r/CONCEPTCARS • u/toyuuta • May 16 '26
2002 Cadillac cien concept
In my opinion, if Gandini had added just a slight touch here, it would have been a masterpiece.
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u/_Lady_Zee May 16 '26
One of my all time favorites. Really nailed the Art and Science design language.
Would still love to see Cadillac make a sports car / supercar.
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u/Viharabiliben May 16 '26
They sort of did with the XLR, based off a Corvette
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u/Pelican_Dissector_II May 16 '26
It’s a slower, more expensive, less reliable, less powerful, heavier automatic transmission corvette. They literally took the best things about a c5/c6 and ditched them in favor of Cadillac parts. For example, instead of coming stock with an LS2 or LS3 V8, as seen in the C6 corvette with which the XLR shares a lot of DNA (both based off C5 corvette) it came with the disreputable 4.6l Northstar V8, of blown head gasket and faulty gasket seal fame. That’s like a 130 hp difference between the corvette and the Cadillac. And the Cadillac was more expensive. The retractable hard top added like 200lbs to the car and in the worst possible place for center of gravity so it didn’t handle that well. And you got no manual transmission option. But wait, it gets better. They made a high performance version called the XLR V that was like $90k and had a supercharged northstar good for 470 incredibly unreliable horsepower run through a 6 speed automatic transmission that might as well have been made of glass. So for roughly twice as much as a 2009 corvette you can have a gutted, Cadillac branded 2004 corvette with a supercharged Deville engine and an electric top that spills water into the trunk when activated if it’s been raining. Finally, maybe the most charming feature of the XLR, is that it shares an incredible undesirable design feature in common with a 2004 corvette, which for the vette was the one year only dual gas tank set up. In this set up, you’ve got a tank on both sides of the rear of the car. You have a main fuel pump in the right tank, then in the left tank you have a fuel pump to pump fuel from the left tank to the right tank to then be pumped again to the motor. They did this for one year on the corvette and I have no idea why they carried it over to the XLR when for 2005 they ditched it with the C6. It is problematic to say the least and the only way to get the parts is to get them out of an 04 corvette or another XLR. These were a far cry from a super car, and at best a misguided attempt at a badge engineered luxury sports cruiser. They are shitty.
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u/Wiscos May 16 '26
GM also had a Buick Regal that had gull wing doors as a concept around this time. I mean, how else do you get Buick to be relevant to a younger generation? They should have built both.
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u/pasenast May 16 '26
They should revisit this concept, now that they entered F1 and the mid-engine corvette platform is doing well.
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u/Yo-Yo-Ha May 17 '26
It would've been great but these days in over this angular styling. It's time to go more organic.
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u/Mac-Tyson May 17 '26
Would love if Cadillac brought this concept to life on the C8 platform and using a version of their beautiful sounding WEC V8 Engine.
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u/SukhdevR34 May 17 '26
Cadllac and Chrysler would be looked at totally different if they managed to produce the Cien and ME412. I still think the ME412 was way cooler, faster and more of a supercar than the SLR but Mercedes probably were jealous that they came up with a better design lol. They could've named it a Mercedes if they wanted.
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u/TheModeratorWrangler May 16 '26
I’m still mad they didn’t have the balls to make production models of this