DETROIT -- We've known about Cadillac's plans for a big, rear-wheel drive, range-topping sedan for more than two years now. For most of that time, we've been referring to it by its internal codename, LTS.
But here's a bet: When the wraps come off the car sometime in the first half of next year, it won't sport an LTS badge.
Here's my thinking.
First, the basics. The first letter of each Cadillac sedan is based on the car’s place in Caddy’s lineup. Smaller cars, such as the ATS, get a letter toward the front of the alphabet; bigger ones, such as the XTS, get a letter toward the end.
Non-sedans -- the SRX crossover or the ELR plug-in hybrid coupe -- don’t follow a pattern. And the Escalade is, well, the Escalade.
It all seems rather muddled. Why leave so much alphabetic real estate between CTS and the next car up, the XTS? And doesn't XTS sound like it ought to be a crossover? And wouldn't LTS screw up the whole order anyway?
If you think I'm nitpicking, it's not just me.
“We are aware that this is currently a weakness of the Cadillac brand," Cadillac chief marketing officer Uwe Ellinghaus said last spring of the brand's nomenclature.
Yep. The guy whom Cadillac is paying to decide just this sort of quintessential marketing question doesn't like it either. Ellinghaus said he's "on the case."
Now, factor in the arrival last month of Johan de Nysschen as Cadillac's global head. He just got done gutting Infiniti's nameplate setup, installing a "Q" for ever car and a "QX for every crossover and SUV.
De Nysschen's rationale at Infiniti was to make way for a broader array of global vehicles. Sound familiar?
So, why not start a top-to-bottom overhaul of Cadillac's nomenclature at, um, the top?
Guess we'll have to wait until the sedan's unveiling in the first half of next year -- bonus bet: New York auto show -- to find out if I'm right.
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