In the late 1990s, Cadillac had a problem. The storied brand had become basically irrelevant to anyone outside of the Florida set, so a handful of new, inventive products were hastily drawn up in an attempt to revitalize the brand image. One was the immensely successful Escalade, which was just a Chevrolet Tahoe in a dinner jacket. No matter, it had presence and space, so it sold. The other was the Catera, and while it was an alright car, GM’s North American strategy completely failed to recognize what it was. Welcome back to GM Hit or Miss, where we sift through the sludge of GM’s pre-bankruptcy lineup. It’s not a glamorous job, but someone has to do it.
We start our journey in Germany circa 1994, when Opel rebooted its large Omega sedan for its second generation. With its driven wheels in the rear, an available V6 engine up front, and an interior a cut above American GM fare of the time, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Opel’s executive sedan was well-received. This was a critically acclaimed car, scooping up awards like the RJC Import Car of the Year trophy in Japan for 1995.
Over in America, Cadillac executives took one look at Opel’s handiwork, thought “hmm, that might do,” and decided to test the car’s reception with a 1994 show version called the LSE. While some major styling elements would be carried over to production, some thankfully wouldn’t. The Eldorado-like wheels were horrid, and Cadillac’s designers still believed that American luxury was a thin, glaring veneer of saccharine sleaze, so a massive egg-crate grille was unceremoniously grafted onto the Omega’s face. Still, it was a step in the right direction, and the public likely didn’t completely balk, because the production version would arrive shortly after.
From Germany, With Love
In 1996, the Cadillac Catera rolled into showrooms looking virtually identical to the LSE concept. The few changes included tasteful five-spoke wheels in place of the LSE’s awful units, the side mirrors’ bases were finished in unpainted plastic, the door handles were now curvy, and the grille was chromed. Mercilfully, the tacky chrome strip that ran around the LSE’s body trim was banished. The production Catera was a subtle improvement over the concept, a refreshing thing in a world of watered-down final models.
Well, it was an improvement save for one thing. Why the fucking hell did Cadillac give it plastic bumperettes? Were they dense? Were they permanently trapped in the 1970s? Nothing else in the segment had bumperettes, so the Catera shouldn’t have sported them either. Nevertheless, a pair of zits weren’t enough to ruin the Catera. Nobody had ever seen a Cadillac like it, and it showed.
In Europe, the Opel Omega was positioned as a BMW 5 Series competitor, a job it did admirably. In America, however, competition wasn’t quite as direct. In 1997, Motor Trend compared it to the Lexus ES300 and Mitsubishi Diamante, which is a head trip if ever I’ve seen one. The Lexus was likely cross-shopped against the Catera, but the Mitsubishi? I’m not so sure about that. Unsurprisingly, the Cadillac did well in that test, with Motor Trend remarking:
Cadillac is banking on its newest model to carve out a chunk of the meaty mainstream luxury market, and based on our experience in several Cateras during the past few months, it should do a good job at that task. Supported by one of the largest dealer networks in the luxury market and nicely outfitted with standards, the Catera is a high-value new contender. Firmer and sportier in feel than either the Lexus or Mitsubishi (or most other cars in the class), the smallest Caddy retains a distinctly European flavor.
Sounds like a promising car, right? Indeed, Car And Driver shared similar sentiments to Motor Trend in a preview drive of an early model.
Those attracted by the Catera’s value will likely find satisfaction in the driving experience it provides. And when the Catera replaces the Fleetwood in Cadillac’s lineup next fall, it will shift the division’s center of gravity a long way from traditional to contemporary. It’s about time.
Yep, this was a long-overdue machine unlike any other Cadillac of the time, and it was European to the core. From the oddball 54-degree V6 engine to the chassis to the bulk of the interior, the Catera was an Omega, something that Detroit simply couldn’t have made at the time. Unfortunately, facing the prospects of promoting an almost completely foreign product, GM’s ad people displayed complete ineptitude, missing the mark by a country mile.
Death By Advertising
You know what tagline the American ad execs came up with for the Catera? I shit you not, it was “The Caddy that Zigs.” Look, I know the 1990s was a weird decade that included a year where people got weirdly into Gregorian chants, but that’s just too wacky.
