The effort by General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) to revive its Cadillac luxury brand was set back again. Among the major luxury car brands, it received the worst score in the new J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Initial Quality Study. For buyers who rely on the survey, Cadillac has not overcome its image problem.
The results of the study are based on a simple methodology:
The 2015 U.S. Initial Quality Study is based on responses from more than 84,000 purchasers and lessees of new 2015 model-year vehicles surveyed after 90 days of ownership.
The outcome shows how many problems a nameplate (read brand) has per 100 cars sold. The average figure across all nameplates is 112. Porsche led with list with 80, and at the bottom of the list was Fiat at 161. Cadillac’s number was 122. That puts it behind Porsche, Jaguar, Infiniti, BMW, Lincoln, Toyota Motor Corp.’s (NYSE: TM) Lexus, Mercedes and Audi. Land Rover, which sells almost no cars or light trucks in America and therefore has nearly no market share, fell below Cadillac at 134.
Cadillac needs a few breaks and has gotten none. It sold 14,408 cars and light trucks in May, or down 1.9% from the same month a year ago. Sales for the first five months of 2015 were 67,384, down 1.2%. The brand would have done much worse, were it not for the good results for its SRX crossover.
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The numbers are worse because of how market leaders BMW, Mercedes and Audi have done. For the first five months of the year, Mercedes sales have risen 10% to 148,014. BMW sales rose 7.3% to 136,447 in that time, and Audi sales were up 11.7% to 75,353. Cadillac management has acknowledged its success will be based on how close it can get to market leaders BMW and Mercedes.
And Cadillac cannot get there at all. It does not have the brand value. For every new model it produces, BMW and Mercedes add more. Cadillac has the image of being an old man’s car, not suitable for drivers who want more sporty cars.
GM has tried to revive the Cadillac brand several times. The newest effort has been a failure.
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