Automotive AHC - successfully establish Cadillac and Lincoln in UK/Europe

As the title says, the challenge is to successfully establish both Cadillac and Lincoln in the UK/Europe as legitimate luxury marques yet the models have to be specifically tailored to the demands of such markets as a result of UK/European divisions being formed.
 
Wolfgang Reitzel isn't alienated from Ford, and there's no Premier Auto Group fire sale. The Lincoln LS is instead named Continental, and gets a coupe version and up and downmarket stablemates with the same design and engineering philosophy.
 

Here’s what British people thought about 1970s American cars, which is still how they view most American cars today.

The issue is that American luxury cars until the 1980s were physically too big for European streets, given that they were constructed much earlier than American roads. When American luxury cars did finally downsize, you ended up with stuff like the Cadillac Cimarron, which nearly killed Cadillac for good.

You’d need better and more effective downsizing. Perhaps a longer and worse late 1950s recession leads to a greater sale for the Corvair (butterfly away Nader as well).

By this point, the Americans are much more accustomed to good small cars, allowing them to have a stronger basis for entering the European market. Lincoln and Cadillac should follow.

Another option would be to have the European luxury car industry of Rover and Mercedes-Benz collapse. If Europe is in a much worse place post-war (especially in Britain/Germany/Italy), the Americans will need to serve as the backbone of the car industry.
 

Here’s what British people thought about 1970s American cars, which is still how they view most American cars today.

The issue is that American luxury cars until the 1980s were physically too big for European streets, given that they were constructed much earlier than American roads. When American luxury cars did finally downsize, you ended up with stuff like the Cadillac Cimarron, which nearly killed Cadillac for good.

You’d need better and more effective downsizing. Perhaps a longer and worse late 1950s recession leads to a greater sale for the Corvair (butterfly away Nader as well).

By this point, the Americans are much more accustomed to good small cars, allowing them to have a stronger basis for entering the European market. Lincoln and Cadillac should follow.

Another option would be to have the European luxury car industry of Rover and Mercedes-Benz collapse. If Europe is in a much worse place post-war (especially in Britain/Germany/Italy), the Americans will need to serve as the backbone of the car industry.
at least it was the pinto in the video .. and a big mushroom cloud ;)

but you are correct. to achieve said success the mind set needs to shift
 
Number one - while Canada still technically has a separate auto industry pre-Auto Pact, have GM and Ford take full advantage of the Canadian market for export assembly to Europe and the British Commonwealth. GM in particular heavily used Canada for exporting its Chevrolet and Pontiac vehicles during the 1950s-1970s period, particularly Pontiac (which in Canada were basically Chevrolets with Pontiac trim) since the Canadian-built vehicles turned out to be much better suited for European roads than US-built vehicles. As with Chevrolet and Pontiac, so too could Cadillac - and thus have its own smaller vehicles to boot.

Number two - fully utilize GM's and Ford's existing European divisions much earlier than OTL, both as sales channels and as integral parts of GM rather than as heavily autonomous divisions. That way, Canadian-built Cadillacs and Lincolns get the best of both worlds. Yes, it might mean some alterations in how GM Canada and Ford of Canada operate in their domestic market, but the investment will be worth it when the US market itself has to accommodate smaller cars.
 
Number one - while Canada still technically has a separate auto industry pre-Auto Pact, have GM and Ford take full advantage of the Canadian market for export assembly to Europe and the British Commonwealth. GM in particular heavily used Canada for exporting its Chevrolet and Pontiac vehicles during the 1950s-1970s period, particularly Pontiac (which in Canada were basically Chevrolets with Pontiac trim) since the Canadian-built vehicles turned out to be much better suited for European roads than US-built vehicles. As with Chevrolet and Pontiac, so too could Cadillac - and thus have its own smaller vehicles to boot.

Number two - fully utilize GM's and Ford's existing European divisions much earlier than OTL, both as sales channels and as integral parts of GM rather than as heavily autonomous divisions. That way, Canadian-built Cadillacs and Lincolns get the best of both worlds. Yes, it might mean some alterations in how GM Canada and Ford of Canada operate in their domestic market, but the investment will be worth it when the US market itself has to accommodate smaller cars.

