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GM winding down Chevrolet brand in Europe

If you've taken even a cursory look at GM's European strategy and wondered how it can target the market there with both Chevrolet and Opel/Vauxhall, you're not alone. In fact General Motors itself has found it difficult to justify the two-pronged approach. That's why it's essentially pulling Chevy from the European marketplace.
Instead of trying to ply European buyers with what are mostly former Daewoo products rebadged as Chevys, GM will now let Opel (or Vauxhall in the UK) represent its mass-market aspirations. Chevrolet will keep its presence in Russia and other former Soviet markets, and will continue selling certain niche products in Eastern and Western Europe. The Corvette, for example, has long been sold in Europe through Cadillac dealerships, which for its part is currently "finalizing plans for expanding in the European market".
While the shift in strategy is expected to help GM get a stronger foothold in the European market in the long run, in the short term the restructuring will cost it dearly: between $700 million and $1 billion, according to its own estimates, split between the last quarter of this year and the first half of the next. Jump into the full press release below for more.

Cadillac's de Nysschen won't budge on raised pricing

According to new Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen, it will take between 10 and 15 years to elevate GM's top brand, which was once hailed as "The Standard Of The World," back to prominence in the minds of American customers. And to hear the executive talk of it, the brand is going to have to be willing to see sales falter in the near-term before they recover:
"Either you have to bring your volume aspirations into alignment with reality and accept that you will sell fewer cars... Or you have to drop the price and continue to transact at the prices where you were historically... I think the logical conclusion is that it's better to build off a very solid base in terms of [product] credibility, charge a fair price for the car and realize you have to wait until the volume comes."
In other words, sales will fall before they rise, and the brand has to be okay with that. Notice, too, that de Nysschen speaks of "a fair price" for Cadillac cars and utility vehicles. In this case, "fair" means more than many of the brand's traditional buyers are accustomed to, and roughly in line with the brands and machines Cadillac believes it is competing against. For instance, the newly enlarged 2014 CTS carries a suggested retail price that is over $6,000 higher than it was in 2013, and some trim levels boast an even higher price premium over the models they replace.

2015 Cadillac ATS sedan gets early reveal in making-of video

Cadillac is apparently preparing to roll out a minor facelift for the ATS sedan - which we know not because General Motors has already revealed it or because we're looking at it in a fresh batch of spy shots (though we've seen that too), but because a behind-the-scenes video from the filming of its commercial has leaked out online. Which may be bad news for Cadillac, and even worse news for the film production company, but good news for us, because we get to see it ahead of schedule.
The revised sports sedan seems to be sporting a new front bumper and less egg-cratey grille with Caddy's new wreath-less badge at its center, all apparently put in place to bring the sedan more in line with the new ATS coupe.
We're sure Cadillac will be revealing the updated 2015 ATS sedan shortly, but you can scope it out right now in the video below. By way of comparison, we've included an image gallery of the current ATS, released back in 2013, as well.