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Cadillac Elmiraj has production potential

There are many reasons to love the Cadillac Elmiraj Concept, but not the least of which is how production-ready this big coupe appears to be. Take out the overly fancy interior and a few conceptual elements of the exterior, and this looks like a coupe that could be in dealers now as the successor to the Eldorado.
On top of that, Automotive News is quoting Bob Ferguson, Cadillac senior vice president, as saying that a production version of this car is "very doable." AN adds that if the Monterey showstopper gets the green-light, this car would compete against the upcoming Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe and would based on Cadillac's upcoming rear-wheel-drive flagship sedan due out in 2015. The range-topping coupe would debut sometime after the sedan model. Cross your fingers.

Cadillac explains origins of Lyriq EV name

We feel for Cadillac, a brand we're inclined to dub the Alex Rodriguez of the automotive world — so much obvious talent, its gifts warped by repeated questionable moves and an inability to conclusively close the deal on The Big Stage. And as with Rodriguez, the expectations are so high at the same time the disappointment is so entrenched that Cadillac gets no benefits of any doubts, the commentariat ruthless with criticism for anything less than an out-of-the-park home run. This latest news, like the Newton-meter torque-based naming scheme initiated earlier this year, likely won't help. GM Authority asked Cadillac about the origin of the Lyriq name for the coming battery-electric crossover. Global head of brand strategy Phil Dauchy explained three threads that went into the new moniker. In no particular order, one thread is that "Cadillac," according to Dauchy, gets more mentions in song lyrics than any other brand, including non-automotive brands. The Music Lyrics Database, while not exhaustive, supports the case: Cadillac has 31 pages of lyric mentions among bands from Rancid to Weird Al Yankovic, beating every other brand we could think of. So ... lyrics into Lyriq. The second thread is rolled up with Cadillac's move to proper names instead of alphanumerics for the sedan and crossover lines, all of those names to end in "iq," as well as the push into electric vehicles. Dauchy told GMA the nomenclature overhaul and the two-letter suffix "[signal] that Cadillac is bringing a different type of vehicle to market, one that works in concert with man, nature, and machine." He's bullish on swaying the public with the product, adding, "When you see [the Cadillac Celestiq], its size, presence and scale all connote the emotion associated with the name." The final thread that went into the Lyriq name the alliteration of brand and model names. As GMA phrased it, perhaps unsettlingly, "With Cadillac and the model name both ending in an 'ick' sound, these names roll off the tongue quite well." This brings up a question raised in a number of comments about the Lyriq, which asks whether the last syllable is pronounced "ick" or "eek." Until now, I've pronounced the coming crossover with an "eek" at the end. "Lyr-eek" strikes me as more luxurious, and "Celest-eek" sounds better to me than "Celest-ick," that latter model being the flagship EV that follows the Lyriq. Of course, it also makes me wonder if I've been pronouncing "Cadillac" correctly.

Cadillac's Johan de Nysschen clarifies a few points on the brand's future

Last week, Motor Trend ran coverage on a journo roundtable with Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen. During the roundtable, de Nysschen cited a few reasons for the decline in sedan sales, including gas prices, "young consumers" — read, millennials — less interested in driving dynamics than lifestyle accessories, and the state of U.S. infrastructure. Jalopnik homed in on the last two reasons, and those became the story, including here in our post on the roundtable. So de Nysschen called Jalopnik to add more context. The original reaction pieces painted de Nysschen's rationales as an excuse for sporty sedans not selling well, when the issue is Cadillac's sporty sedans not selling well. His main clarification: "I wasn't advocating the idea that the world is black and white, that if you're a young buyer a millennial or a teenager that you don't enjoy driving." On that note, it would be ridiculous to deny millennial and sedan-segment bugbears; de Nysschen has market research and the industry-wide, rabbit-like crossover breeding program to back him up. Yet even as he touted the success of the XT5, noting that it's "the third-best-selling luxury nameplate in the U.S. after the Lexus RX, and the Mercedes C-Class," he could add, "But the irony is not lost on me that the C-Class is a sedan." The circumstances laid out in the follow-up piece inject more likely color into the situation: the brand's onetime, singleminded focus on the U.S., followed by a singleminded focus on China that left the U.S. market wanting for attention. We could add to that: years of lackluster products and awful attempts at volume and brand engineering under the old GM at the same time that downsized premium luxury products, crossovers, and SUVs began their rocketship trajectories; trying to live off the Escalade success; and the carmaker's desire not to offend its older, traditional buyers while concurrently wooing "coastal influencers." De Nysschen also acknowledged that Cadillac interiors aren't where they need to be, saying, "We recognize that's where we want to improve." The result, as de Nysschen put it, "We're playing with the hand that we've been dealt.