Cadillac

Cadillac is a car brand of American automobile company General Motors, which produces upscale vehicle classes. Originally an independent company was founded on 22 August 1902 by Henry Martyn Leland. It bears the name of the Frenchman Antoine de La Mothe Laumet, Sieur de Cadillac, who founded the city of Detroit (Michigan) in 1701. 1909 Cadillac was a member of the new General Motors group. Legendary brand was for their cars with 16- cylinder engines 1930-1940. From 1927 to 1940 Cadillac also offered under the brand automobiles LaSalle on.

History

The brand vehicles were up in the 1970s, as well as that of most other American car brands, known for its sprawling dimensions. This affected both the length of the body, as well as the displacement of the engines. The fuel consumption was high accordingly. The vehicles shown already that time on some luxury features, which decades later were used in European vehicles. In constant competition were and are the vehicles with the luxury division Lincoln of the U.S. car giant Ford Motor Company.

Specificity of some Cadillac models (Seville, Eldorado, DeVille from 1984 ) was the front-wheel drive, as doing so would preferably in the upper class rear wheel drive. Newly developed models such as STS and CTS, which are based on the Sigma platform of the GM group, however, are again provided with rear-wheel drive, not least because the systems ESP and ASR relativize the negative impact of the rear-wheel drive. A feature of almost all model lines are the vertical tail lights.

In Europe, Cadillac was only partly represented and leads a niche. In the 1990s, the brand on the European market pulled back; at the end was left as the only model of the Cadillac Seville. In 2003, the Dutch company Kroymans took over the sales of Cadillac in Europe. Over the year 2004, little more than one thousand Cadillac were sold throughout Europe. Since 2005, General Motors tried to win with a newly tuned model range market share. With the Cadillac BLS first time a model has been made ​​exclusively for the European market. This was built at Saab in Sweden and based, as well as the Opel Vectra C, on the GM Epsilon platform. The BLS is a Cadillac with a diesel engine was temporarily available once again. In addition to the BLS were officially available in Europe: Cadillac CTS, Cadillac Escalade, Cadillac SRX, Cadillac STS and Cadillac XLR. In the train of the financial crisis in 2007, the year 2009 began with contradictory pronouncements of the importer Kroymans and brought about his bankruptcy in March and the subsequent liquidation that sales in Europe came to a halt with it.

In the course of the reorganization Cadillac is now back in Europe present. In the first ten months of 2010, the brand had sold just 300 vehicles in Germany. At the Los Angeles show was known that Cadillac plans to offer its future models on the domestic market with diesel engines. The reason given for the increase in fuel prices and the good sales of competing brands Audi, BMW and Mercedes -Benz. Last offered Cadillac diesel engines in the U.S. in the 1980s to that of the luxury class, however, were not qualitatively reasonable, since they were derived from the area of ​​commercial vehicles by GM.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Cadillac awakened by the crown the impression that the company originated from a European baron gender, while the shield is reminiscent of English ancestry. However, the emblem is the coat of arms of the founder name (Antoine de la Mothe ) Cadillac. The current coat of arms is omitted the crown and the graphic design is straightforward.

The coat of arms is entwined by a laurel wreath.

Cadillac, former coat of arms

Cadillac, older logo

Replaced Cadillac, 2014

Logo since 2014

Models

Cadillac Series 62 Convertible ( 1949)

Cadillac Series 75 (1958 )

Cadillac Coupe de Ville ( 1965)

Cadillac Seville (1977 )

Cadillac Fleetwood (1986 )

Cadillac Allanté (1993 )

Cadillac Eldorado ( 2001)

Cadillac Escalade (2008)

Cadillac ATS ( 2012)