January 23rd, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
If you thought the global economic slowdown currently affecting the automotive world wouldn’t find its way down to NZ, you thought wrong. Luxury American brand Cadillac is no longer coming to New Zealand and Australia as previously planned (click here for news item). GM Holden chairman Mark Reuss made the announcement Thursday, Reuss said it was a “very painful decision” for him to make but he believed it was the right one given the current economic climate.
While not dismissing the proposal completely of the GM Premium Brand coming to NZ and Australia he said it would be indefinitely delayed. Given the current market conditions, he felt the timing was wrong to introduce Caddy, which would be a niche brand here, into our tough market. He said that he had spoken to the three New Zealand dealers who had taken up the Cadillac brand and all had agreed with his decision. That comes as no big surprise, since it’s likely none of them had great interest in seeing shiny, expensive Cadillacs collecting dust on their lots.
General Motors will now turn its attention to strengthening the Holden brand in NZ while it waits and hopes for the market to rebound. As for Cadillac, the door’s been opened now, but clearly only when economic conditions are right
January 6th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
A week behind the wheel of one of these horseless carriages will sort the men from ¨the boys
We’ve met Russell Vincent before, via his superbly desirable 1936 Austin 7 Nippy. He’s a retired mechanic with some excellent skills that only the truly devoted can deploy — and most modern mechanics wouldn’t have. Just as well, because he particularly enjoys his original horseless carriages, with which you could easily find yourself having to fabricate (forge?) a new crankshaft or reproduce faithfully copied castings for steering boxes, all of which he has done, and of course he’s a great believer in alloy pistons.
He has a stack of such spares carefully put away, and enjoys the challenges inherent in the making of almost any part required. If it can be cast and machined he can do it — and probably has done so.
Clearly he is a natural for the January re-enactment of the Far North Parliamentary Tour, and it’s this 1905 Cadillac single-banger he’ll be taking on the tour. That’s nothing as far as Russell is concerned, he’s taken this car the length of NZ several times, and even driven it from Hastings to Auckland in the one day! It’s been over the Rimutakas and completed plenty of equally challenging trips. He estimates that he has driven close to 48,300km in this car — how’s that for reliability, not to mention passion?
Read the rest of this entry »October 16th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
General Motors’ flagship brand, Cadillac has launched in Australia at the 2008 Australian International Motor Show with the Cadillac CTS sedan and the Australian premiere of the CTS Coupe Concept. These vehicles are now on the way to New Zealand but how do new Cadillacs shape up against the classics.
For over a century, Cadillac has built a reputation for design and innovation. Cadillac was the first automaker to use a self-starter, the first with an independent front-wheel suspension and syncromesh transmission, as well as being the first to introduce vehicle streamline design.
Cadillac CTS
Spearheading Cadillac’s New Zealand introduction is the new-generation CTS. Named ‘2008 Car of the Year’ by Motor Trend magazine in the US, the CTS delivers a comprehensive package based on dramatic design, serious performance and sports car handling.
The rear-wheel drive CTS will be powered by a 3.6-litre V-6 direct injection petrol engine with variable valve timing, which generates 227 kW and 370 Nm of torque. The engine is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.
Direct injection fuel delivery enables very efficient combustion, helps reduce emissions and allows higher compression ratio to maintain fuel efficiency. Unlike many of its competitors, the 3.6-litre engine requires only regular unleaded petrol, resulting in additional savings for the owner.
New Zealand customers will have the choice of two performance-tuned suspension packages. The CTS was developed and tested on city streets and country roads across China, North America and Europe, including the famed Nürburgring track.
The standard features, include Stabilitrak electronic chassis/stability control system and front, side and curtain airbags.
The Cadillac interior boasts hand-cut and sewn interior trim components, an innovative ambient interior lighting system, integrated iPod®/MP3 compatibility and an advanced audio system with an integrated 40 gigabyte hard drive.
The Cadillac CTS will go on-sale in early 2009 and pricing, full technical and feature specification and certification details will be available closer to the on-sale date.
Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept
The CTS Coupe Concept, which was unveiled at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in January 2008, extends the dramatic design of its sedan predecessor to cast a striking road presence.
