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Luxury car brands scrambling to avoid a blue Christmas

DETROIT — When financial markets surge to new records, sales of luxury cars usually rise, too. Instead, October U.S. auto sales reports on Wednesday showed that a collapse in sales of luxury sedans is accelerating. Consumers have gradually shifted over to luxury sport utility vehicles from sedans in the past decade, but the trend — which has occurred in both the non-luxury and luxury sedan segments of the auto market — was particularly pronounced in October. Sales of Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz S-Class, long a global benchmark for large, premium sedans, plunged 49 percent in October, and are down 24.8 percent for the year to date. General Motors' Cadillac brand said it sold just 779 of its CTS sedans in October. Demand for that car, designed to compete with German luxury sedans, is down nearly 33 percent for the year. "There's still a significant portion of the market that wants a car, but I'm sure there were people who preferred a horse to a car at one point." Cadillac's best-selling model this year is the XT5 compact SUV, which has more than doubled sales from a year ago. The shift within the luxury vehicle market away from sedans toward SUVs of all sizes is forcing some of the most prestigious brands to scramble to add SUV models to their lineups or boost SUV production to meet demand. "In the short term, there will be pressure to add (consumer) incentives, cut production or both," said Cox Automotive analyst Michelle Krebs. "And we just don't see an end in sight to this trend." The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading at all-time highs, usually a good sign for luxury sedans, but as major automakers reported new U.S. vehicle sales for October on Wednesday, sales for passenger cars continued their slide while luxury SUV and crossover sales rose again. According to Kelley Blue Book data, in 2007 luxury sedans made up 7.6 percent of U.S. new vehicle sales, while luxury SUVs made up 4.2 percent. Through September this year, luxury SUVs made up just over 7 percent of the market, compared with 4.9 percent for luxury sedans. In the short term, luxury brands could use holiday season sales promotions to clear slow-selling sedans off dealer lots, analysts said. Toyota's Lexus brand said on Wednesday it will launch its "December to Remember" year-end sales promotion for the 18th straight year.

Semi-autonomous Cadillac CT6 has Batman's seal of approval

Earlier this year, Cadillac pushed the launch of its Super Cruise semi-autonomous technology back to 2017, but it looks like the automaker is still hard at work testing the system on its vehicles. Our photographers snapped a CT6 sedan with what appears to be the Super Cruise technology in broad daylight. The CT6 in the pictures, ignoring the massive equipment on the car's roof, appears to be stock. The barely camouflaged vehicle has more sensors on the front fascia and a black rear bumper, but other than those points, looks normal. Getting back to the massive piece of equipment on the CT6's roof. There's no way to definitively state what it is, but there appears to be four cameras on the corners of the rack. A sensor or camera is also fitted to the right side mirror, which is slightly camouflaged. With all of the wires from the roof going into the vehicle, there's a chance that the massive blacked-out piece of equipment on the roof could be used to gather data. While the equipment looks extremely scientific, someone at Cadillac must have a sense of humor, or be a huge fan of DC Comics, as a Batman's logo is prominently displayed on the roof-mounted gear. Cadillac announced its Super Cruise semi-autonomous technology two years ago. The system will be able to speed the car up, keep the vehicle in its lane, and slow it down. The goal, in 2014, was to introduce the technology in two years (2016), but the automaker delayed the tech until 2017. Related Video: Featured Gallery Cadillac CT6 Super Cruise Spy Shots View 13 Photos Image Credit: Spied Bible / Brian Williams Design/Style Spy Photos Cadillac Technology Autonomous Vehicles Luxury Sedan cadillac ct6 Super Cruise

Cadillac's new ad campaign to tell you how to get lucky

Cadillac is set to launch a new ad campaign this fall, as it attempts to maintain the momentum established by new models like the ATS. The campaign comes from an agency called Rogue, and according to AdAge, will lean on American values. It's called, "Work Hard. Be Lucky."
The campaign is fairly self-explanatory, just from the tagline. It's meant to make a Cadillac seem more attainable to the average, aspirational buyer. It does kind of pander to that American idea that everyone's hard work gets rewarded, but as ad campaigns go, that's not a bad thing.
Somehow, it doesn't roll off the tongue quite like "The Standard of the World." As AdAge points out, Cadillac's advertising over the years has lacked a real coherent theme, although we'll admit to enjoying the most recent campaigns, particularly the around-the-world jaunts with the ATS. It's unclear if the "Work Hard. Be Lucky." theme will evolve into an actual tagline for the brand, with Caddy spokesman Dave Caldwell telling the advertising mag, "It could very easily end up being a line of copy along with other lines; we don't really know yet. It's an open question as to how dramatically it will be featured."