In the battle for market share this, General Motors doesn't  have an specific target, Mark Reuss, president of GM North America but it planning to make a new effort to retain customers going forward.

  "We didn't have a market share target in 2011 and we don't one for this year," he told reporters after the unveiling of the new Cadillac ATS.

   However, Reuss said GM is prepared for a very competitive battle, adding s the key to success for GM going forward is keeping  the customers.  "We had a great year last year. If we can keep the customers we have, we'll do very well. We been working on that and I think we can surprise some people," said Reuss.

  The effort goes beyond introducing new vehicles such as the ATS. "It also includes taking care of the customer. It's a long term approach," said Reuss. "Our dealers are ready for this," he  added. Retaining customers also extremely  lucrative. it saves GM as $100 million every  time one-tenth of 1 percent of the company's customers are satisfied enough to return to GM fold, Reuss said.

 Meanwhile, Don Butler, vice president of marketing,  said the ATS, a compact, "entry level" luxury vehicle is expected to appeal to two different groups of buyers. The first are moving up to a luxury car for the first time and are looking for the right brand and the right vehicle to make a statement, said Butler. The  second group of customers who have already owned a luxury vehicle but are looking for something different. "They can buy an vehicle they want but the choose the ATS because the like its (compact) size.

  Butler declined to comment on the pricing for the new ATS since the company's internal pricing discussion are incomplete. However, the price is expected to be between $35,000 and $40,000.By Joseph Szczesny