LA Auto Show: Cadillac's New Urban Concept

by David Kiley (RSS feed)
Nov 17th 2010 at 9:01PM

The last time Cadillac gave us a small, or smallish, car, it was a disaster--the Cimarron, sold during the 1980s. It was a weak attempt by General Motors to put a Caddy in the market that got better fuel economy than its big sedans. But the underlying engineering platform was shared with the Chevy Cavalier, and it felt like it.

GM, a day before it starts selling stock in the new post-bankruptcy company, is showing a small, "urban" Cadillac concept car at the Los Angeles Auto Show that could lead to a car Cadillac can sell to U.S., European and Asian buyers who are looking at similar cars from Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Peugeot, Renault and soon, BMW.

Called The Urban Luxury Concept, the car has a wheelbase of just 97 inches with an overall length of 151 inches. The width is 68.1 inches and the height is just under 57 inches.

There is a lot of fanciful interior touches to show how interior space can be maximized through innovation with the instruments. Projectors and a slew of capacitive touch screens that glow tanzanite blueish-purple take the place of knobs. There's also a hide-away right-hand touch pad. See the details in the gallery.

Gallery: Cadillac Urban Car Concept

Power comes from a 1.0-liter turbocharged three cylinder engine that makes up part of a hybrid drivetrain. GM claims the system would provide a completely theoretical 56 miles per gallon in the city and 65 mpg on the highway.

Comparable in size to popular city cars found in Paris, Shanghai and London, the Urban Luxury Concept demonstrates a departure from conventional vehicle design. It seats four, with easy access to all seats available via a pair of scissor-type doors that extend outward and rotate forward when opened.

"It may not look like Cadillacs on the road today, but it shares the comfortable and high-tech elements that owners have come to associate with larger, traditional luxury sedans," said Frank Saucedo, lead designer. "As more customers demand premium features even in smaller vehicles, a vehicle like the Urban Luxury Concept could be a solution."

Tags: Cadillac, Cadillac city car, Cadillac Urban Luxury Concept, LA Auto Show, Los Angeles Auto Show, los angeles auto show 2010