JM: Well, that was a real controversial thing at the time. Some people really hated it. Some people were afraid of it. They thought it was just a little too much. But we said, no, we need to make a statement again. We need to make sure that people know what this is. It's got to be identified as a Cadillac. It's got to be identified as a new CTS, and, so let's go for it. So we did that. We added a lot more chrome and detailing to the car from the first generation. We added the chrome around the windows. There's the chrome strapped around the fender. Chrome on the deck lids. So just all those chrome touches really kind of make the car stand out. And then if you look at the lighting systems on the outside of the car-we've got those vertical light pipes in the headlights and the vertical light pipes in the taillights. Since 1948, Cadillac has kind of owned vertical tail lamps. That's who we are, but we didn't really want to get into any retro. I don't get into any retro at all. But we said what could we do with a vertical taillight element that really makes it stand out the day and the nighttime. So we have those vertical light pipes, both in the tail lamps and in the headlamps. So at night it's a Cadillac as well as during the day.
CA&E: American cars, the interiors have always been kind of disappointing more or less. But this, the CTS, I thought was great. The mixture in terms of material, the textures. I was wondering if you could just talk about the interior and how you guys came to development that?
JM: The whole idea of raising the bar in terms of the (something) materials, the finish. If you look at the soft materials, the instrument panel, the top of the doors... That's all cut and sew. The way the parts all come together and fit. We really just, the gloss levels are all kind of taken down so they don't look shiny and plasticky. The integrated center stack. I mean all those things really played to the idea that we're now a contender. We're kind of a world-class competitor here.
That was a major effort on our part to really pull the interior up to where it needed to be because the prior car just didn't convince enough people.
CA&E: Now was that something that you had to fight with in terms of the management or was that a fairly easy call for them as well, to support you in that move?
JM: Bob Lutz came on board in 2001. One of his key messages was that we really need to get our interiors up to where they need to be. So it was much easier, I think, to do this new car than it would have been historically. He took away a lot of roadblocks. There was a lot of emphasis on a fitted finish, the selection of the materials, the color schemes, all the cut and sew. I mean, all those things really kind of add up. The interesting thing was when I was in Europe last fall, we were showing the car in Europe and each night we had dinner with a different group of journalists. And one group, I think, was from China, one was from Germany, one was from Italy, one was from Spain. But the German guys told me the night I was there, they said, "John, this is the first credible Cadillac for Europe." So that, coming from them, I think that said a lot.
They really believed that we had made a significant change in the car. And that was good.
CA&E: And by the way, everyone loves the accent lighting, too.
JM: Well, and that's the other thing. You know, the interior lighting of that car. You've really got to experience that option because I tell people the analogy is if you walk into Kmart or Costco, they're lit like you're in some kind of surgical room where there's all this bright light. If you walk into a hot nightclub or a cool restaurant, or a real seductive kind of residential home, you have this mood lighting. There are lights underneath the seats. There are the pinpoint lights. And the idea is you want to create this environment, this ambience, so that when you're sitting in the car you think, "Wow, this is a cool place."