GM’s Mark Reuss: Cadillac Isn’t Prepared for a Sports Auto, Chevy Code Is Dead, Modest-Block V-eight Isn’t in Danger

Cadillac’s new CT6 will not be the brand’s flagship, the new Ford Mustang did not influence the soon-to-debut new Chevy Camaro, and the small-block V-8 is not going anyplace. So said GM executive vice president Mark Reuss in a discussion with reporters at the New York auto show.

Reuss described the firm priorities thusly: “to grow Cadillac, and get Chevrolet back in the vehicle game, truly feed Buick and GMC, get Opel straightened around, and get our international operations profitable.”

At New York, of course, a lot interest was focused on Cadillac, what with the unveiling of the CT6. Right after explaining that a extended-wheelbase version is not in the cards, Reuss said that the CT6 “is not the flagship,” adding that “there’s a car above this.” He would not, even so, take the bait in referring to that larger-level entry as a production version of the swoon-inducing Elmiraj concept.

What about a dedicated sports vehicle for Cadillac? “The brand’s got to be ready to do some thing like that. Right now it’s not. I don’t consider doing a auto like that is going to adjust the brand image right now, either.”

Asked where is Cadillac in the method of rebuilding its reputation, Reuss was blunt: “Year one. I feel we’re talking to ourselves if we feel that we’re on the consideration list of people, in volume, in the luxury segment. So let’s get real about it, and preserve hammering, and keep creating excellent vehicles and trucks, and individuals commence to notice and want to attempt anything diverse, and that’s our opportunity. There’s a entire generation out there whose moms and dads drove BMWs and Audis and Mercedes, and they didn’t drive Cadillacs. We need to get on that consideration list with fantastic automobiles and trucks. In that sense, from a item-improvement standpoint, we’re a lot more than year one particular. From a brand standpoint, we’re year one particular.”

A Cadillac model smaller than the ATS observed here is unlikely.

From a solution standpoint, however, “we’re halfway there, because we’ve filled out half the portfolio that our competitors have.” While Cadillac will be adding a lot more models, it sounds as if these might not extend to the very bottom of the luxury segment. “We’re not going to fill out some of the decrease-finish factors with the depth of some of our competitors just to match them,” Reuss stated. He makes the point that given that GM has tiny, higher-mpg models in its other divisions, Cadillac does not want to field low-volume compliance automobiles in the way that other luxury brands may have to.

On the topic of low-volume niche goods, do not look for Reuss to ram through pet projects. “I consider a big basic way to consider about how the company’s diverse these days is we had single advocates—no matter what the market place data said—who would push a program into production. And some would be okay, and some would fail.”

Sounds like we’re talking about, oh, say, Bob Lutz. “I look at the [Pontiac] Solstice and [Saturn] Sky, and some of these cars—and I owned a Solstice, so I’m not talking out of school—but the car was okay. It was very pretty, it was extremely nice. But these are not moneymaking automobiles for us. And by the way we didn’t sell that many. I think gone are the days of an individual in my position pushing solution on men and women and attempting to sell and rally help on them. We’ve got to be consumer-focused.”

To that end, the sweet, rear-drive Chevy Code 130R concept coupe [pictured above] is dead. This despite Reuss’s prior enthusiasm for the project. “We looked at that and we looked at our competitors who have been doing things like that and what the market told us was that was not a great concept. The volumes of these issues were terrible.”

---

---

Asked regardless of whether the 2015 Ford Mustang set a bar for the new Camaro, Reuss was a lot more succinct: “No.” He then added, “We did the vehicle way just before the new Mustang came out.”

What about the little-block V-8? Are its days numbered? “No. Do not see it taking place.”

GM’s Mark Reuss: Cadillac Isn’t Prepared for a Sports Auto, Chevy Code Is Dead, Modest-Block V-eight Isn’t in Danger

Yutaka Katayama, “Father of the Datsun Z,” Dead at 105

Yutaka Katayama, the former president of what’s now Nissan Motor Co.’s U.S. branch, has died at the age of 105, the Linked Press reports. “Mr. K,” as he was identified to company insiders and Datsun and Nissan fans, established the Z line of sports cars that guaranteed the racing and sales success of the company in the U.S.

Born in 1909 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, Mr. K was hired by Nissan Motor Co. in 1935. His initial job was in publicity and he later worked in advertising, generating novel life style-based ad campaigns in an era when, as Nissan puts it, most vehicle ads just “loudly repeated the car’s name over and more than.” Mr. K is also credited with establishing the All-Japan Motor Show in 1954, an sector-wide car show that evolved into today’s Tokyo auto show.

But it was a motorsports victory that turned Mr. K’s profession down the path toward the Z-vehicle. In 1958, 2 Datsun 210s won their class in the grueling Mobilgas Around Australia Trial, a 10,000-mile rally across the unimproved roads of the Outback. Mr. K was the racing group manager, and the class victory spurred Nissan to begin worldwide exports.

