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They saw it, marsha, they knew it, and they admitted that the Japanese cars were better than ours. And they WANTED to make our cars as good or better. What got in the was was cost. The Beancounters, to keep the company profitable unit by unit, scratched triple door seals, clear headlights, NVH engineering and sound insulation, etc., until our cars sounded like cornbinders and Toyotas sounded like sewing machines...... We WANTED to do it, but could not because of the short term wall street mentality, even build the car they want to build.
2008 Cadillac CTS: Shortcuts That Try My Patience
It could be a worse design however.
But by the 90s, with Acura, Lexus and Infinit, and the increasing sales of the lower level Honda, Toyota and Nissan, the tsunami from the underlying earthquake
(shades of Indonesia) was beyond obvious...the elephant was standing on their feet, and they still pretended like nothing was happening...
For all the fault of management, if I was a UAW worker, especially on Lincoln and Cadillac luxury cars, I would have been wondering why "my product" was not as good as the brand new competition from Japan...
I understand why a little child covers its eyes because of the "monster" that hides in a dark closet...but I expect a little better from adults making Cadillacs, and that is probably my biggest failing, expecting Big 3 workers to act like intelligent adults...
Some people truly do appreciate the Mercedes marque, but many other are just status seeking social climbers. These are the type who will brag about spending the extra $15K just because they can. They simply look foolish to me.
I happen to agree with you, but your remark raises a question that I've asked before & that no one has answered.
When I was a kid, status-seeking social climbers bought Cadillacs & helped make the Cadillac franchise into a veritable money machine for GM. Although Lincoln & Chrysler tried to grab some of this business, Cadillac dominated the luxury market & generated enormous profits.
Cadillac used to know just how to pull these people into its showrooms. One of my favorite Cadillac ads ran in the mid to late 50s & shows what we would now call a couple of yuppies waiting for the valet to bring them their car. He's wearing a dinner jacket, she has a fur around her shoulders, & it's perfectly obvious that they drive a Cadillac, although no car is pictured.
The ad just drips snobbery. It's clearly aimed at status seekers & it's very well done. If you're in the business of building & selling luxury cars, you want these people in your showrooms. They travel in packs & their business is hugely profitable. If you can't get social climbers to buy your luxury car, you have to ask yourself what you're doing wrong.
Cadillac used to be the best in the business at separating these people from their money. What went wrong? How did Cadillac lose its mojo?
Cadillac would still be in the toilet if not for Lincoln. They built the Navigator in 1997 and Cadillac played follower with the 99 Escalade. Nothing else saved Cadillac but the BIG SUV. And GM still could not make money. They were selling big SUVs like there was no tomorrow and barely squeaking by. Of course the 1998 UAW Strike did not help matters for GM. While GM's design and engineering has not been earth shattering for decades. There labor relations has probably been their downfall. Their stupid promises to the UAW for retirees has to be held over the head of weak management. The real amazing part about GM is that they have not had to file for bankruptcy before this.
2008 Sales
Total BMW division car 195,085
Total Mercedes-Benz car (I) 158,697
Total Lexus car (I) 151,567
Total Cadillac car 105,293
Total Acura car 83,282
Total Infiniti car (I) 79,799
Total Audi car (I) 74,551
Regards,
OW
You have "car" listed after each manufacturer. Does that mean the numbers don't include SUV/crossover models? If that is the case, I'm surprised by some of the numbers.
I'd never guess that Audi is only 10k in sales from Acura. Pretty sad with all of deep discounts, Cadillac still can only muster a little more than 1/2 what BMW sells. Then again, Cadillac only has one vehicle like, BMW has several.
I'd love to have a 3 Series, but the snob appeal is the main reason I won't buy one. I don't want to be associated with most of the wannabe pr!(k$ that drive them. But I do love the way they drive.
Ah, something that a UAW worker could only dream about building. Unless of course they move down to Greenville, SC near the BMW factory. And swear they hate the UAW and just love to build wonderful cars. :P
I LEASED my car!
To be a real serious Bimmer-phile, I need to see you in at least a 5-Series.
I just came of lease on a 330xi..it was the best car I've driven to date, damned the snob appeal. I could care less about that. The damn thing becomes part of your brain! Simply fantastic! No Caddy until the CTS in '08 could come close.
Regards,
OW
You do know how to drive a stick, I assume.
