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GM China Debuts Cadillac ATS-L; Keeps the Wreath

6K views 62 replies 43 participants last post by  Dr.Show-Me 
#1 ·
First official Photos of the Cadillac ATS-L for China
BY TYCHO DE FEIJTER
JULY 29, 2014
Car News China

GM China has released the first official photos of the new Cadillac ATS L sedan, it will be launched on the Chinese car market on August 15. The Cadillac ATS L is a stretched variant of the Cadillac ATS sedan, it is manufactured in China by the Shanghai-GM joint venture. The grille has been enlarged and is heavily chromed, as Chinese car buyers like to impress the folks back home in the village.

 
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#7 ·
i would take one of those here. but really the only thing that holds me back from buying a ATS is the lack of a spare tire. i do lots of long distance drives on the weekends. and if a tire blows out on a sunday night, i am stuck wherever i am
 
#37 ·
To burst a bubble here....

Additional rear seat space in cars like the ATS isn't because "Chinese like to be chauffeured around"......what is every family in China a rich family where everyone has someone to drive them around and the family crams in the back seat?.... Sounds ridiculous doesn't it??

Chinese like larger back seats the same reason Americans tend to like bigger cars: more room.

Look how many people even here have complained about the ATS' back seat (or the pre revamped Malibu, or the old Ford Contour). While there is a significant number of people here in the US to still sell cars with ...."intimate"...back seats, the Chinese car market isn't as forgiving to this when it comes to sedans. Here in the US, we want pickups with a large towing capacity, in China they want back seats that real adults can fit into.

Sure, cars like the large Buick Roadmaster or even 5 series BMWs and the like will often have drivers, but cars like the ATS are going to more likely end up in the hands of rich professionals who are likely to drive themselves (and have clients or family in the back).




Let's not go back to Camaro wheelbase speculation...we did this on 2 threads already.

Wheelbase on ANY Alpha based GM product does NOT signify any wheelbase on the next Camaro. Wheelbase is easy to change. The Challenger's wheelbase is different from Chargers'. The current Camaro's wheelbase is different than the Chevy SS sedan/Commodore and both are different than the wheelbase on the Caprice?Statesman. Ford had seemingly dozens of wheelbases off of the Fox platform for each car that was based on it, and the Alpha is even more adaptable to various proportions let alone wheelbases than any of those cars.

Wheelbase means nothing. With the next gen Camaro's proportions being similar to the current versions (front wheels positioned as far ahead of the passenger cabin as possible) you probably aren't going to have the conventional proportions (including the wheelbase) of any other car.

Just the same, does any of this really matter if the car looks good and is sized right??

There was a mention of why GM spent all of the engineering resources and money to make a long wheelbase version of the ATS that might not sell well in China. I am thinking the engineering hours might not go to waste and this could be the wheelbase of the Camaro. Right in between the ATS and CTS wheelbase, makes sense to me.
No...there was no mention of GM spending "all these resources and all this money" making a LWB ATS.

Reason? It doesn't take a lot of resources to stretch a wheelbase....in fact, it's very simple... either stamp an insert or stamp a floorpan and roof top that's a few inches longer.....oh, because it's RWD, you'll need a slightly longer driveshaft.

Whether your talking pickup trucks, SUVs, limos, or Cadillac ATS' or any automotive platform.....changing a wheelbase is nothing. Probably costs as much as a good quarterly advertising campaign.

I do wonder how it handles. They could add another vehicle based upon the ATS-L
Handles probably not much different than the other ATS.

As for putting another vehicle on the ATS-L......why?
 
#14 ·
I know this king of thing is popular in China, but the proportions look odd to my eye.
 
#15 ·
When we talk about great GM cars available in other markets that never make it to the USA, we often hear "it would cost too much to get it redesigned". How many ATS-L copies does GM really expect to sell in China? Does anyone have sales figures for say a 2012 CTS in China? I struggle to see how the engineering effort to make this yields a better profit than had they simply brought the CTS over there.

And if they've spent the engineering money to stretch it, then I agree with other posters, could this be sold in the USA? Or is the unibody compromised in rigidity and safety to the point it wouldn't pass tests or it would ride around with a convertible like shake and shudder over bumps.

I like the ATS but even for my young kids that back seat is tight.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Well at least now we know what the old logo looks like on the new grill. I think people clamoring for this here are being a little stupid. This is a local thing made to compete with other locally made things ( Audi A4L, BMW 3Li, and Volvo S60L). Who knows how this effects other aspects of the car. The ride and handling might be completely different now.
Six grand is a pretty substantial drop in price too. That's just for a specialty model, the standard sedan could be up to ten.
 
#27 ·
Gone from 109 to about 113" wb. In a sense this just makes the back seat liveable - up from 'unacceptable' the way it was before. People can decry 'why not just go CTS?' but why do we have 5500lb pickups with a 6500lb gvwr? Every distinct car market could be said to have 'irrational' models that appeal to local preferences. Good example is the Toyota Corolla sedan we get in the US that's made no where else. And why have a fatter US Accord when the 'world' Honda Accord 'could be cheaper to make' or whatever?

Because $$$$
 
#39 ·
How about Ford's "One Ford" policy?

how is it conceivable to have a wreath & crest in one region & just the crest in the remainder of the world?
I'm at a total loss for this strategy, sorry
Mercedes, BMW,VW, Audi,et al have a consistent branding strategy globally
why, why, why ?
This is where Ford's "One Ford" policy makes sense.

And to answer your question, it's because it's GM
 
#30 ·
The wreath works in China because it doesn't bring back images of uncompetitive fwd boats from the 1980's as they were never sold there. And I'd assume the old logo looks prestigious to Chinese eyes, which is why they kept it. To me, the wreat carries the bagage of 30 years of uncompetitive cars and needs to go (and it is going) in the USA.

I see no reason to have the ATS-L in the USA, back seat to small in the ATS? Buy the CTS.....
 
#36 ·
There was a mention of why GM spent all of the engineering resources and money to make a long wheelbase version of the ATS that might not sell well in China. I am thinking the engineering hours might not go to waste and this could be the wheelbase of the Camaro. Right in between the ATS and CTS wheelbase, makes sense to me.
 
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