By RICK KELLEY
Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Cadillac’s big push with its new fully electric luxury SUV called the 2023 model Lyriq is just starting.
But some Caddy dealers are balking at the extra expense — maybe into the tens of thousands of dollars or more — to remake their service departments to work on the special needs these electric vehicles, or EVs, require.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that GM’s Cadillac Division is offering buyouts of $300,000 to $1 million to dealers who don’t want to, or can’t afford to, play along.
The report estimates as many as 150 of the 880 Cadillac dealers in the United States are going to take the payoff and stop selling Cadillac models. Most of these dealers sell multiple other lines of cars as well, but Cadillac will not be among them.
The Valley has two Cadillac dealers, Luke Fruia Motors of Brownsville and Bert Ogden Cadillac in Mission.
At Fruia, there are no plans to take GM up on its offer.
Tony Lopez, sales manager for Fruia’s Cadillac line, said he wasn’t even aware of the buyout offer and dismissed any chance Fruia would be interested.
What he is interested in is the new Lyriq, which should be on dealer lots sometime in 2022. Given GM’s commitment to EVs, it’s possible that, within a decade, electric cars will be the only ones Cadillac sells.
“ There’s an electric vehicle coming out, it’s called the Lyriq,” he said. “It’s an EV, 100 percent. It’s the most innovative electric vehicle because of its battery technology that any car-maker’s ever made.
“ We’re not going to say we’ll beat Tesla, but we’re going to be in strong competition, for sure,” he added. “Amazing, amazing, amazing car. An amazing-looking car.”
Cadillac hasn’t revealed the sticker price on its new Lyriq, which will have about a 300-mile range. But Car and Driver magazine expects it to list a base model for $59,995 in order to keep it under the price threshold where it can still qualify for state “green vehicle” incentives in California and New York.
“ This is my experience of 25 years,” Lopez said. “There’s probably about that many or more that are small Cadillac dealerships in small towns that never really developed, that actually would probably rather not have the standards in their stores and invest that money, because the money’s not there.
“ There’s one store I believe in West Texas and they only sell like two Cadillacs a month, right?” he added. “So if Cadillac would say, hey, you have to do a revamp and be more of a signature store that people can recognize. Well, that’s a big investment, and it’s not really fair.”
Lopez said despite the complications from COVID-19, car-selling in Brownsville has been good over the past few months.
Fruia, he said, has been “woven into Brownsville” over its decades in the city, and he thinks that makes a difference.
“ We’re a store that’s locally owned and the owners are just absolutely amazing people that take care of their people, and when COVID hit, man what a way to prove to everybody what we already saw,” Lopez said.
“ Thank God that what we did the last 35 years in taking care of people has paid major dividends, especially in these tough times.”
Bert Ogden Cadillac did not return a call seeking comment.
