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Why does this Cadillac fob seem to be for a mid-engine roadster?

Is GM bringing back its Caddied-up Corvette sibling, the Cadillac XLR — only this time based on the mid-engine Corvette? That's the question posed by photos of a wedge-shaped Cadillac key fob someone provided to The Drive. The buttons show a trunk — and also a frunk. So, mid-engine, unless the fob goes with an EV that has its motors and other electrical bits scattered to the wheels and elsewhere. Also, there's a button to operate a droptop. And the car profile on the fob is Corvette-like. All of which makes for some pretty great speculation. Except that Cadillac's way back from the failures of its sedan-centric lineup was thought to be through SUVs such as the new XT4 compact crossover, the XT5 and the somewhere-in-testing three-row XT6. Plus, the XLR, which was produced between 2003 and 2009, hit its sales peak in 2005 of just 3,730 cars, or about one-tenth the sales volume of the Corvette. So it's hard to imagine there's a vast untapped market out there for the luxury roadster — plus the XLR's demographic of well-to-do grandpas is dying off, or at least thinks it is. So a resurrected XLR would seem to be an unlikely savior. A lot's happening with GM's luxury brand — the debut of the XT4 at long last, a new boss, a thinning of the sedan herd but expansion of the V's, a backtrack to Detroit after its New York sojourn, the cash-cow Escalade under direct assault from the fine new Lincoln Navigator, and the impressive performance of its Super Cruise technology. But an XLR? So what is this fob's story? The Drive speculates it's a universal test fob and the buttons don't necessarily mean a thing, or that somebody stuck a Caddy emblem on it just to yank our chains. Who's to say. What would you like it to mean? Related Video:

Cadillac drops the base engine in the 2017 ATS

Cadillac, in an effort to boost sales of the slow moving ATS, is making some changes to the 2017 model. Most notably, the luxury manufacturer is dropping the base 2.5-liter normally-aspirated four-cylinder engine from the lineup, leaving the 272 hp 2.0-liter turbocharged four as the base engine. The base 2.0-liter ATS will start at $35,590, $1,380 more than the 2016 model, though that's partially offset by more standard equipment. The base model now comes standard with Cadillac's controversial CUE infotainment system with an 8-inch touchscreen display, a Bose surround-sound speaker system, and a backup camera. Despite the bump in price for the base model, all other ATS trim levels will see prices reduced between $650 and $1,100, depending on the model. The ATS was designed to be Cadillac's answer to the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Though the ATS was originally released at a time where the Germans were slightly off their game, it's never quite matched up in terms of performance or customer perception posting disappointing sales figures compared to the competition. Cadillac has had problems getting customers into cars, and few ATS customers are converts from luxury competition. In order to offload inventory and lure in new customers, the company has previously been forced to offer big lease deals. Many of these customers have come over from more mainstream brands like Chevrolet and Ford. ATS sales have fallen 23 percent through May versus 2015. The car's market share has fallen every year since 2013, currently occupying just 4.5 percent of the compact luxury market. Unless Cadillac can offer some truly amazing deals, we don't expect many shoppers to buy American over the strong German competition. Related video: Cadillac Luxury Sedan

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.