Designed under the direction of Michael Simcoe, former head of GM Holden Design in Australia, the CTS Coupe concept possesses fast-rake styling blended with hand-sculpted bodywork to project a profile unlike anything else on the road.
Exuding the design cues of a carefully cut diamond, the CTS Coupe has classic Cadillac cues such as vertical headlamps and tail lamps to acknowledge the brand’s heritage combined with a forward-looking design.
A classic 2 + 2 interior environment enhances the CTS Coupe’s personal feel. It shares the hand cut-and-sewn instrument panel and centre console with the CTS, but features unique front and rear seats, a continuous console running between the front and rear seats, and custom door panels.
Like the sedan, the CTS Coupe concept’s interior is home to a host of technologies, including a premium Bose audio system, and a 40-gigabyte hard drive to support iPod®/MP3 functionality and — like the CTS — features a screen that rises out of the centre of the instrument panel.
The CTS Coupe has the same 3.6L V6 engine as the sedan, including the 227kW Direct Injection power plant, and has also been designed to take other engine variants. A six-speed manual transmission backs the engine and a sport-tuned suspension gives it a slightly lower ride height than a production CTS.
The production CTS Coupe is confirmed to join the Australian and New Zealand Cadillac model line-up in late 2009.
Cadillac will join Saab and HUMMER and be managed in Australia and New Zealand by the GM Premium Brands group. Cadillac also announced that 16 dealers throughout Australia and New Zealand will represent Cadillac as part of the distribution network.
To view a classic car article on Cadillacs click here
Or if you want a new Cadillac, find the NZ dealers below.
New Zealand dealer details:
Schofield Cadillac Newmarket
Williams & Adams Cadillac Wellington
Blackwell Cadillac Christchurch
September 30th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
The Brooklands Museum in Surrey hosted a celebration of Cadillac’s first Dewar Trophy win 100 years ago. Guests mingled among 50 Cadillacs from across the brand’s 106-year history that lined up side-by-side with the recently launched 2009 Cadillac CTS on Sunday 21 September.
Highlights from the day — organised by the Cadillac Club of Great Britain — included an 8.2-litre 1976 Eldorado Convertible, a 1965 Calais, numerous Coupe De Villes from the 1950’s and 60’s, a 1941 Series 75 once used by General MacArthur, and a 1904 model that currently resides at the Brooklands Museum.
Brooklands was the very spot where Cadillac won its first Dewar Trophy in 1908, a prize established three years earlier for the advancement in the automotive industry. Englishman Fred Bennett persuaded the Royal Automobile Club to oversee an unprecedented ‘mechanical standardisation’ test. Three identical Model K Cadillacs were dismantled, their parts mixed up and the cars reassembled under strict regulations. Each car then ran without fault for 500 miles around the Brooklands track, stunning the watching media. With the award went the judges’ citation: “Standard of the World”, a phrase coined by Cadillac to this day.
The Dewar Trophy was conceived by the Royal Automobile Club in 1904 to promote technical progress in the automotive field. The award is held in as high regard today as it was in the earliest years of the 20th century, with recent winners including the JCB Dieselmax world diesel land speed record breaker.
May 28th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
Okay, I have to admit that they’re not quite my cup of tea, but when I spot something like a Cadillac Coupe de Ville, dripping with enough chrome for 10 cars and with a boot lid half the size of your average tennis court — and almost large enough to be used as a helicopter landing pad — then it’s at least worthy of a lasting gawk.
And that’s precisely what happened to me a few weeks ago when I spotted Graeme and Gwen MacKay’s fabulous ’57 Cadillac Coupe de Ville at an event in Albany. I was standing at the entrance to the venue, watching some 200 or so cars file past, and couldn’t help but notice this magnificent red Caddie in all its full glory — complete with original hub caps and riding on super-large whitewalls. Once all the cars had arrived, I then went looking for the Caddie — it wasn’t too hard to find. A car the size of an aircraft carrier with fins seemingly large enough to grace the tail of a Boeing 747, painted bright red and glittering like Liberace on a bad night could hardly be termed inconspicuous.
The de Ville wasn’t even pretending to blend in with the cars parked around it. This Caddie has a presence all its own, as if to say, ‘look at me, I helped to define advanced engineering, luxury and style early in automotive history, I know I’m one of the world’s finest-made vehicles.’
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