Thanks to the astonishing ability of the European and Japanese car companies to sell Canadians expensive cars they cannot really enjoy in this country or even this continent, there are only a couple of luxury models sold here that are designed for North American realities.
One would be the Lincoln Town Car, which in Canada mostly seems to do duty as a limousine.
The other would be the Cadillac DeVille, which has so far avoided the limo route because it's a wildly popular car with an older buyer looking for something designed specifically for the realities of North America.
As great as many of those imported luxury brands are, after all, they are crafted expressly to appeal to the kind of driving conditions which simply do not exist in Canada or the U.S. That would be no-speed-limit autobahns and sensuous, swooping roads through the country-side. This is why these cars are as small and harsh to drive as they are. They aren't so good on the straight, imperfect highways with speed limits that make all cars equal after 10 seconds, or on concession roads that are often even straighter.
Cadillac has itself joined the rush to create the kind of rear-wheel-drive models that Europeans like, and GM's luxury division has been quite successful at it with the CTS, XLR and STS models.
But there were folks who bought the DeVille in big numbers, and Cadillac was unwilling to abandon them or the big profits they created, so the division wanted to keep them happy.
Doing this turned out to be pretty simple -- make the new DeVille -- now called only DTS, by the way -- look like the CTS and STS and so on, while delivering the old Cadillac ride and packaging, but in a better executed manner that is particularly evident in a classier interior.
That is at any rate the view of Jim Taylor, the Canadian who was previously in charge of creating the CTS, STS and SRX models and is now the general manager of Cadillac.
''An all-new interior and an exterior that's three-quarters new, that will more than get the job done with DTS buyers,'' Taylor said in an interview.
''This buyer group is unbelievably loyal to the current DeVille,'' Taylor explained, ''but the new model still had to look modern. They don't want to continue buying one that looks exactly the same. They want people to know they have the new one. They want their friends to say, 'Oh, you got the new one'.''
The primary direction of the exterior design, Taylor said, ''was that it had to join the family, since the old one was too outside the family look. Now you know immediately that the DTS is a Cadillac.''
No question about that, thanks to the front and rear lights that make up much of the style of the rest of Cadillac's line. Those contours are among the most recognizable in the industry today, and will be available for buyer perusal at Cadillac dealers this fall.
But going beyond that would have alienated that loyal buyer base, who buy 50-60,000 units every year.
These buyers like a roomy, comfortable, quiet and high quality car, Taylor explained, and are more interested in ride than handling. ''It's a big deal with these folks to have a quiet riding car,'' Taylor noted. Comfort over performance, if you will, but still lots of performance in a North American way, meaning launch and passing power with decent fuel economy.
One would be the Lincoln Town Car, which in Canada mostly seems to do duty as a limousine.
The other would be the Cadillac DeVille, which has so far avoided the limo route because it's a wildly popular car with an older buyer looking for something designed specifically for the realities of North America.
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Cadillac has itself joined the rush to create the kind of rear-wheel-drive models that Europeans like, and GM's luxury division has been quite successful at it with the CTS, XLR and STS models.
But there were folks who bought the DeVille in big numbers, and Cadillac was unwilling to abandon them or the big profits they created, so the division wanted to keep them happy.
Doing this turned out to be pretty simple -- make the new DeVille -- now called only DTS, by the way -- look like the CTS and STS and so on, while delivering the old Cadillac ride and packaging, but in a better executed manner that is particularly evident in a classier interior.
That is at any rate the view of Jim Taylor, the Canadian who was previously in charge of creating the CTS, STS and SRX models and is now the general manager of Cadillac.
 |
''This buyer group is unbelievably loyal to the current DeVille,'' Taylor explained, ''but the new model still had to look modern. They don't want to continue buying one that looks exactly the same. They want people to know they have the new one. They want their friends to say, 'Oh, you got the new one'.''
The primary direction of the exterior design, Taylor said, ''was that it had to join the family, since the old one was too outside the family look. Now you know immediately that the DTS is a Cadillac.''
 |
But going beyond that would have alienated that loyal buyer base, who buy 50-60,000 units every year.
These buyers like a roomy, comfortable, quiet and high quality car, Taylor explained, and are more interested in ride than handling. ''It's a big deal with these folks to have a quiet riding car,'' Taylor noted. Comfort over performance, if you will, but still lots of performance in a North American way, meaning launch and passing power with decent fuel economy.