Right-hand-driven Cadillacs will officially be available for sale in South Africa from February 2007, motor vehicle giant company General Motors South Africa (GMSA) has announced.
GMSA plans are to release three new marques, the BLS mid-size sedan, SRX Crossover SUV and the STS full-size sedan. Others models could follow. Product communication manager Tim Hendon says the Cadillac brand is expected to be appealing to a discerning black market. He says the brand will probably provide an alternative in the existing luxury car market.
“[Cadillac are pioneers] of luxury vehicle manufacturing and were the first in many technical innovations in this car segment. “These are cars for individualistic consumers who demand performance and luxury. [They are for] up-and-coming executives who crave something different,” says Hendon.
GMSA will also exploit a market that is “ready for alternative brands” and can afford the new, smaller Cadillacs. At between R250 000 and R350 000, GMSA hopes the Cadillac will directly compete in the luxury car market by offering quality cars at a reasonable price.
The comeback of the Cadillac brand in South Africa parallels the worldwide expansion of Cadillac products and South Africa’s growing automobile industry.
Sales of Cadillacs locally died almost unnoticed in the Sixties and Seventies, although, says Hendon, “a limited number of Cadillacs were imported and distributed through non-GM channels”.
Sales dried up in the apartheid era. Rassie Erasmus, the owner of a 1967 Cadillac Limousine 7.0 litre that previously belonged to state president Jim Fouche, says economic sanctions that were imposed on South Africa affected the importing of Cadillac spares and new models. “The problem was not with the company that produced the cars, but with our government system.”
Erasmus is happy Cadillac will be available here. He rarely drives his vehicle because of difficulties sourcing spare parts, but thinks that parts will become more available, meaning he can drive the car more often.
Cadillacs are imported from Europe and the United States and will be distributed from the GMSA plant in Port Elizabeth throughout the sub-Saharan region. The BLS sedans are assembled in Sweden; the SRX and STS are manufactured in the US.
The plant in Port Elizabeth is responsible for the manufacturing of the new Hummer, Opel, Isuzu and Isuzu Trucks and Saab. These cars are exported mainly to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, Mauritius and a few overseas countries, including Brazil and India.