And there seems to be plenty of that going on with the 2012 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe created by "The D3 Group", which will be displayed at Toyo Tire U.S.A.'s booth at the Las Vegas aftermarket show.
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No matter what your image or marketing strategy, in the long term the product itself makes or breaks a carmaker. Recent “rags to riches” stories include Hyundai, Kia and Skoda, all of which a little over a decade ago were offering below par, or at best acceptable, models but are now posting record sales year after year thanks to their new, much improved range.
Cadillac, once the default choice in the luxury car segment in North America, witnessed a streak of uncompetitive products ruin its image and sales before GM buckled up and began reshaping the brand starting with the CTS.
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"Deciding this year's Design Challenge winner was a tremendously difficult decision as the quality of entries has increased throughout the years", agreed the Design Los Angeles judges. "This year's winners - the Cadillac Aera and the smart 454 WWT - offer two very different visions of the 1,000 lb. Car, yet are equally as amazing. They are both very expressive of their brand; GM is art and science and smart is playful and fun".
"While small in size, this concept is an exploration of what Cadillac could be in the future, as the brand continues to focus on redefining industry standards for advanced vehicle design and integrated technology," said Don Butler, vice president for Cadillac marketing.
Conceived and designed in the Los Angeles area, the car's styling is typical of Cadillac's current design language with plenty of hard edges and vertical head lamps and tail lamps. To make it look more conceptual, the designers threw in a pair of scissor-type doors that extend outward and rotate forward when opened.
The theme for the 2010 Design Challenge is the creation of a super-efficient and lightweight four-passenger car: "The objective is to envision an efficient, light-weight, four passenger vehicle (not to exceed 1,000 lbs.), that is both comfortable and safe, while delivering satisfactory driving performance without sacrificing the styling consumers demand. "
Follow the break for the first group of concept models by Cadillac, Honda, Maybach and Mazda, and stay tuned for the second part.
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The full-size sedan, which most likely shares the vehicle platform with the 2010 Buick LaCrosse, keeps all the usual styling cues of modern Cadillacs such as the sharp creases and vertical lights.
The concept's interior blends leather, wood and other high quality materials with modern technology like the Organic Light-Emitting Diode (O-LED) displays that replace the traditional gauges and screens.
G
eneral Motors did not say which platform the concept is based on, but judging from the XTS' wheelbase length of 111.7 inches or 2,837mm that is identical to the new Buick LaCrosse, we'd say that it rides on a modified version of the Epsilon II.
There's not much we can tell from the picture other than that the concept appears to follow the brand's most recent design language but if we were to play the guessing game, our vote would go to either Cadillac's planned BMW 3-Series rival, the ATS sedan or a preview of the STS's successor.
The ATS, which was confirmed earlier this year, will be positioned under the CTS in Cadillac's range and be offered with rear-wheel drive and optional all-wheel drive. Given that the larger CTS starts from around $37,000 in the US, the new four-door sedan should have a base price closer to $30,000.
Also making its world premiere in Detroit is the new 2011 CTS-V Coupe. The most powerful version of the new CTS Coupe, which was revealed at the L.A. auto show in November, will get the same 556-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V8 coupled to a six-speed manual or automatic transmission found in the CTS-V Sedan.
