Even look at the market today.....If you're a driving enthusiast and want a car that's going to satisfy you dynamically, you're more often than not in one of the German brands. If you're less of an enthusiast driver and just want a comfy luxury car, you're buying a Lexus.
Exception to that rule is the multi-car people...I have zero interest in a 'sporty' luxury barge because I have sports/performance cars in the fleet. So I'd rather have something at the other end of the spectrum.
Cadillac still can't get it figured out either....The CTX line skews very sporty, and you're just not going to displace the Germans in that space. They really should go back to building a 'better Lexus' - I think they still have the brand power to make a mark with the right cars.
They struck gold with the Escalade though...
And the Blackwings.
Escalade and the mid-size SUV (SRX, now XT5) keep the company alive. Slade's are popular everywhere, and the XT5s are extremely popular outside of city centers, at least in Ontario. Both good vehicles, and I imagine the profit margin on the Escalades is really rich given that most of the underpinnings are shared with the Chevy and GMC counterparts.
The Blackwings are niche though, they're cool, but not what's needed to pickup volume in on the car side of the equation.
Exactly. The Blackwings get tons of exposure in all the car mags, because track day toys, yet get crickets from the general market who is not even aware they exist. XT4, 5 and 6 is where the market is, with Escalade taking care of the traditional / livery buyer. The Lyriq shows the brand still has mass-appeal potential and resonates pretty well. CT4 and 5 could be pulled and no one would notice. The market just doesn't care about sedans anymore. The Lexus cars aren't selling, 5-series and up are vaporware, ditto E-Class and up at Benz. May be a bit different in Ontario, but here only the 3-Series and Model 3 appear to survice the lux SUV tidal wave - and I live in the city with the most per-capita luxury vehicles in the country. A lot of lux sedan buyers also moved to EVs, such as the Mach-E (4 or 5 on my street), Polestar 2 (two), EV6, Ioniq5 and such.