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Cadillac turns 100, seeks to move upmarket

By Michael Ellis

DETROIT, Aug 22 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac division, which celebrated its 100th anniversary on Thursday, will seek to become more exclusive by moving upmarket to the $100,000 price segment, Cadillac officials said.

While BMW AG and DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes division plan more lower-priced, high-volume vehicles, Cadillac hopes to compete in the $100,000 arena, Cadillac General Manager Mark LaNeve said.

"Our competition is making announcements every day that they're coming down market, more mainstream. We want to move the other direction," LaNeve said before cutting Cadillac's birthday cake at a celebration at GM's corporate headquarters.

Mercedes last year launched the C-Class coupe priced in the mid-$20,000 range, and BMW is planning to launch its lowest-priced car, the 1-Series small car, no sooner than 2005.

"If they do what they say they're going to do, we're not going to catch them in sales, nor do we want to," LaNeve said. "The answer isn't to do $20,000 Cadillacs. The answer is to cover the big segments that we're in and then do $100,000 Cadillacs."

Cadillac's U.S. sales are up 13.3 percent through the first seven months of this year at 106,758 vehicles, boosted by the success of the new CTS sedan, which sports Cadillac's new sharp-edged design.

Still, that's below U.S. sales results for Mercedes, BMW, and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus division. Cadillac had been the best-selling luxury vehicle nameplate in the United States for nearly 50 years until it lost the sales crown in 1998.

Cadillac showed a V12-powered concept supercar at the Detroit auto show in January, which hinted at one direction the luxury brand may take to move upmarket.

LaNeve on Thursday did not dismiss the possibility of taking the Cien from the concept stage to a production model that would easily cost more than $100,000.

Among those that attended Cadillac's 100th anniversary celebration was Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant.

Cadillac, known for its older buyers, licensed Led Zeppelin's 1971 hit song "Rock and Roll" for use in television advertisements this year to try to appeal to more baby-boomer buyers.