Some showroom openings and dealers' new car launches are matters of fairly local interest, but yesterday's event at Clyde Glasgow was rather different. It marked the return to the regular retail market in this country of Cadillac and Chevrolet, which have been available for many years past only as specialised imports. Only 10 dealerships have been appointed so far, to cover the whole of the UK. Most of them, naturally, have an existing Vauxhall connection.
Clyde Glasgow's territory for the two General Motors makes extends to the whole of Scotland, but the dealership itself is very appropriately located. The 1998 Cadillac and Chevrolet models were exhibited in Scotland for the first time, just across the road from the Finnieston Street showroom, during last November's Motor Show at the SECC.
At the show, the Cadillac Seville certainly attracted attention as that very rare item, a high performance, luxury American saloon offered with right-hand drive. About 1200 visitors to the stand left their names and addresses on the list of interested parties, and more than 120 (a high proportion of the original number,
as these things are reckoned)
later said they were serious potential buyers.
In the preliminary stages of Cadillac's re-introduction to the UK market, General Motors suggested that it would bring in two versions of the stylish and neatly proportioned Seville: the STS, or Seville Touring Sedan, and the SLS or Seville Luxury Sedan.
As things have turned out, only the STS is being imported at the moment. This is the model whose suspension and other features have been modified in a way which GM thinks will suit British and European, rather than North American, drivers' tastes.
The price is #39,750, including a three-year or 60,000-mile
warranty, three years' roadside assistance package, and a service schedule whose major operations are needed only every 100,000 miles.
Power comes from the all-aluminium 4.6-litre Northstar V8, one of GM's finest North American engines. In the Seville STS
it produces a massive 300-plus brake horse power as well as abundant torque, and this model is the most powerful front-wheel drive saloon on the world market.
That kind of power output cannot be casually unleashed, and Cadillac fits the Seville with a stability control system as well as top-rated Bosch anti-lock brakes. Unlike some old-style American cars, the Seville was designed with a careful eye on its overall weight. The Northstar engine is unusually light for its size, and
the Seville compares with the most advanced European cars in using aluminium components to keep down the weight of the front suspension.
Zebrano wood and American-hide leather feature lavishly in the interior trim, and the Seville front seats are something else again. It is not just a matter of having a ''memory'' about preferred seat positions.
The seats will automatically adjust themselves, in padding and support, according to the dimensions and, shall we say weight distribution, of whoever sits in them. If you settle into one of the front seats, then after about half-a-minute an eight-sensor system will inflate or deflate a series
of built-in air cushions to suit
your build.
Standard equipment also includes an industry-leading Bose 4.0 audio unit which is unique to the Seville. The computerised information system can give messages in five different languages, there are no fewer than 14 interior and door-space lights, and the designers have built in 18 separate interior stowage areas able to accommodate items as varied as an umbrella and a small writing desk.
American luxury car buyers insist on quiet running, and Cadillac has taken extra steps in this area with the Seville. Its window glass is thicker than usual, front and rear suspension units are mounted on rubber-bushed sub-frames, and the front bulkhead
is made of a special steel and composite material sandwich, with sound deadening added on both sides.
So who are Cadillac's likely Scottish customers? Business
people, certainly, and in particular those with the more outward-looking attitude which has, through the years, seen Scotland take a higher proportion of foreign cars than the UK as a whole.
Cadillac will always be an exclusive make, and Clyde Glasgow is looking at sales of around 45 or 50 Sevilles in a full year. Since its territory includes the whole country, the American oilmen in and around Aberdeen are another obvious target.
Some of them have shipped across their own left-hand drive cars, and they will certainly be made aware that Cadillacs are now available in European specification. In fact, some existing Cadillac and Chevrolet owners have already enquired about having their cars serviced at the new dealership.
Of course, it is not just in oil that American nationals work here. Gordon Robertson of Clyde Glasgow has noted that there are something like 148 American companies established in Scotland, many of them in that
well-known Wild West region, Silicon Glen.
The Seville STS is a car for a buyer who ''wants something a bit different - and can afford it''. As Clyde Glasgow prepares to rebuild and expand its already established showroom and workshop facilities, the likelihood is that, exactly 90 years after Cadillac was sold in the UK for the first time, these top-rated American luxury sedans will soon become, not a puzzle to identify, but a familiar part of the Scottish scene.
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