:

For the first time in my life, Cadillac is producing products that can stand among the best in the world. The ATS sedan is worthy of being compared to the BMW 3-series; in a lot of ways, it compares quite favorably. It’s disheartening to know that great products don’t necessarily sell themselves. If they did, you’d see more Cadillacs on the road. Even more disheartening is the fact that as a brand, Cadillac seems as lost today as it was in the early 1980s.

And

I agree with the above that Cadillac’s products “stand among the best in the world” and also agree it’s disheartening to know great products don’t necessarily sell themselves; disheartening, yes, but in Cadillac’s case understandable and predictable. I submit the two biggest things at play here are:

1. Cadillac needs to define itself once and for all. Needs to figure out what it is and what it stands for. Ask five Cadillac people what its life mission is and you’ll get five different answers. Or at least that was the case a year ago. I’m sure Johan de Nysschen was hired to define that, define it definitively, and stick to that path. He can’t do that fast enough.

2. Cadillac has way too many dealers, and too many bad ones. Consider: Mercedes-Benz sells twice the cars in the U.S. with a third of the dealers. A third! Also consider: From a customer-satisfaction standpoint, Cadillac dealers aren’t even on the same planet as, say, Lexus dealers. (I’m reminded of the story of the GM board member who called a dealer and said “my sister’s coming in for a new SUV” and she was treated so poorly at the dealer she ended up in a competitor’s ute. A board member! That can’t continue.) De Nysschen has to cull the herd somehow and incentivize the remaining ones to start treating customers the way other luxury brands -- Lexus, Louis Vuitton, Four Seasons, treat theirs. Start by doing those two things, and sales just might start rising.

I don't doubt that the dealer experience probably is an issue, and one I may have overlooked before.

And

Now, to sell the darn things.

I do know plenty of up-and-coming professionals who consider that first German car lease to be a major milestone. Moving Caddy HQ to New York isn’t going to change that. I’m not sure how the Cadillac dealership experience compares (Wes seems to know much more about that), but I challenge anyone shopping for an Audi A4 or A5 to give the ATS or ATS coupe a shot before they sign on the dotted line. I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised when it comes to interior and exterior style, features and a very European driving experience, thanks to that 2.0-liter turbo.

[bill25]

It is really funny that they mentioned how good the Lexus dealerships are. All of my worst dealership experiences were at Toyota Dealerships.

I was kidnapped in there for over 4 hours on my last purchase. It was like they were trying to break me as the CIA might do to new secret agents. I decided that I never want to buy a car from a dealership again after that. On top of that, I purchased a 3 year old vehicle with a rusty hole in the room and the dealership acted like I did it when I brought it back 5 days later - Flash Rust. Yup.

I would say this:
Cadillac could sell cars if they treat people well at the dealership - just like any other company. Apparently customer service is really hard.

I have come to hate the entire experience. The look around, test drive, look around, oh we forgot to tell you this was a fleet vehicle, then you finally agree on a price, and the negotiations start again, warranties, non-stain solution for the seats, gap insurance, then they tell you how expensive everything is to fix on your great new purchase and harass you to buy the warranty again.

Note to Toyota, if your cars suck so bad that I need a warranty on a 3 year old car, you are doing it wrong.

[Bob]

I don't think it's just the buying experience people are talking about with the dealers. The buying experience is almost guaranteed to be bad across the board because of the way the whole system is incentivized, at least with the traditional dealer model. Tesla may be on to something with the whole corporate run showroom, true one price model.

I have heard the service experience at Lexus dealers is top-notch in the industry. My service experience at my local Toyota dealer with the free Toyota Care thing has been efficient, but not exceptional in any way.

My buying experience was pretty poor when I bought my Prius. They took way too long trying to hard-sell me on the extended warranty. Even thought I had pre-negotiated the price and all the details of the sale prior to showing up, it still took me 2.5 hours to get out of there. The internet sales guy I worked with later admitted to me that the only way they were going to make any money on this sale was to sell me the extended warranty or other BS add-ons.

[kevm14]

M/T agrees with C/D: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/cou ... irst_test/

At the risk of bleeding over into our brand discussion thread, this comment kind of sums it up for these entry level luxury cars, at least on the coasts:

Luxury market is all about brand reputation. Hottest sellers right now: cheap cars with nice badges. People buy them because they want good brands and can now afford them. I know many people with cars in this segment, but they all buy German because they just want the better badge. Like I've said before, in nyc I've seen more RS5s than all of caddy lineup combined, probably because the Audi has a red stripe around the grill.

Cheaper Cadillacs won't solve that.