In 1960, the organization sent Mr. K to Los Angeles, and he began creating a U.S. dealer ne2rk from scratch. “In the starting, Datsun dealers had no status or prestige, and they were not wealthy either,” Mr. K said. “During the tough occasions, we all gritted our teeth and worked together and we made it through. For me, they are not just dealers but pals. I’m speaking like I’m a huge man, but I owe everything to them.”

As Edmunds so eloquently explained on the occasion of Mr. K’s 100th birthday, Katayama’s dogged determination pushed Datsun to the forefront of foreign vehicles in the U.S. “Katayama constructed Datsun (as the Nissan franchise in America then was called) into a sales powerhouse, personally canvassing each and every town in America and turning used-vehicle dealers and lawnmower repair shops into Datsun franchises. He made Datsun the most important Japanese brand in America, a signature of top quality and innovation instead of inexpensive imitation.”

When Datsun introduced the 510 in 1967, Mr. K’s dealer ne2rk was ready. And with the company’s components bin at his disposal, Mr. K set out to generate Nissan’s most iconic automobile: the 240Z. As Katayama himself recalls:

How can we transpose the relationship between man and horse into the a single between man and automobile? Even following I was sent to Los Angeles in 1960 to establish Nissan Motors in the U.S., this question never ever really left me. Sooner or later I came up with the idea of the Z-car. It was a sports automobile with a sleek physique with a long nose and a short deck, developed so that it could be built utilizing some of the components and components that had been currently employed in our other production vehicles, and it was a automobile that anyone could drive very easily and that would give the driver that amazing feeling of jubilation that comes when car and driver are as one.

In 1970, when the 510-primarily based 240Z reached U.S. shores, it had Mr. K’s fingerprints all more than it. Allow Nissan to clarify Mr. K’s part in creating the company’s initial accurate sports automobile:

Though many, several folks were responsible for the design and engineering of the first generation 240Z, its success in North America can be attributed to Yutaka Katayama, who was president of Nissan’s U.S. operations at the time. Known affectionately as “Mr. K,” he was convinced that the company’s new sports auto design would be a hit in the U.S.  There was just one problem—the vehicle’s name: the Fairlady Z.

Mr. K re-christened the car as the 240Z for the U.S. industry, and his wisdom paid off: The Z car was a wild success in motorsports and sales alike, establishing Datsun, and later Nissan, as a key brand with a powerful enthusiast following.

Katayama retired from Nissan in 1977, but he remained a car guy proper via to the finish, earning a spot in the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1998. On his 100th birthday, Mr. K was nevertheless as feisty as ever, criticizing the Nissan 370Z as “so-so,” bemoaning its weight and price tag. “I’d like to have a sports auto like the Miata,” Mr. K stated in 2009. “The Miata is taking the location of the 240Z …. The fun of driving automobiles is the identical as riding a horse. We want a auto that is like riding on horseback. We are producing robots. Robots do not like human manage.”

In Nissan’s own profile of the man, he raised comparable issues about the future of sports vehicles:

A sports vehicle doesn’t have to be luxurious. It must be reasonably priced so that anyone can own 1, it need to be straightforward to maintain, and it need to be some thing that you can get pleasure from without possessing to devote as well considerably money. To attach a price tag tag of $ 50,000 to a sports car just appears uncomfortable to me. You can get any price tag you want if you enhance the number and level of attributes and gear. But if you do not add any added equipment and attributes and you can nevertheless knowledge wonderful exhilaration when driving, then that’s the ideal situation as far as I am concerned.

The beloved Mr. K turned 105 years old in September, attributing his overall health to the 3 liters of water he drank every single day—though he also loved a excellent steak. Nissan developed a 3-portion documentary interview with the automotive legend to commemorate the occasion. It is equal components history lesson, company program, and guide for enthusiastic living.

[embedded content material]

[embedded content material]

[embedded content material]

---

---

In announcing Mr. K’s death, his son, Mitsuo Katayama, mused that his father was happily zooming around in a Datsun Z in heaven, no longer worried about “gas, police or targeted traffic tickets.” That sounds just about ideal.

Yutaka Katayama, “Father of the Datsun Z,” Dead at 105

The Party’s More than for Mini Coupe and Roadster—They’re Dead

Mini has announced that it is ending production of its oddball 2-seaters, the hardtop Coupe and the softtop Roadster. Each models are nevertheless primarily based on the second-generation Mini platform, and it seems unlikely that the duo will return as element of the new, third generation of Minis.

The pair was introduced with considerable fanfare as concepts at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show, as portion of the 50th birthday celebration for Mini. Their design and style was credited to Marcus Syring (who also penned the BMW Z3 coupe) and was most notable for the steeper windshield, squashed roofline (2 inches reduce than a common Mini), and vestigial trunk.

The Coupe reached dealerships in the fall of 2011 the Roadster followed a year later. Solution positioning for each, however, was problematic. Mini tried to position the convertible as the return of the British roadster, but it wasn’t precisely that. And the Coupe was just, uh, various. Via 2014, worldwide sales amounted to only 27,350 for the Coupe and 28,867 for the Roadster.