Cadillacs were assembled in Canada beginning in 1923, but were dropped in 1936 when tariffs were lowered to 17.5% and made GM Canada drop many of the lower volume cars. Only 252 units were assembled in 1931. By the 1960s, GM Canada focused mostly on assembling Chevrolets and Pontiacs, with the latter sharing chassis. Ford focussed mostly on its Ford and slightly more upscale Meteor (Mercury) cars and therefore Lincolns were not assembled in Canada until the 21st century. Chrysler too focused on higher volume cars including Plymouths, Dodges and later Valiants, with some lower end Chrysler models too.

The problem as mentioned above was that Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials were simply too large for European roads. Additionally, the existence of horsepower/fuel consumption taxes often made registering or owning one of these cars simply too expensive, raising prices to the level of ultra-luxury cars. The handling on these large cars was often lacking as well as they were not designed to go around winding roads in a way that a Mercedes-Benz or Jaguar could.

American cars were somewhat popular in some countries in Europe, particularly those that did not have a domestic auto makers like Switzerland, Portugal or Belgium. Up until the mid-1960s it seems American cars were still regarded as luxurious and enjoyed a certain popularity. Below is a 1956 picture of a GM dealership in Lisbon, while sales were low due to the overall low standard of living, the cars seemed to have been popular among the elites. Portuguese politicians, bankers etc often drove Cadillacs and to a lesser extend Lincolns and Imperials until around 1964 when new import duties to protect the nascent automobile assembly industry made them much harder to import. GM and Ford established plants in the country and assembled only their European cars, so after 1964, Mercedes-Benz became the most popular luxury car.

To truly become popular in Europe, GM and Ford's European divisions would have had to create much smaller cars in the early 1960s which at most would have been the size of the smallest compacts in America (Falcon, Corvair, Chevy II etc) with 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder engines along with diesel engines being offered. Perhaps having the upscale Opel Kapitan/Diplomat/Admirals (1968 ad) below being badged as a Cadillac. They had V6 or V8 engines with the latter being a 283 block Chevrolet engine. The Diplomat was no larger than a Chevelle but cost over 20,000DM, meaning even with these their production was relatively small and they were only produced between 1964 and 1977.

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A European branch of Cadillac could work if GM began adopting an earlier mid-60s version of TASC / V-O-H interchangeability progamme throughout the GM Empire, which would allow the European division of Cadillac to produce suitable and competitive cars on the market derived from the Opel Commodore A and the Opel Diplomat onwards.

As for Lincoln that is more challenging though a European division could have been established around the mid/late-1960s in the context of Ford UK and Ford Germany merging to become Ford Europe, then European Lincolns would be derived from the European Ford Granada / Scorpio (prior to being replaced by an ATL Lincoln LS) along with a larger flagship model of similar dimensions to the OTL Australian Ford Fairlane/LTD.

Both ATL European divisions of Cadillac and Lincoln would have also had to potentially invest in developing their own engines, for example in the former's case there was the stillborn V12 intended for the Eldorado that could have spawned a 60-degree V6 variant at the lower end of the range.
 
The Studebaker Avanti could be popular in Europe if Studebaker could last long enough - as J.B. Smoove said, “It mixes European styling with American ingenuity.”
 
By this point, the Americans are much more accustomed to good small cars, allowing them to have a stronger basis for entering the European market. Lincoln and Cadillac should follow.
Luxury = Big is baked in the US psyche.

The 'Personal Luxury' Coupes often were just 2dr Hardtop of the fullsize, with soft ride and gadgets galore

After the CAFE regulations for better, fuel efficient cars, in the '70sUS consumers voted with their wallets, and demanded large, luxurious Trucks and SUVs that US Automakers really couldn't make anymore in a sedan size package

So now you see Ford, who really won't be making many cars in the future, Trucks and Crossovers, mostly.
 
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The Studebaker Avanti could be popular in Europe if Studebaker could last long enough - as J.B. Smoove said, “It mixes European styling with American ingenuity.”

That's the problem, by the mid '50s, they were circling around the drain, there is no real saving them, even as a minor manufacturer. Too much debt, bad labor relations and wore out factories, and Dealer network dying on the vine for sellable cars.
 
Studebaker or at least the Avanti's styling could have worked via an ATL AMC that later collaborates with Fiat (plus Citroen) on tech, platforms and engines.

Chrysler meanwhile in a scenario where their ATL European division consists of Simca and Borgward (along with a pre-war UK division that produced a productionized Flat-4 powered Star Car), could have launched the Imperial marque on the European market or created/revived/acquired another luxury marque (e.g. Delahaye-Delage, Hotchkiss, Talbot, Darracq, Panhard, Bugatti, Facel Vega, etc).
 
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