GM aims for new marque

Automotive giant General Motors has underlined its ambitions to unlock new markets in Europe with the UK launch of the righthand drive Cadillac CTS.

Encouraged by Cadillac’s success in the US, where it leads the luxury car market, GM is confident that the brand has a bright future this side of the Atlantic. In 2004 the company enjoyed its best year for more than a decade with a 36 per cent volume sales increase.

Perhaps stung by recent criticism over GM’s slowness to incorporate design and innovation in its vehicles, Cadillac is at pains to point out the effort it has put into the CTS to create a car to appeal to the European driver.

‘The fact that the engineering and development team, which carried out the chassis and suspension work, chose to do so at Germany’s Nurburgring is an indication of how serious Cadillac is about this new direction for the brand,’ said the company.