Look, I’m going to level some baseline shit with you. In communication, the pillars of persuasion are ethos, pathos, and logos, ancient Greek loan words for character, emotion, and logical rhetoric, respectively. A strategy that leans into ethos builds credibility and trust, a strategy that leans into pathos should elicit an emotional response from the viewer, and a strategy that leans into logos should rationalize the product or service in the eyes of the consumer. “The Caddy that zigs” uses pathos, but completely misses the mark of the audience.
The sort of person spending $29,995 in the mid-’90s on a luxury sedan probably isn’t looking for something whimsical. We’re talking about experience working professionals, typically in management, who likely completed higher education, are currently married, and have children at home. Well-read, well-adjusted, responsible consumers, in essence. With this sort of customer, ethos and logos are safe bets, but pathos generally works better if marketers lean into desires like status, luxury, and performance in a serious manner. Let’s look at a decent ad from a period competitor so you see what I mean.
Here’s an ad for the 1992 Lexus ES 300, and it plays it straight and balanced. “Revise your E.T.A” is a great hook than leans on pathos, and it’s backed up by copy dripping in features to rationalize the Lexus and mention of an award that speaks to the product’s character. It’s not the most thrilling ad ever, but it does the trick, hooks readers in, and lets them learn more.
Other than the base price, the make, and the model, this ad for the Catera tells the viewer absolutely nothing. What’s the feature set? What makes it the performance machine that the graphics suggest? What does it mean to zig? That’s an ambiguous term, and one that should’ve been avoided. Oh, and what’s that red thing next to the nameplate?
Well, that’s a mascot named Ziggy, a re-interpretation of a merlette from Cadillac’s badge. The merlettes? The ducks? That’s what they picked to market the Catera? Ziggy was a bad mascot, because it was thoroughly at odds with the midsize luxury car image. In the past thirty years of automotive advertising, there’s only been one good mascot, and that’s Volkswagen’s Fast, a malicious little embodiment of id that fit perfectly with the cheeky Mk.5 GTI. In contrast, Ziggy was irrelevant in print and downright bizarre on television.
Mind you, print and television campaigns aren’t the only way to market something. Celebrity association can be a big deal. Notice I said “association,” not “endorsement.” Paying a celebrity to be in a commercial comes across as a forced move, while brand integration seems more organic. It can happen purely on its own, or it can be paid placement, like good influencer marketing but before social media. The Escalade benefitted from this massively, with celebrities taking to the SUV right in time for the bling era to pop off. That casual celebrity endorsement built an impenetrable wall of cool around the Escalade, making it a gotta-have-it vehicle. After all, lots of people wanna be ballers and shot-callers, but aren’t quite down with putting 20-inch blades on Impalas. The Catera’s media endorsement? A joke on Chicago Hope, in the form of a character named Lisa Catera. Lease a Catera, get it? Unsurprisingly, this isn’t quite the same caliber of endorsement as, say, Jennifer Lopez name-dropping the Escalade in “Love Don’t Cost A Thing.”
[Ed Note: Akshully, there was a celebrity endorser: Cindy Crawford!]
Falling Flat
Great marketing can boost the appeal of a middling product, but bad marketing can kill a car’s appeal. The Cadillac Catera was a perfectly fine car that fell victim to a flat-out bad marketing campaign that failed to communicate the origin and benefits of the car in an appealing way. This wasn’t another Cimmaron, nor was it some downsized land barge for octogenarians. It was a perfectly competent European sedan that unfortunately exited production after 2001 without much dignity. It was neither a hit nor a miss, but a suitable vehicle torpedoed by lack of understanding. However, the Catera didn’t really die. Ever wondered what CTS as in Cadillac CTS stood for? Catera Touring Sedan. The more you know, right?
(Photo credits: Cadillac, Lexus)
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Over here, next to Germany, it really wasn’t anything either.
The first Omega had a very low air resistance for a large car, and Lotus took one and made it into everybody’s dream of a modern 4 door hotrod.
But besides from these two things, there weren’t anything noteworthy about the Omega. At all. Opel stopped trying to conquer the luxury segment after it died.
