General Motors Co. surprised the auto industry by announcing the relocation of the Cadillac brand headquarters to ever-trendy New York City. GM’s CEO Mary Barra says the move of their luxury brand's Detroit headquarters to NYC will help accelerate the progress of the luxury brand.

“When you look at how important Cadillac is, we need to have that team dedicated and thinking Cadillac day in and day out,” Barra told reporters after appearing on a panel at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in Detroit. “When you think about New York, it’s the perfect place to be. It’s where a lot of luxury is defined. It’s trend-setting, so I think it’s going to be very, very positive. About 100 people that I think are really going to craft the strategy.”

Barra admits that the move is in effort to further the Cadillac brand's standing “we’ve got to regain customers’ trust and really have them really understand the premium nature of the vehicle and that it does define luxury. We have work to do.”
While GM denies it played a part in their decision, most of Cadillac's main European rivals including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Jaguar have their American headquarters in New Jersey just across the Hudson River from the "Big Apple". The Cadillac move will only affect about 
100 employees with most engineering and design activities remaining in Michigan.

The last time a Detroit automaker tried to move one of it's brands out of Detroit was in 2001 when Lincoln relocated to California. Lincoln headquarters moved back to Detroit a short two years later.