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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
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 13, 2007 1:07 pm) It would be interesting to compare the management style of a long time Swiss watch maker vs GM and Cadillac. Has Cadillac division been forced to make many compromises in research, engineering, materials, etc for the overall goals of GM? If Cadillac were staffed with top notch people of all disciplines and then split off from GM, would it have a better chance of meeting/beating the best in the world? Many companies have split off a division through the years to enable the newly formed company to flourish and prosper. |
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Replying to: mediapusher (Jan 13, 2007 7:19 am) Well people immediately forget the problems and mistakes of the imports, so its not a stretch to forget about a car that was last built some 14 years ago. Cheap interior in a car like the Cadillac CTS sends a very insulting message to a potential buyer that has money. Then it must also send the same message to the imports that don't have a much better interior.
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Replying to: mediapusher (Jan 13, 2007 7:28 am) I'll explain it to you, you are a GM basher, The only reason to bring up a car that hasn't been in production for 14 years is so that you can continue to bash GM. Is that simple enough for you? I have plenty of today for you. Well no one is forcing you to read or respond to my posts. But somehow I think I struck a nerve.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 13, 2007 1:07 pm)
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As XR2 says, Cadillac and for that matter GM did its best when the divisions had control of the product. Roger Smith destroyed all of that, and the establishment of GMAD did not help the independence of the divisions. As John Delorean once said (of the Vega): "We can't put a not in the glovebox saying, 'We didn't build it GMAD did'..." Despite his later misfortunes in Dunmurray, JZD was right...and Alfred Sloan knew as well that the products had to be left to the divisions. Of course today it seems an impossibility to go back to that system given global requirements and platform sharing. But the overall tasking and design could be left to renascent divisions. Then....anything might be possible. Just look what has happened at Ford Motor to see the opposite effect. DouglasR |
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Jan 13, 2007 3:20 pm) The article talks about the "perception" of quality and the buyer's "trust" in the name or product. I guess we would call it brand equity. Obviously the Swiss have built this up while others have let it go. I don't know if you remember when German cameras were considered the best in the world. Same deal. Of course it doesn't help your product to declare war on the world, but....  I think exploring the notion of "quality" is quite interesting.... |
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Jan 13, 2007 2:57 pm) You are correct, the imports do have their own share of glitches here and there, for example, like Toyota's recent recall scandal and new Camry's transmission problem. However, when there are problems like that, they usually fix it real quick and provide excellent service to those whom were effected. Also, the long track record of good quality also contributed to why the consumers are willing to forget them more easily. Was that the case for GM? I don't think so. GM's long track record of putting out inferior products and provide not-so-satisfactory service from late 70s all the way to the 90s speaks for itself. Then it must also send the same message to the imports that don't have a much better interior. If compare class by class I really can't think of any imports that has an inferior interior than its domestic counterparts. One special case could be the last generation G35, which really utilized some cheap materials. However, Infiniti still managed to make it look better than the CTS which might has better quality material for its interior. |
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>Well people immediately forget the problems and mistakes of the imports, so I just heard a radio car mechanic talk about the class action settlement by Toyota about sludge. He seemed to marvel at how they had shrugged it off at first and had that accepted by many. He talked about cleaning many motors of sludge himself. He talked about Toyota having not shared enough information with dealers so the dealers fluffed off the car owners with problems as having caused it themselves!!! If this were to have been GM's Chevrolet division, imagine the noise and stink doing this would have raised in the public and in the media. Instead Toyota does a Firestone (stalling for years hoping the tires will have been thrown out and owners have nothing to show for reimbursement)... Rather than deal in the past, how should problems and recalls be handled in the future? Reliability is easier when you're a foreign company and many models were sold in the homeland before being made available in the States. That way the model you sell here can appear to have better than others reliability.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Jan 13, 2007 5:11 pm) Can you tell me, or other here, that which models were sold in Japan before they did in the states besides Honda's Fit and Toyota Yaris? Current models please, models back in the 70s do not count.
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Replying to: louiswei (Jan 13, 2007 5:25 pm)
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