It was comparable to a Ford Scorpio, which died at around the same time, and maybe the entry level BMW 5 series and Mercedes-Benz E class. But the real Cadillac competitors from those two brands were (are?) the 7 series and S class.
“…In Europe, the Opel Omega was positioned as a BMW 5 Series competitor…” Maybe the Opel-staff had some wet dreams about that but an Opel could never compete with a BMW in the 90ties.Opel just did not have (and has not) the image to do that.
Yes, exactly. The Omega B was a cheaply made large sedan with meh handling, power, and cheap build quality.
It’s a comfortable highway cruiser but definitely a tier below an E39 or A6 C4.
The US version should’ve had a V8, Opel had some Omega LS1 V8 prototypes.
Something much of the American market doesn’t see is how down-trim BMW made some of its vehicles for the EU market. Starting up in the BMW lineup: you could get a 5-series with a 150hp 2-litre (a 520i was a common rental I had in Germany) in the late 90’s, whilst early 90’s it could be equipped with the 1.8L 4-cyl.
The advertising team more than made up for it with the CTS at least.
“When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?” I still remember that line 20 years later
I think the problem is it looks like an updated Cimarron.
Damn you, Thomas.
Now I’m looking for a VW Fast for my shelf.
As if I need more random automotive stuff.
It probably would have done fine if they had adapted the Commodore with its 3800 and not the Omega with its shitty engine and transmission. It still would have stood out a in Cadillac’s lineup and still would have looked like the Malibu but wouldn’t have been such a warranty disaster.
At the time, I honestly thought it was a badge engineered Malibu. It’s not like GM hadn’t done that kind of thing before.
Surely there’s some value in knowing your potential car zigs.
Seriously though, I’ve seen some facepalm worthy things from marketing in my time. In one instance, marketing blatantly made up (or maybe they just didn’t know?) the fact that a game we were making for the first time had an online experience (let’s ignore the fact we had an online version of the game release about 7 years prior).
And in another instance, a studio I worked at had a fully finished title (I think Nintendo even certified it for release) but was cancelled just prior to release because the marketing team wasn’t sure how they’d market it. And it was a pretty fun game too.
Lisa Catera ain’t got sh*t on Joe Isuzu.
That add for the ES makes me laugh, in no way is that a sports sedan, thats what the GS is for.
Q-ship. In an era when 120 hp in a family sedan was average, 185 hp was a freaking rocket. Looking like a boring Camry from far away also helps.
the 1992 Infinity Q45 rocked the segment with 278 hp which seemed like a lot a the time.
Wasn’t it also a lot more money than the ES300? That 278 hp was probably sandbagged too thanks to the Japanese “gentleman’s agreement” not to officially go over that number.
More money but also a totally different segment and a V8…the comparable Lexus there was 250 hp out of the LS400.
Against the ES then, Infiniti had the J30, which was quite good for the time at 210 hp, but that was RWD and also did little to rock the segment in the end.
120hp in a family sedan was pretty low for 1992: that 185hp V6 was also available in the Camry, and there were tons of GM sedans with 170hp 3800 V6’s back then.
The Q-ship I know of was the Q45, which was indeed more impressive with a 4.5L 275hp V8.
I looked it up, the XV10 Camry had either the 130 hp 2.2 I4 or the 185 hp V6 according to Wikipedia. I’d trust the collective knowledge of the internet for that. IIRC there were a lot more 4 bangers around than V6’s. GM’s 3800 was in their large cars, not midsize cars. A more common engine was the 3100, 3300 or Iron Duke. None of those was particularly powerful.
GM of course was big on “V6 for the price of a 4!” relying on the torque of the V6s to counter that the 4s made as much or more horsepower.
120hp was probably a little below what might be average but pretty close to typical at the time. Most Accords were 125 hp, with 140 hp available – also the same hp as both the 3.0 and 3.8 V6s Ford offered in the Taurus/Sable.
But even for other like-sized OHC-design V6s in FWD cars, 185hp out of 3 liters was pretty good for the time like you said. Nissan bumped the Maxima SE up to 190hp that same year, and the 3.2L hit 200hp in the standard Acura Legend, but 200hp seemed more or less the cap for the next few years.
