When is a Cadillac a Cadillac? @GM @Cadillac #Motorama

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Do you only want a Cadillac manufactured in the USA, or would you be happy with a Cadillac manufactured anywhere?

Cadillac V-16 (left) and Sixteen Concept (right)

That may soon be a very relevant question to many new Cadillac Buyers, with the announcement today that after 2012 Cadillac would start international manufacture in order to “mitigate currency fluctuations and grow international presence”.

Currently most Cadillac models are manufactured at

  • CTS: Lansing, Michigan
  • Escalade: Arlington, Texas
  • SRX: Ramos, Mexico

The DTS recently completed production at Hamtramck, Michigan.
The XLR came from the Corvette plant at Bowling Green, Kentuky.

The very first Cadillac factory was in Detroit, Michigan, and of course Henry Leland named Cadillac after the founder of Detroit, the self-styled Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

If you had to pick one MAIN Cadillac plant today, arguably it would be Lansing Grand River.

But is a Cadillac a Cadillac only if it comes from the USA?  No.

The unique qualities that make a Cadillac a Cadillac are the design, the vision, the production technologies, the built-in quality and reliability, targeting high performance while offering luxury features & appointments.

Since 1902 Cadillac has featured automobiles designed with precision by Engineers and manufactured by Craftsmen to an exacting standard.  I am confident that the new Cadillac factories will meet this same ideal.

C&C: Interesting Cars vs Daily Drivers #Motorama @Cadillac

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I was chatting with a Cadillac owner about his modified DTS at Cars & Coffee Dallas on Saturday when he said something that I found interesting — one of the reasons he wanted to visually modify his Cadillac was so people would recognize that it was a special vehicle with a lot of other nice touches.

Another data point that caught my attention was a Cars & Coffee guide from the Irvine California event:

What makes it “of interest?” How to define “unusual?” You’d get lots of opinions on that. One suggestion we’ve heard is… cars that aren’t driven to work every day. If it’s a car that is driven every day, odds are, it’s not a car that will get people out of bed at 6 a.m. on a Saturday. Of course there will be a few exceptions (we won’t penalize you if you drive your Talbot-Lotus to work), but that can be a general guide. […] We’re all about interesting AND unusual cars

And finally, during a chat with Charlie from burnoutradio.com he mentioned that one car show had the rule that a car needed to have customizations in 3 separate areas — one engine, one exhaust, and one interior for example — to qualify to enter the show.

Now, I had mixed feelings about my STS-V and Cars & Coffee.  I enjoy going regardless, but I was not sure if I wanted to “display” the V or just park to the side and enjoy seeing the other cars there.   I ended up pulling in and parking out of the way, but with the STS-V ready to show.  Luckily Emily and Charlie parked their STS-V next to mine, so we instantly had a Cadillac area and that settled that.

A lot of car guys love cars, but they can’t afford a hobby car that they can drive to work every day.  Either they have a long commute, or the interesting, fun, hobby car can’t live up to usage as a daily driver.  So they drive a small pickup or boring economy car every day, when they wish they could be in their fun car.

I am lucky in that my 2008 Cadillac STS-V is a fun car and my daily driver.  It is actually quite a bit more rare, with less than 500 produced, interesting, and a better performer than many of the cars shown at C&C  Dallas.

In fact, that is one of the reasons I decided to purchase a Cadillac V-Series — Cadillac is producing the V-Series as road and track performers for automotive enthusiasts.  Since I *am* a ‘car guy’ & automotive enthusiast, and a Cadillac fan, the V-Series is the right fit for me.

I don’t care where I park at C&C, although I was hoping and managed to meet & discuss Cadillacs with other Cadillac fans.  I will say that people did stroll over to look at the STS-Vs and I had some nice chats about the V-Series Cadillacs.

I am thrilled I get to drive an ‘Interesting Car’ every day.  I wish everyone did, and that the roads were full of interesting cars.

What do you think?  What makes an automobile “Interesting”?

Cars & Coffee Dallas 2011-06-04 Cadillac Report

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Headed over to Cars & Coffee Dallas at Classic BMW this morning.  The spirit of Cars & Coffee to me is everyone bringing out their ‘weekend’ cars, park them in a convenient spot, then walk around, look at cars, and chat with other people who enjoy chatting about cars.

Emily and Charlie brought out Emily’s 2006 Cadillac STS-V and parked the V and Charlie’s CrossFire Corvette next to my 2008 STS-V.  Emily and Charlie actually each have STS-V’s but were bringing the Vette out to show.  Loved their stories of various adventures traveling to research cars over the years.

You can tell the close family resemblance across the STS-V series years; the model was produced from 2006-2009.

Judging from the wheels, I think this is a 1992 Allante next to a 1996 Eldorado, both of which looked clean and well cared for.

I snapped this CTS Coupe in Black Diamond so you can see the very aggressive flaking in the black paint.   You can’t see the flakes at all without direct sunlight, then they literally glitter in the sun.

Classic Cadillacs were represented by this old school convertible Cadillac DeVille

Jesse DiGiroloma brought out his custom Cadillac DTS done by Jesse’s JD’s Custom Auto

 

with a full custom audio setup in the trunk.  They also offer other custom auto services such as video headrests and custom navigation system installs.

Looked like some very nice detail work on the whole setup.  Although I had guessed this setup was best for parking lot listening, actually the sound is channeled back into the Cadillac.

All in all it was a fun morning, and then I headed out to lunch at Freddy’s with Charlie from Burnoutradio.com, Berry from TeamHallnNaas.com, Sally Cannon from Cannon Academy of Money, LLC, and entourage (sorry I forgot one name).