Don't forget to get back to me with an answer to the question that I asked a few posts back: how did Caddy lose the magic?
Unfortunately for the domestic manufacturers, you can't build a strong luxury franchise around trucks, no matter how good they are. The core of any luxury brand has always been & will always be fast, sexy sedans & coupes.
Next to an early 1960s Lincoln Continental - one of the most beautiful post-WWII American cars - a new Navigator looks like a over-chromed shoe box on wheels. Which one would you rather drive to your next high school reunion?
All I can say is that maybe Boomers' parents were right all along about their kids sitting too close to the TV. They've all lost much of their sight thinking any other car is more attractive than a Caddy. How else can a Bangled-up Bimmer look good unless you were going blind? Fortunately, I didn't waste my childhood sitting in front of the idiot box.
A little 3-Series with a stick and a sport package? Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to get one of those old Datsun 510s to duplicate the experience? All that banging around in a tiny metal box is kind of the antithesis of luxury in my book.
Of course I would be extremely proud to drive either my 1989 Cadillac Brougham or 2007 Cadillac DTS Performance to my high school reunion.
Easy. They quit being the best in about 1980, and started putting real crap on the road. My 1983 Fleetwood Brougham was my first Cadillac, and it was lovely, except it had a 4.1L Aluminum V-8 that was slow, and self destructed in 20,000 miles, and constantly leaked. So I traded it on the downsized 1985 Fleetwood. Same engine though, FWD, and no, they didn't fix the engine. Same thing happened. Traded it on a 1987 Sixty Special. Oops, same damn engine, same damn thing happened, but I put some serious change into that car, so I kept it until 1990, and bought another Fleetwood. This one had a revised 4.5L engine in it, and wasn't so bad, but the rest of the car was just mediocre at best, and unreliable generally. That's when I switched to Lincoln, in 1992, and never went back. In 2002 I left Lincoln for Lexus, and feel no urges to go back to Cadillac, despite the good little CTS. And I do mean little....
Cadillac will never be the same, nor will the world. That's what went wrong with their magic, they got complacent, and the competition got smart.
Still, you're partly right about the 3. It's not a luxury car & BMW shouldn't try to market it as one. Those of us who really like BMW aren't thrilled with the latest iteration of the 3-series. It's put on too much weight & it's losing its edge.
(And, BTW, the Datsun 510 was a genuinely cool car - cheap, durable & fun to drive.)
As for Cadillac, it won't be a serious contender in the luxury segment until it figures out how to attract status-conscious buyers from the Germans. A luxury brand can't stay alive by selling only to bargain hunters like you. It desperately needs people who crave the badge. Cadillac used to own these buyers. It has to get them back.
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
I've been doing well since I bought my first new Cadillac in 1989. I followed it up with a 1994 DeVille, a 2002 Seville STS, and my current DTS Performance. If they were so bad, I wouldn't keep buying them.
Oh, my girlfriend - she's a very petite 5' 1" and weighs 99 lbs. She's far from "domineering."
I truly love the Cadillac marque. If a Caddy cost the same as a Bimmer or Benz, I would still buy it.
Not everybody needs a huge car. I love 135i. I could drive it around any Buick:-)
Well, not everybody needs a midgetmobile. Try to put your wife and 2 teens in a 135. I can put them in my Park Ave, AND put you in your 135i in my trunk and go places. :P
Cadillac STS/DTS replacement to be FWD?
Regards,
OW
iam rich and dont give a seals testicle if you hate it or ???????????what???
main thing its mine..greg berlin reno nv. ps. maybe you should stick too rugby?aye?
IMO, Cadillac should have the CTS, STS and a larger DTS that is RWD and fully competitive with an S-Class or a 7 series. Then, they would have a chance to at least compete with the standards of the world again.
I like that idea and I'd be first in line for such a car!
We will be waiting and watching. In the meantime, what say you regarding the Tesla S Sedan?
This week, Tesla unveiled its 4-door sedan, the Model S. The seven seat, electric plug-in that will boast killer features like a 17-inch infotainment touch-screen, retracting door handles, LED/neon headlight and tail lights, as well as some pretty stellar performance metrics like 0-60 in 5.6 seconds and a top speed of 120mph, is due for delivery in 2011 and will carry a $50,000-60,000 price tag.
