GM Ditches Plan for Rear-Drive, $100K Sedan

Cadillac has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past decade, rising from a laughing stock of the luxury car world to once again becoming a standard bearer for comfort and performance. The latest effort from Cadillac is the 2014 Cadillac CTS, which will be offered with a 410 horsepower twin-turbo V6 when it hits dealerships later this year.

But what about rumors of a bigger, badder, more expensive Cadillac sedan? This new halo car was slated to cost more than $100,000 when all was said and done, but a report from Automotive News says that the new halo car was cancelled. Maybe it wasn’t as awesome as we thought it would be.

Cadillac has gone wanting for a range-topping “halo” car to build buzz and excitement about the brand since the Corvette-based XLR bowed out in the mid-2000s. The plan was to roll out a rear-drive big sedan that would compete with the likes of the BMW 7 series and Mercedes S Class. This car is still in the works.

But a range-topping, $100,000+ version of the rear-drive sedan was scrapped, as it apparently wasn’t exciting enough to build buzz around the brand. Maybe it was too big, or too slow, or just too expensive for a Cadillac; we’ll never know. We are still hoping Cadillac comes around to making a production version of the Ciel Concept (pictured below), but it seems that post-bankruptcy GM is a bit more discerning about their halo cars these days.