Redefining Refinement: The 2001 Cadillac DHS Sedan

Will General Motors’ replacement for the Sedan DeVille help Cadillac return to the “Standard of the World?’

THE MORNING CALL | March 18, 2001

The temperature is in the mid-70s; the sun radiates through the palm trees. I’m in a Cadillac on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.

If ever a street was named appropriately, this is it. Here, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue sit cheek to jowl, surrounded by boutiques. Here, the price tags resemble weekly paychecks, and the sleek sales help speak in hushed tones.

Here too, pampered ladies, who live in mansions behind sky-high hedges, shop, walk their dogs and lunch. So it’s easy to imagine these grand dames driving (or being driven) hereabouts 60 or 70 years ago in a custom-bodied Cadillac.

Cadillacs, like this 1934 model, once lived up to their advertising slogan.

This American marque once had the panache to sit comfortably among luxury goods with the finest of pedigrees. But now Cadillacs are a notch below the high-end occupied by Mercedes, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

Cadillacs no longer make one’s mouth water with eager anticipation or awe. Mismanagement of the marque by GM over the last 30 years has left this once great name engaged in a struggle to regain its lofty perch.

I ease out of Palm Beach and head south on roads teeming with snowbirds nestled behind the wheels of expensive sheet metal from Lexus, Infiniti, Lincoln, Acura and others — all mass-produced luxury, none with the rich history of Cadillac. The car rides with the unruffled air of an heiress making an entrance and every bit as adept at handling the twists and turns of life.

Cadillac wasn’t always the top luxury make, even when it introduced the first mass-produced V-8 in 1915, or the famous V-16 engine in 1930, or the overhead valve V-8 in 1949. For years, Packard ruled the field. Caddy eventually did triumph over Packard and many others, proclaiming its dominance in the 1950s with a chrome-encrusted, tail-finned body.

Cadillacs never had great volume, but prestige in those years came with exclusivity and rarity. A blue-blood would not buy a car owned by his plumber. Class production ruled out mass production.

But as the ’60s gave way to the ’70s, GM got greedy and the speed of assembly increased. As it did, quality decreased and true blue bloods began to look elsewhere.

Even so, think of a modern American luxury car and you think of Cadillac. For decades, even well into the ’90s, it was America’s best-selling luxury car. But decades of uneven quality, plus a tarnished image from Caddys that seemed like pale imitations of the real thing, made the car fall out of favor with the rich, hip and trendy.

Cadillac is trying to change that.

The Deville DHS I’m driving is a very sophisticated automobile. Burbling under the hood is a refined double-overhead-cam 4.6-liter V-8 that pumps out 275 horsepower and 300 foot-pounds of torque through the front wheels while returning 22 mpg in mixed driving on unleaded regular.

A contemporary return to form, albeit a first step.

The Deville DHS comes with traction control, stability control and anti-lock brakes. Rear Ultrasonic Parking Assist, which senses when you’re too close to an object, is available, as is Nightvision and a Heads-Up Display. Nightvision uses an infrared camera to sense when a deer is about to become your new hood ornament and it projects the image onto the windshield before this catastrophe happens. The Heads-Up Display projects vital info onto the windshield, such as fuel and speed.

The Bose audio system is integrated with a CD-ROM Navigation system and a computer that recognizes the driver’s voice, which allows for an Internet link with e-mail, a memo recorder and a cell phone. An infrared port allows you to swap info with the system from a hand-held device, such as a Palm.

There’s a lot of luxury and power standard on this new Caddy, but also standard is an image that the marque is trying hard to shake.

To the initiated, the Deville is a South Florida kind of car. Most think the driver needs to wear his pants, preferably bright-colored, high on the chest.

But Deville is more sophisticated than that. Much more. However, it needs better build quality, a different name and more style. That last part is coming to the Cadillac line.

The new Escalade SUV shouts loudly Cadillac’s new image. Ditto the striking new Evoq roadster and all-new Catera, both due in the next year or two.

Stylish? Well, Cadillacs are creeping into the ultra-hip world of fashion, in advertising for Rene Lezard and on the covers of trendy publications like Dutch Magazine.

Will Caddys become the vehicle of choice once again in Palm Beach? Possibly. Limited production no longer connotes class. Buzz does. Our culture is nothing more than the latest bit of marketing hyped into a frenzy by the media. Cadillac is about to enter that world.

Will it transform itself into something better?

It’s hard to imagine sometimes. But stranger things have happened. Five years ago, who would have thought that Chrysler would become a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz?

The miles disappear like good times on a warm summer day. Tomorrow, the Caddy goes back to General Motors. It’s easy to see how Cadillac is at the crossroads. It will either become something desirable or something derided. The Deville suggests the former.