---

---

Numbers like that mean the duo had been niche autos, and Mini’s strategy going forward is to concentrate as an alternative on core products—or “superheroes,” in the words of Peter Schwarzenbauer, the BMW Group board member under whose purview Mini falls. That indicates the lineup could shrink to just 5 models: Hardtop, in 2-door, 4-door, and convertible forms Clubman, a new version of which is due this summer time Countryman, which ought to migrate to the new platform next year a sports vehicle along the lines of the Superleggera concept and, potentially, a smaller city auto. Notice what’s missing here? Yep, the Paceman. We count on that will be the next Mini to follow the Coupe and the Roadster down that final off-ramp.

---

The Party’s More than for Mini Coupe and Roadster—They’re Dead

Bristol Vehicles Returns From the Dead

Even by the higher requirements of eccentricity set by Britain’s tiny sports-automobile makers, Bristol was always in a class of its personal. This is the carmaker that created Morgan look like Mitsubishi.

Bristol’s former boss, Tony Crook, refused to let journalists drive its cars for a lot of years on the (possibly affordable) grounds that they “wouldn’t recognize them.” The firm final published production figures in 1981, when it constructed 104 vehicles, and the leisurely pace at which the company operated at in its later years was demonstrated when thieves stole many body presses from its Filton factory, and it took many days for the theft to be noticed.

So there was sadness, but small surprise, when the firm folded in 2011.

Now it is coming back. The Bristol brand was bought by a subsidiary of the Frazer-Nash engineering consultancy (itself evolved from an only slightly less-eccentric British sports-vehicle maker), which has now announced plans for an all-new Bristol model next year.

The way things utilized to be—Bristol 411

Go far enough back and Bristol started out as an aircraft organization. The poor news is that Bristol’s former recipe of lightweight aerodynamically efficient bodies propelled by huge American-sourced engines has been abandoned, for now at least. We’re told the new car undoubtedly won’t owe something to preceding models such as the Beaufighter, Blenheim or the spectacular Fighter—the final old Bristol, which used a Viper V-10 engine. As an alternative the new car—currently becoming developed in the UK below the codename of Project Pinnacle—will be a “range-extended electric grand tourer.” Beyond that, and a single teaser image that reveals little far more than some leather bonnet straps, we’ve got to use our imagination.

Frazer Nash’s involvement implies we should definitely take the project seriously. The business now specializes in engineering electric drivetrains—it put one particular beneath the Giugiaro Namir concept back in 2009—and has also developed a new electric London taxi that’s slightly significantly less ugly than Nissan’s NV-primarily based version. The fact that Bristol is both renovating its classic showroom in Kensington, London—one of Europe’s most pricey areas—and preparing to expand to one more unit on the same streets proves there’s some serious investment behind the prelaunch. The company also confirms that the new auto will be designed for each key marketplace, which includes the U.S.

Bristol Fighter had a Dodge V-10 engine but sold in tiny numbers

---

---

“The brand’s reputation was broken throughout the last years below the old management,” Common Manager Julian Ramshaw told us. “It’s been by means of some tough occasions but we’re determined to construct it back up with Frazer Nash. We’re very conscious of how essential the brand’s heritage is and we’re working quite closely with the Owners’ Club.”

That leaves the burning question of what Bristol’s classic purchasers are going to think of a new vehicle that runs on this new-fangled electricity. Wouldn’t they rather just have a large V-8?

“If we made a automobile like that then there are individuals out there who would purchase it,” admits Ramshaw, cautiously. “but the luxury-automobile industry is changing and we want to be element of that alter.”

Bristol Vehicles Returns From the Dead

The DB Is Dead! Extended Live DB! Aston Martin Trademarks DB10 via DB14 for Future Models

August 22, 2014 at 6:24 pm by Steve Siler | Photography by AFP/Getty Images

Aston Martin goods are in for some massive alterations in coming years, but their DB-primarily based naming strategy will carry forward. According to Autocar, Aston has applied for trademarks for the names DB10 through DB14, most likely for the successor to the DB9. Aston might choose, nonetheless, to buck tradition and reuse the name when the next-gen coupe and convertible appear about in mid-2016.

The “DB” naming convention was very first applied to Aston Martins in the course of the years that the brand was stewarded by Sir David Brown, who rescued the automaker from dire straits during the postwar era and maintained manage by means of the 1970s. Some of the far more well-known DB models include the DB2/4, which was driven by Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, and the DB5 coupe, which was featured in a quantity of James Bond films—among them Goldfinger, Thunderball, Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never ever Dies, Casino Royale, and Skyfall. Several historic Aston Martin race vehicles have worn names derived from the street cars’, but with DBR before the numeral.

No word on other trademark applications for successors to the V8/V12 Vantage or Rapide models, or for the anticipated SUV model. But we anticipate that someplace Sir David Brown is pleased that his name—or more accurately, his initials—will remain an integral element of the marque.

Other Stories You May possibly Like

---

The DB Is Dead! Extended Live DB! Aston Martin Trademarks DB10 via DB14 for Future Models