True. I always considered the ‘large’ GM cars to be family cars, but I guess back in the 90’s they were a class size larger than Accord, Camry, Stanza
“that included a year where people got weirdly into Gregorian chants“
This was also the decade where 1940s-style swing music had a moment.
The other night, Sirius XM played Squirrel Nut Zippers and it totally took me back, made me miss my Chandler Bing-ish bowling shirts.
I was bartending at a swing dance nightclub in that era, lol. Full-on Candy/Camel cigarette girls and a humidor for cigar sales (when you could still smoke indoors, obv) club. The line to get in was hours long for a few years there. It was a lot of fun, but one can only listen to Zoot Suit Riot, Brian Setzer, and The Stray Cats so many times. lol
Although, in a fantastic blast of counter-programming, Sunday nights were Techno on 2 levels and hip-hop upstairs in the lounge. It was always a good laugh when customers got their nights confused and were dressed…different from everyone else.
The fact that you used Brian Setzer and The Stray Cats (led by Brian Setzer) as 2 of your 3 examples shows the extreme limitations of the genre, even when it was at its peak.
Indeed, it was limited in that not a lot of bands “made it.” To be fair, I wasn’t exactly trying too hard. I was just killing time during commercials of the Michigan game. 🙂
The Diamante being in the comparison seems odd but compared on price it was normal for the time, back before everything fell neatly into the size categories, the pricing made them more comparable as “near-luxury” vehicles.
I don’t think I have it any more, but I want to say in Automobile magazine’s long term review of the Catera, they laid a bunch of rubber ducks in a line up to a Catera for the main image.
If I recall they also weren’t that impressed with it in the end due to quality – that’s what I remember most reports of the Catera being, not just the engine but electrical gremlins. It was more miss than neutral IMO. Strip away the marketing mishaps and you’re still left with a case of GM thinking they had something because it ticked the right boxes – DOHC V6! RWD! German-built! It was a European family car being pitched as premium which has always been a tough sell here.
I was a young adult when these came out, and even then I could see from the get-go that the advertising campaign for these was a complete dog. What were people to think about the stupid duck, other than that GM is screwing up again? “The Caddy that zigs” makes you think it has poor traction in the curves, and does not zag to balance it out. Apparently some half-drunk suit on Madison Avenue thought that “zigs” was a cool slang word that was “in” at the time. What a swing and a miss.
The second problem with the success of this thing was the quality and reliability. They had leaking water control valves, crankshaft sensor failures, oil leaks, early failure of water pumps, coolant leaks, even gear levers that wouldn’t go in to Park, among other headaches… and expensive repairs when the inevitable headaches came around.
I had a supervisor who was considering buying one because they had so much money on the hood. Fortunately for her, she decided against it.
Should have used Scrooge McDuck if they wanted a cartoon mascot to appeal to the affluent.
The worst part is that the car itself was a piece of shit! That engine is fucking AWFUL!
The Catera didn’t get good until 2001, its final year.The later ones are MUCH better than the early Cateras.
Also, it would come back in 2-door form as the GTO.
They should’ve given the Catera the 3800 instead of that 54-degrees-of-failure monstrosity. In fact, in Australia, where it was called the Holden Commodore, it was available with the 3800, both NA and supercharged, as well as the LS1. The GTO failed because over here, it wasn’t available with a sunroof and a cheaper V6 models (again, both NA and SC 3800) that they had in Australia.
The Catera was even cheapened down from the European Omega too 🙁
https://en.club-opel.com/graphics/gallery/full/1583_opel-omega_22.jpg
https://www.autodata1.com/media/opel/pics/opel-omega-b-caravan-%5B7816%5D.jpg
And you have the nerve to blame the ducks LOL the ducks were fucking awesome! Too bad they removed the ducks from the recent Cadillac logo 🙁
They need to bring the ducks BACK 😀
A V6 or a sunroof would have had little impact on GTO sales. The Mustang sold fine without a sunroof. Price and styling hurt the GTO more than anything.
A Mustang GT was some $5k cheaper than a GTO, and a V6 Mustang started almost $5k less than the GT. A V6 would not have shaved anywhere near that much off the GTO’s price. Also, a V6 pony car buyer probably wanted something with some style over any number of other bigger coupes (since they existed back then), but the GTO had less flair than the Grand Am. I like understated styling, but I’m not the usual buyer.
