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Aside from that, I'm too busy with anecdotes and rants and enjoying my GM car & its fantastic new PEDDERS suspension. Also I'm quite busy with my Sports Bureau, of course.
ps - I am intrigued by the senior-coffee at mcdonalds, as well as folks who think the toyota casualty-count is all hoax/driver-error. We can find a different forum for that stuff!
pps - one of my favorite parts of consumer reports is the "once over" section at the front.
Oh, swell. Now we'll never hear the end of this from lemko! Thanks a lot!
Andre - at least you have an orphan model even though it's an actual still existing brand.
Edit: I just realized we'd already heard from lemko on this. Carry on...
noted by Lemko
The car is a 10 year old design; it should be reliable. I had the first year, a 2000, and it was a p.o.s.
No the money used on the bailout would have been used for their UNEMPLOYMENT BENNIES for the next 2 years.
What kind of problems did you have with your 2000? Just curious, as my 2000 Park Ave is the same basic car, just with a supercharged V-6 instead of the Northstar. I bought mine used, with 56,000 miles on it, back in December. Only problem so far was a sway bar link that broke.
They were mainly electrical, and without fail, was in every six weeks over the 16 months I had it. Once was an oil leak, another a water pump. For the most part I think I blocked it out what happened, but I do remember that twice it had to be flat-bedded in and kept there for almost a week each time.
Why is it always the the ones that are about to die?
Seems like GM is not that good at new stuff. They didn't really have to make much new for a few decades. The engines were antiques. The interiors were cheap. They would just rebadge and put big $$ into advertising.
My theory is that their ability to innovate, and their expertise in engine technology, etc., just atrophied a lot. And so now they are rebuilding that. And the new vehicles are much better when they are tested, but they have not always figured out the durability issues that will last 10 years or more. So things break down the road.
Vehicles like the DTS may represent older technology that finally has been refined to the point of reliability. But the vehicles themselves are stale vs. the market's expectations.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The owner appeared and told me that pedestrians and other drivers swear/scream at him when he drives it. He was expecting a hassle from me, instead of admiration.
Lemko, if that's true then JD Powers should change the DTS to 76 problems per 99 vehicles (instead of 100) because your GM's are always perfect anyway and bias all results
For that matter, there could be 90 happy DTS owners just like you with no problems, but the last 10 (of 100) might have experienced 7.6 problems each already!!! So maybe GM just likes to stick 10% of their customers with lemons? :lemon:
If my Cadillacs were as unreliable as co-workers' and relatives MBs and BMWs, I'd have pushed them off a cliff. My brother-in-law's S430 is plagued with gremlins. I don't know why he just doesn't give up on it already. To his credit, howewever, the rest of his fleet consists of a 5-speed Fusion, Focus, and an huge F-150 and are trouble-free.
Or just make sure you use Premium
link title
No, the Epsillon II platform is the second generation of the platform. The Malibu rides on Epsillon I. The Regal is about the Malibu's size and rides on Epsillon II. IIRC the SAAB 9-3 and the G-6 were Epsillon II, though I'm not sure on that.
Good for her! Remarkable that she can steer that thing... :surprise: I hope I am able to still be driving when I get into my later years.
It definitely won't be a Cadillac, that's for certain but if I like a car enough to keep it for 30 years like this woman, damn right I'll be driving it until my final days. :shades:
30 years seems like a long time, but it's scary how fast the time passes! In September, it'll be 20 years since I bought my '57 Desoto. And my '85 Silverado has been in the family for 25 years, although I've only had it about 7 1/2. I guess it's around 21 years for Lemko and his '89 Brougham, as he bought that car new.
You've had the DeSoto 20 years? Wow.
The car, on the other hand ....
Isnt the 2012 Malibu riding Epsillon II?
Maybe, but the 2012 Malibu isn't here. The 2010 version of the 2008 redesign is, so an Eps II 2012 Malibu would be a shortened Lacrosse.
It's actually more than 21 years since I bought the Brougham. I bought it in January 1989.
Less than a year ago it seemed highly unlikely the sedans would make it to market. Parent company General Motors had plunged into bankruptcy and promised to eliminate half of its North American brands in return for the federal bailout it needed to survive.
Many thought Buick was an obvious choice for GM to abandon. Its sales had plunged more than 80 percent over the last quarter century to barely 100,000 a year.
“We’ve been given a second chance,” says Federico, the chief engineer on the new Regal, which rolls into showrooms over the coming summer. The success, or failure, of the new sedan will likely prove whether GM officials, working with the White House auto task force, made the right decision.
MSNBC Link
Unbelievable that we give them subsidies, loans, grants, tax breaks, and then bailout their swine-infested business, and this is one of the things they do with the $. They probably spent a million or 2 on some unnecessary ads that tell me nothing about the product :mad: , and now they're getting sued on top of it! Idiots and crooks in this whole mess. Why do I have to bail out idiots and crooks! :mad:
Similarly, if BP keeps bumbling along in the Gulf, the U.S. government will assume responsibility, BP can declare itself bankrupt, and BP can get the same sort of deal that GM and Chrysler got from us. Let's just forgive and bail everyone out, no matter how incompetent or corrupt; just throw the bill on the national debt.
