Cadillac in utility race

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

The long-time luxury arm of General Motors, Cadillac will enter one of the world's fastest-growing market segments next year with the SRX, an all-new sports utility.

The seven-seat SRX follows off-road models from top-end European and Japanese carmakers.

But unlike the Mercedes-Benz M-Class, BMW X5, Lexus LX470, Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne, the SRX is unlikely to be available in right-hand-drive.

The vehicle, expected to cost around $40,000 ($86,000) in America, will be powered by a choice of V6 and V8 engines driving the rear wheels via a five-speed automatic transmission. Four-wheel-drive will be optional.

It will be built at GM's Lansing, Michigan, plant which makes the Cadillac CTS, and will be one of five all-new Cadillac products planned for production during the next 18 months.

The SRX name is consistent with the Cadillac product-naming strategy. The first letter denotes the series. The second and third letters stand for "reconfigurable" and "crossover".

Cadillac general manager Mark LaNeve said the new vehicle would seek to become more exclusive by moving upmarket.

"Our competition is announcing that they're coming downmarket, more mainstream," he said. "We want to move in the other direction."

Mercedes last year launched the C-Class coupe priced in the mid-US$20,000 range in America, and BMW is planning to launch its lowest-priced car, the 1-Series small car, no sooner than 2005.

"If they do what they say, we're not going to catch them in sales, nor do we want to," LaNeve said. "The answer isn't to do $20,000 Cadillacs. The answer is to cover the big segments that we're in and then do $100,000 Cadillacs."

Cadillac's American sales of around 107,000 vehicles are up 13.3 per cent through the first seven months of this year, boosted by the success of the new CTS sedan.

But that's well down on sales for Mercedes, BMW, and Toyota's Lexus division.

Cadillac was the best-selling luxury vehicle in the US for nearly 50 years until it lost the sales crown in 1998.