For the Omega interior, the wood trim they did keep to a minimum but given they were trying to shake off a stodgy image that made sense. IIRC the Caddy controls were pretty good for the time – or at least I liked them, they were certainly not shared with the GM parts bin so it was still unique. The interior controls did need to change from the Omega though, look how the Astra interior was received when it came over unchanged to Saturn showrooms years later.
I remember back in the 90s while I was still in Europe a buddy had an Omega station wagon with a stick and a turbodiesel (2.2? or 2.5? 4-cyl..or 5? I can’t remember..). He was using it to carry construction tools and materials, all the while sipping less than 6L/100km of diesel (that’s over 40mpg in ‘murican). With the backseat down it had so much room inside it would dwarf any US full-size truck. I saw him carry a cement mixer in there once. He beat the shit outta that thing for years and close to 300k kms when it got totaled on a construction site by a big rig backing into it.
I don’t know anything about the Catera’s engine or reliability, but my friend’s Omega was a beast.
I’d love one, but nice examples are out of cheap beater territory now, sadly.
I really liked these when they came out. My household was in the market for an entry luxury sedan at the time, but the chances of us getting a Cadillac were 0%.
I liked them then too, but I remember being skeptical, as for my whole life until that point, Cadillacs had been luxo-barges driven by the elderly.
When these came out, I remember thinking why don’t they use the blown 3800 V6 and how close they look to the same era Chevy Malibu, which was motor trend COTY for 97…. The torque rich 3800 would have given it some attitude adding to the ‘zig’
Why didn’t they use the Holden Commodore (VS) instead?
Assume that the Omega being LHD already helped quite a bit there. The Commodore might have also been a bit too big, it was a bit bigger than the Omega and that might have made it too close to the Seville. Or just the effort to throw in different powertrains, since the Commodore had OHV engines, too “old tech” when Cadillac was trying to look more modern. Plus the panache of marketing a German-built car in Cadillac showrooms.
It is too bad the Commodore never globalized sooner. Around the same time, the VT Commodore was being developed with the idea of offering it in North America (basically – developed for both RHD and LHD), and was previewed with the Buick XP2000 concept.
Agreed it should have been globalised sooner, especially when the VT’s platform was LHD-capable from day one.
In 1998 Holden built a one-off LHD “Commodore” (as opposed to the Chevy Lumina that LHD VT’s were badged as for the Middle-East), shipped it to the US and drove it from LA to NY as a promotional exercise – I still have my copy of the Wheels magazine issue that told the story.
They even left the Australian license plates on the thing.
https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/archive-driving-a-left-hand-drive-holden-vt-commodore-ss-across-america
Thats awesome, thanks for that
Never knew they did that, thanks for sharing!
I’m fairly sure the Omega and Commodore have very similar bones, but on all the other points, consider me educated
You’re right they do – my impression is that Holden reengineered the Opel base to some degree such as widening it for the market, so may not have been so plug and play to flip the necessary components before planning for it from the ground up. Timing would have been close too, since the VT followed the Catera by about a year from what I can tell.
My old man was a pretty big deal for GM overseas back in the 70s-80s, and he was screaming from the mountaintops to bring over all the cars. Holden, Opal, whatever. Begging the bean counters to do it. He was well retired by the time the idea finally made its way to reality. He liked to point that out. A lot. lol.
So, it wasn’t for a lack of trying by some to get them over, it was just a bureaucratic nightmare to do anything.
Oh yeah, if there’s a poster child for NIH syndrome, GM would be it. Ford not far behind.
GM did give some thought to giving the Opel Diplomat to Cadillac, I think there was even one that was fitted out with a Cadillac grille and badging as a proof of concept
Basically the apple cart was in the wrong place at the wrong time… if they gave it a year or two it wouldn’t have got upset
Even better, they tried a Corvette LS1 engine. Unfortunately it didn’t go through in the end
https://www.evo.co.uk/vauxhall/vxr8/204901/opel-omega-v8-dead-on-arrival
The ad campaign probably would’ve played just a little better if the Catera had actual zig to it, rather than being a reasonably competent, balanced, but slightly dull and heavy platform. If they’d gotten to the CTS-V a generation earlier, it’d still be goofy, but at least it’d help establish the bonafides for the car to overlook it.