Hey Federico - maybe you should address why it's fair you're being given money on a second chance, when there are a lot of people who haven't gotten a first chance! I think there are a lot of people who don't have proven track record of failure who would like to have your pay and give it a shot! Giving you a 2nd chance is schewing the playing-field against someone else either proving they can do your job or hurting another company from starting or expanding (Ford) in the auto business.
Not necessarily. I'm sure there are plenty of people who were happy with their domestics, but it's just that when it came time to buy a new car, an import happened to catch their eye. I know you will carry your hatred of Mopar to your grave because of that 1995 Neon you had, but honestly, I've never had a Chrysler product bad enough to turn me off to the brand. I loved my 2000 Intrepid, and wish it had never been totaled. However, they really don't make anything currently that catches my eye. I don't care for the new Sebring/Avenger at all. They're probably not bad cars, and you can get a like-new used one really cheap, but I just don't like the interiors or the exterior styling. I do like the 300 and Charger, although again I'm not crazy about the interiors, and I think I'd like something with a bit better fuel economy. Although, a 3.5 Charger is rated at 17/25, slightly better than the 16/25 my Park Ave Ultra is rated at. So maybe they're not as thirsty as I thought they were.
But, if I were to buy a brand-new car right now, I think a Nissan Altima would be high on my list. And not because I had a bad experience with a domestic....I just happen to like the Altima!
GM Workers Can't Afford Own Products
Pretty darn funny! Ya gotta luv it! :shades:
Regards,
OW
Green Light: Caddy Lambda a GO!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Regards,
OW
Pretty darn funny! Ya gotta luv it!
I like the way they're trying to compare today's situation to the $5/day assembly line worker being able to afford a Model T. Umm, I don't think Henry Ford intended that $5/day to get you the turbocharged model with the 6-speed automatic, power sunroof, leather power seats, NAV, anti-lock brakes, alloys, side-impact airbags, 12-disc CD changer with MP3 capability and 12 speakers, etc. :P
Although by the 1920's, the price of a Model-T dropped to as low as $290, which according to Wikipedia, is like $3258 today (or, whenever they made the calculation...$290 in 1925 is roughly $3500 today).
But, with all the safety advances and everything, and standard equipment that was never even thought of back then, you couldn't possibly hope to sell a car that cheap nowadays. Unless it's a TaTa, I guess.
Middle class in this country is going to be lucky to hold onto good health-care, decent housing and schools, utilities, and a decent used car or 2, as a definition of what middle class is. And that is with the typical 2 income family setup. Welcome to global competition.
As the typical citizen here in the U.S. gets relatively poorer, I see where a line of cheaper cars like the Tatas is what we would need. A very decontented basic vehicle. They may be less safe than our vehicles today, but they are certainly safer than motorcycles and we have no problem letting millions of those on the road.
(it's worth ONE ZILLION DOLLARS to make sure each 50 year old bald-guy has the chance to buy a new Corvette. make mine a Z06 please, with some additional bailout-funded-cashback-$, thank you.)
Back to the old GM badging. It's sheer genius right? Who am I to judge? I would never buy one anyway so GM will be safe without my sale.
I am STILL laughing! So much for Caddy distancing itself from GM!
Regards,
OW
How are most Cadillac dealerships set up these days, I wonder? The only one I have any experience with is the one I bought my used 2000 Park Ave from. At one time, they carried Pontiac/Saturn/SAAB/Buick/GMC/Hummer/Cadillac, but now they're down to Buick/GMC/Cadillac.
Anyway, in their case, that means they'd get the GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave, and whatever Cadillac calls their version. IMO, that's overkill. I can stomach selling the Acadia and Enclave in the same dealerships. GM at least has me fooled into believing the Enclave is a better vehicle than the Acadia. It's nicer looking IMO. And has a nicer interior. But, what's the sense, these days, in bringing a third clone into the mix? The Acadia is the mainstream version, while the Enclave is the luxury version. So where does the Caddy place in this?
GM used to be pretty good about brand differentiation...heck, they got by with the 5-brand lineup (Chevy-Pontiac-Olds-Buick-Cadillac) longer than Ford or Mopar did. Ford only managed to swing it from 1958-60, but then they canned Edsel and merged Continental back with Lincoln. And Mopar managed it from 1955, when they made Imperial a separate brand, to 1961, when they dropped DeSoto. But GM was usually pretty good about keeping Cadillac a step above the rest. Once upon a time, you never would have seen a Cadillac share the same platform as a Chevy. The first time, as far as I know, that they did that was 1982, with the J-body (Cavalier/Sunbird/Firenza/Skyhakwk/Cimarron). But then they started doing it with trucks and SUV's, when they started badging Tahoes, Suburbans, and Avalanches as Escalade models. And now they're doing it with the Lambda. This madness needs to stop!
I don't understand. Why didn't GM design a stretchable CTS platform this time around? It made great STS and SRX in the past, even if they didnt sell well. A stretched CTS platform would still make great XTS and SRX or even Escalade replacement. Heck, Infiniti is still doing it. Cadillac is not even trying to be their best.
"Welcome to the REAL world" is hard to swallow for the Unions. Now that the Unions will need to eat a huge dose of reality, I have full confidence the health care situation will improve drastically in this country. Right?
The Unions improved labor in this country after all.....even though most of the backbone of this country is non-union.
Forget about banks and automakers for the moment. It's the middle class that is too big to fail. State and national intervention is necessary for the common good.
Regards,
OW