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Hotter Cadillac CT4-V prototype spied testing at GM's Proving Grounds

Cadillac already teased us once with the hotter CT4-V and CT5-V at the Belle Isle Grand Prix, but these photos are still the best look yet at what's next for the Cadillac V-Series. The car we're looking at in heavy camouflage here is a high-performance CT4, but we don't really have a name to call it at this point. Cadillac hasn't said, so it could be anything. We'll just refer to it as the faster V, as it's certainly looking a bit more racy than the warmed-over CT4-V already revealed. While the styling isn't drastically different from the CT4-V already out there, the front intake and openings look deeper and more aggressive. The middle, raised section of the hood is a little taller and the whole front-end design looks a lot like the one teased in Belle Isle. This vehicle even appears to have the same mirror design as the faster V. The side sills, quad exhaust tips and wide rear tires lend this prototype an aggressive look, but we did note that it doesn't have the big ducktail spoiler we saw teased previously. Maybe Cadillac is trying to keep a low profile while testing. A keen eye will notice a wild apparatus attached to the front, which would serve as a great jousting pole if you were into that kind of thing. We don't know exactly when Cadillac plans to introduce the faster V machines, but we wouldn't doubt if it happened before the year was out. The ATS-V and CTS-V didn't look wholly different than the pedestrian versions of those cars, and this prototype indicates Caddy may follow a similar pattern this time around. All will be explained from GM soon, but for now, we wait.

Cadillac plans to keep its Manhattan ZIP code, shunning Detroit

Johan de Nysschen is credited for separating Cadillac from the GM nest in Detroit, but despite his ouster earlier this year, the luxury division says it will remain headquartered in New York City's tony SoHo district. "It's 100 percent that we're staying here, that was never a question," Cadillac spokesman Andrew Lipman told the Detroit Free Press. Cadillac in April announced that it was replacing de Nysschen, after four years running the flagship brand. The new brand boss, Steve Carlisle, previously was president and managing director of GM Canada. De Nysschen led a big push to separate the luxury brand from its parent company as a separate business unit, announcing the move to New York in 2014 as a way to gain more autonomy and better tap into the global luxury zeitgeist. The move was controversial at the time in some quarters, though Lipman told the Freep that GM brass made the decision to relocate Cadillac to the Big Apple months before de Nysschen arrived at the company. Cadillac now occupies the 15th and 16th floors of a high-rise building on Hudson Street in SoHo, where it has between 140 and 150 employees. It also operates a ground-floor retail space called the Cadillac House where it displays cars, operates a coffee shop and stages events, including with fashion designers. Its vehicles are still designed and engineered back in the Detroit area, however. "The amount of time people spend at Cadillac House has been increasing, and it's become a destination," Lipman said. Cadillac used this year's New York Auto Show to reveal its new 2019 XT4 compact crossover, its second offering in the all-important luxury crossover segment after the XT5. It goes on sale this fall. Related Video: Image Credit: Cadillac Marketing/Advertising Cadillac GM Crossover Luxury cadillac xt4

Despite strong profits, GM still fighting flat market share

Looking at the progress General Motors has made since it entered bankruptcy, it's easy to forget that the company still has a long way to go before it's the juggernaut it once was. A recent report from Reuters points out that, while GM is making money, it isn't making any gains in terms of US market share. Quite the opposite, really. Consider this factoid: In 1963, nearly half of the cars sold in the United States were from Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, GMC or Pontiac. Now, the company's US market share is stagnant at 17.9 percent. That same number is half of just Chevy's 1963 market share. This is all despite GM going on a binge replacing or updating its models. "Market share increases are not instantaneous," Mark Reuss told Reuters at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show. "We've got a lot of baggage. Don't underestimate what people though of us, or these brands, through these hardships and 30 years." The reasons for the stagnant market share are numerous. Reuters points out that retooling of factories and a focus on limiting incentives are both good things for profit, but not necessarily for market share. There's also the troubling turnover of the brand's marketing department. These issues don't change the fact that Chevrolet has lost 1.4 percent of its market share in two years, and that Cadillac - arguably GM's most improved brand overall - has lost 1.2 percent in the same period. Part of that can be blamed on GM's avoidance of fleet sales in favor of more profitable customer sales. "Our focus has really been on retail and that's where we've got the growth," said Alan Batey, GM's interim global marketing boss. "We want to grow GM and that means growing market share and profits, but it's not at all costs," Reuss said. News Source: ReutersImage Credit: paul bica - Flickr CC 2.0 Earnings/Financials Buick Cadillac GM GMC sales profits