It was Cadillac. “Zig Quotient” was graded on a curve (pun intended).
I remember that print ad, the ad agency used a distinctive font that looked like it was the title from the cover of The New Yorker magazine, added a weird duck that resembled Groucho Marx, cashed their check, and called it a day!
I remember that stupid duck
Also lost in translation: Cadillac forgot that German cigarette lighters were of a larger diameter than American spec, so the power adapters for 12V accessories – radar detectors, et al – didn’t quite fit on first year cars (pre-USB days, this was a decently large oversight).
And whilst I’m not convinced there was any official overlap of model names like there was for the Eldorado ETC (Eldorado Eldorado Touring Coupe), it’s worth noting Catera CTS merges into CateraCTS. Cateracts. For a brand trying to ditch the glaucoma crowd, that’s a fail.
My 1976 BMW 2002 came with a plastic insert for the cigarette lighter socket so American radar detectors would fit snugly.
Meanwhile, Holden took a look at the Omega and said ‘hold my beer’, and the VT Commodore was born
https://imgur.com/laNheMT
Well, Mr. Opportunity was a pretty successful mascot for Honda, and Barina Girl worked OK for Holden, but an important point is that cartoon mascots for luxury brands generally don’t work, outside maybe a few markets in Asia.
The bumperettes were allegedly needed to meet US crash test requirements, which were and are oh-so-subtly different from Europe as to require a decent amount of re-working. Its why the more recent Fiat 500 also sprouted a slightly larger nose for North America.
Interestingly, although the 5mph/8kph impact standard for bumpers had been dropped in the ’80s, the Catera’s front bumper ended up being designed to that spec, since it was determined that was coincidentally how strong the bumper needed to be for the car itself to pass FMVSS
TIL : CTS means Catera Touring Sedan.
I knew DTS and STS were de Ville and Seville, respectively, but not this one.
Does this mean the CT4/5 trace their name to the Catera??? Damn, that’s rich.
In fairness, the Catera was the start, if clunkily, of modern Cadillac. Until it, the idea of “sport” and “Cadillac” were never uttered in the same sentence, hell, paragraph.
Well, there was the ultra rare Eldorado Touring Coupe (also known as the Cadillac Et Cetera) in the ’80s, the Seville STS was added in 1988, and the Cimarron was marketed directly as a 3-Series rival, not effectively, but it was. Cadillac was making some efforts at sportier cars going back to 1981, they were just sort of half-assed efforts
I had a friend whose father owned one of those STSs back in the day. I remember being totally skeptical of his performance claims, but then again, I also thought Chevy Cavalier Z24s were awesome cars. Still do, so that shows my judgement I guess…
The sort of person spending $29,995 in the mid-’90s on a luxury sedan probably isn’t looking for something whimsical. We’re talking about experience working professionals, typically in management, who likely completed higher education, are currently married, and have children at home. Well-read, well-adjusted, responsible consumers, in essence. With this sort of customer, ethos and logos are safe bets, but pathos generally works better if marketers lean into desires like status, luxury, and performance in a serious manner. Let’s look at a decent ad from a period competitor so you see what I mean.
So what about SAAB? Wasn’t “something whimsical” for exactly that target audience their whole shtick?
GM didn’t fully own Saab yet, theoretically they should have been included in product planning strategy, but, a 50-50 joint venture vs a division they fully owned wasn’t going to take as much priority. They allowed Cadillac and Oldsmobile to make various attempts to play in spaces that were more or less Saab’s domain, with mixed results. Although, keep in mind, Saab had 0.2% of the US car market in 1997, Cadillac had 5.4%, so clearly GM stood a better chance of earning a return on their investment with the latter
Saab was weird without saying they were weird, which was what made them attractive to the proto-hipster tweed jacket crowd.
Being quirky and going around advertising that fact makes you a poser.
Exactly. It was the ’90s after all, and Gen X sensibilities reigned for awhile before being (of course) totally forgotten… 😉
“Poser” describes a lot of Cadillac’s current customer base so lessons were learned.