Cadillac to focus on elevating luxury experience

LAS VEGAS — Cadillac wants to improve its standing as a top luxury brand by expanding into more global markets and ensuring that dealerships provide a world-class customer experience, brand leaders said.

General Motors' luxury brand has a wave of new products coming, from freshened internal combustion vehicles to new electric nameplates. Cadillac has shown an updated CT5 midsize sedan and will debut the Escalade IQ, the Optiq compact crossover and the Vistiq three-row crossover.

About 70 percent of people buying the Lyriq midsize crossover are conquests, John Roth, vice president of global Cadillac, told Automotive News at the NADA Show.

He said Cadillac expects to see more customers coming from other brands when it launches the Optiq and the Vistiq.

"We have the best product portfolio we've had in my 30-plus years with General Motors," Roth said.

"If this is your first experience with Cadillac, we've got to make sure that that experience is, bar none, the best it possibly can be," he added. "We talk about Cadillac being a truly iconic American brand. We have to deliver a truly iconic moment with every one of those customers as they come in."

To that end, the brand will work on a training component this year to consistently deliver a high-end customer experience at all Cadillac showrooms, he said.

Launching Cadillac in other markets around the world also will help elevate the brand's image among luxury buyers, Roth said. For instance, Cadillac has said it is launching a right-hand-drive Lyriq in Australia and New Zealand.

GM's Ultium EV platform "allows us to factory-make a right-hand-drive straight from Day 1, which is an important message to the marketplace that we are serious about the growth potential that exists with Cadillac and with the luxury market around the world," Roth said.

Jack Weidinger, chairman of the Cadillac National Dealer Council, said 2024 represents "an even further step in our goal toward becoming a full Tier 1 luxury brand."

"We're well on our way. We have the products, and it's been something we've been working on for years," said Weidinger, owner of Weidinger Auto Group, which includes North Bay Cadillac in Great Neck, N.Y. "We've been working a lot on the experience in the dealership."