Summary: General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz will unveil a new small Cadillac next month that is aimed at premium compact European sedans.
Full story: General Motors has decided to forge ahead with a plan to develop and build a small Cadillac to compete in Europe with such "entry-level" premium sport sedans as the BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz will publicly unveil the new small Cadillac, dubbed the BLS, in early March at the Geneva auto show, according to Automotive News Europe. A production version will debut in September at the Frankfurt auto show, and the car reportedly will go on sale in early 2006.
Rumors about the baby Cadillac have been swirling around Detroit and Europe for months. Cadillac will pull a page from the Lutz playbook and go to sister company Saab for assistance. The BLS will be built on GM's midsize Epsilon architecture and will share some sheet metal with the Saab 9-3, which in turn is heavily based on the Opel Vectra. (In North America, the Chevrolet Malibu and the Pontiac G6 also use the Epsilon platform.)
The Cadillac will offer a choice of engines, including a 1.9-liter four-cylinder diesel sourced from Fiat-GM Powertrain and a V6 gas engine from GM's Holden operation in Australia.
GM hopes to sell about 10,000 of the cars a year in Europe. There are no plans to sell the BLS in North America.
What this means to you: A baby Cadillac that's based on a Saab that's based on an Opel — yes, GM really thinks it can steal some European sales from BMW with this bastardized product.
Full story: General Motors has decided to forge ahead with a plan to develop and build a small Cadillac to compete in Europe with such "entry-level" premium sport sedans as the BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz will publicly unveil the new small Cadillac, dubbed the BLS, in early March at the Geneva auto show, according to Automotive News Europe. A production version will debut in September at the Frankfurt auto show, and the car reportedly will go on sale in early 2006.
Rumors about the baby Cadillac have been swirling around Detroit and Europe for months. Cadillac will pull a page from the Lutz playbook and go to sister company Saab for assistance. The BLS will be built on GM's midsize Epsilon architecture and will share some sheet metal with the Saab 9-3, which in turn is heavily based on the Opel Vectra. (In North America, the Chevrolet Malibu and the Pontiac G6 also use the Epsilon platform.)
The Cadillac will offer a choice of engines, including a 1.9-liter four-cylinder diesel sourced from Fiat-GM Powertrain and a V6 gas engine from GM's Holden operation in Australia.
GM hopes to sell about 10,000 of the cars a year in Europe. There are no plans to sell the BLS in North America.
What this means to you: A baby Cadillac that's based on a Saab that's based on an Opel — yes, GM really thinks it can steal some European sales from BMW with this bastardized product.
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