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Automotive News & Views Can GM make Cadillac the standard of the world Again?
6098 messages, Last post on Aug 14, 2009 at 4:43 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: autoboy16 (Jan 08, 2007 8:22 pm) Ever since the GM Australia launched its new Holden VE Commodore (pictured), rumors began circulating that GM might export the rear-wheel-drive sedan to America as a Pontiac. Some reports suggested the car would be sold as the next Grand Prix, while others indicated it would be renamed G8. Today, GM confirmed it will bring the Commodore to America as the Pontiac G8. "We are seriously planning to import a lot of Commodore SS sedans as Pontiac G8s," product development chief Bob Lutz told Australia's Drive today at the Detroit auto show, adding that the company could sell 50,000 G8s per year. "We are yet to officially announce it," he said. The Commodore and G8 ride on GM's new Zeta rear-wheel-drive platform, which underpins the 2009 Camaro and the next-generation Impala, in addition to several other planned vehicles.
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Replying to: nvbanker (Jan 08, 2007 10:12 pm)
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Jan 09, 2007 5:00 am) M |
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Is the presidential limousine always a Caddy?
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Replying to: louiswei (Jan 09, 2007 5:20 am)
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Replying to: lemko (Jan 09, 2007 5:29 am) |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 08, 2007 5:50 pm)
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Replying to: merc1 (Jan 08, 2007 7:06 pm)
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Replying to: merc1 (Jan 08, 2007 10:09 pm)
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My father's 1985 Cadillac lasted precisely 42,433 miles before the cylinder head gaskets decided to retire from active duty in the middle of an Illinois snow storm. We won't mention the V-8-6-4 (3-2-0) or the Cimarron. Lincoln has to atone for cars like Versailles, and the unreliability of its fwd 'Continental' sedans, and the failures of its air suspension systems and AC-control switches. Both marques have committed acts of extremely bad build quality and styling excesses. At one point Lincoln had passed Cadillac as a result---despite some of those failures. What is important to note is what both companies did since then to recover from those mistakes. GM and Cadillac have spent billions to rebuild its product line, enhance its quality and driving engineering and performance. That Cadillac has matched its foreign competition in many aspects shows how far they have come. Cadillac, under the aegis of Bob Lutz, has had a voice of support within the company, and thus able to guide GM's pocketbook to enhance the 'Standard of the World'. That voice remains. So now it is up from here. Lincoln, on-the-other-hand, has had no such champion within the ranks of Ford Motor. Quite the opposite---it's design staff having to fight an uphill almost 'Mt. Surabatchi-like' battle against the entrenched dis-connect from William C. Ford Jr. with respect to Lincoln. Mr. Horbury's latest offering, The 'MKR'---a dramatic sedan concept that should be built at all costs---can only hope to appeal to Mr. Mulally in hopes of seeing the light of day. The public gets to vote, but they are not the deciders in Lincoln's fate. Sadly for Lincoln, the MKR represents no less than the fifth show car within as many years that Ford says 'shows the design future at Lincoln'. None were built. Will the MKR pass the public litmus test enough for Mr. Mulally to approve? At Cadillac it was different---the executives took the reigns and directed the design staffs to act---they pushed Cadillac forward from within and turned the game upside down, thus redefining the and reestablishing the brand. As Americans we can only be thankful. I wouldn't want my choice of Luxury Cars to be reduced to 'which foregin made domestically produced, or imported version is available?' Lincoln is in danger of going to way of Packard, but Cadillac is alive, well, and beginning to kick to competition. DouglasR ...as for Presidential Limousines, GM's Alfred Sloan made disparaging remarks about Mr. Truman's chances in the 1948 election, causing Mr. Truman to kick GM cars out of the White House garage. Truman was still using the 1938-9 Lincoln K 'Sunshine Special used by Roosevelt, and had considered Cadillac as a replacement, but Mr. Sloan's caustic remarks killed that plan. Henry Ford II repsonded immediately and provided 50 special White House Lincolns for use by the Chief Executive and his staff. Ford Motor kept the contract, leasing cars to the government for $1 a year---but the company bore the expense of building them. Reagan preferred Cadillacs, thus GM got its chance. Mr. Bush used the last 1989 Lincoln Limousine (specially built using a 460 V8) during his tennure, and Ford declined to build another White House limousine after that, and Cadillac has carried the Presidential livery ever since. |
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