This bodes well for the future of automotive design and hopefully Cadillac becomes a player.
Regards,
OW
I like the FCX Clarity that Honda has out in California..... That to me, is the future of the car.
I will buy into that in a heartbeat.
I will check out the FCX Clarity for sure. Thanks!
Regards,
OW
And there's the little matter of who's paying for the power. Plugging in your laptop at the coffee shop is one thing. Plugging in your Chevy Volt around town (even assuming that places install the plugs, and they won't be 120 outlets will they?) is going to cost money. That kilowatt charge is likely to be passed on to the owner. The gas station will come to you in the form of a bigger electric bill or some dollars docked from your paycheck.
I'd want to pencil out the numbers before getting too excited about mpg vs ____. (what do you call miles per kilowatt anyway?).
But I agree, we need to calculate all of the costs. At the end of the day, the energy needs to be created here and expended here. Then we can calculate the build-out at the most efficient cost. The good thing is we can have alternates to plugging into the national power grid as technology improves.
Regards,
OW
I guess I'm still favoring the drive-through battery pack replacement setup.
When you look at a photo of a block heater install (or a Prius plug-in setup), you see this nice little electric plug tucked away in the grill or behind a flap. But you need a cord to get from the car to the outlet, so you wind up with a 10 to 25' extension cord you have to haul around. That cord is often going to be wet, dirty or frozen. Pickup owners often just put some prongs on their grills and wrap the cord around that in block heater country.
Seeing a $40,000 Volt cruising around with a 25' extension cord hanging off the front grill will be entertaining.
Well, I saw a video of a gal who drove away with the gas pump following behind. I guess the 25' electric cable whipping around is a little cleaner!
Regards,
OW
It's not a huge deal. A car like the Volt might have as much as 15 kilowatt-hours in the batteries, which works out to maybe a dollar per full recharge. Pop a few quarters in the meter and walk away.
(what do you call miles per kilowatt anyway?).
Watt-hours per mile is the usual term. The lower the number, the farther you can go on a charge. The Volt is probably in the neighborhood of 250.
Plus- the Chevy Volt is pretty good looking and the Caddy version (Converj) is over the top hot. That vehicle will sell- if they can build them.
I know plenty of affluent people who drive Prius's, but if there were a luxury, no compromise choice out there- it would sell.
now- if GM can actually build them and sell them for a reasonable price, they'll be able to make some cash- 10 years from now after they pay off the development investment.
There is. GM is playing catch-up with the Volt. Too late.
04/10/2009, 9:21 AM
Tesla Roadster goes 241 miles on single charge in European rally
Electric vehicles are often criticized for their limited range, but Tesla’s Roadster recently proved that even today’s EV’s have enough juice to cover a significant chunk of miles. In the Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies Alternatives, Tesla’s Roadster covered 241 miles on a single charge.
The annual event –put on by the Automobile Club of Monaco – runs from Valance, France to Monaco, pitting alternative fuel vehicles against one another. The rally covers 241 miles of highways, streets and back roads.
The Tesla Roadster was the only electric vehicle to finish the event on a single charge – a Ruf EV and a few Mitsubishi iMiev’s also competed in the event – and its gauge cluster even indicated its batteries still had enough charge for another 38 miles. That would put the Roadster’s overall range at 279 miles – about 59 miles more than Tesla claims on the Roadster’s spec sheet.
Speeds for the rally ranged from about 60 mph to 20 mph, with the average checking in at a less-than-thrilling 28 mph. However, the fact that the Roadster covered all 241 miles – with some to spare – is still quite the feat
The Sedan is being ordered no (>1,500 on order) and will start production soon.
Regards,
OW
For me, it's the Tesla all the way.
The Volt is a sad excuse for a $40K EV IMHO, of course. It's not what I would pit against the int'l auto community of future technology from the U.S.A. , afaic.
And the Prius looks like a modified Aztec from my vantage point!
Besides, it's in jeopardy!
At a media preview of the heavily redesigned 2010 Prius hybrid here, Ed La Rocque, Toyota's national car marketing manager, confirms Toyota has a plan to address Honda's new Insight hybrid, the recent U.S. launch of which has whipped analysts and industry watchers into a frenzy because the Insight's base price ($19,800) undercuts the current Prius by thousands.
With those looks and that future, it's CURTAINS!
Regards,
OW