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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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I have no feeling whatsoever that CD or MT would be interested in testing a middle of the road car for the middle of the road driver in the US. Their methods, manners, and interests don't represent anything near the median or the mean of the US driver. The car mag I can pick up at my doctor's office tomorrow will have a list of cars in it that the testers drool about: a Ferrari XTM 3649 model with superblaster motor option, a Catarina Testosterone Deluxe Italiano model imported for them to test, a CTX GT Mustang with optional production (137 only) motor (this one might catch my youthful memory car award), a minivan Ford 600 XLViss model that can corner as well as a Vette according to the rumor on the cover hook line, etc. I've probably overstated my point. I'm not interested in Civic Si's. Test a 500 real world model; test a Lucerne CL; test a base Zephyr; test a DTS base model. And test them for normal driving not for racing characterists. But that's not what would sell the magazine. |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 18, 2007 3:45 pm) Part of the problem with the MINI was that JD Powers adds in perceived design faults to the score. The average consumer isn't smart enough to comment on that IMO of course.
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Replying to: british_rover (Jan 18, 2007 6:04 pm) of course. Darn that average customer. Just not smart. They just do not know what they want and do not care. 
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 18, 2007 6:19 pm) The key is knowing how to tell them. |
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 18, 2007 6:19 pm)
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 18, 2007 6:40 pm) Elvis does say hi, is thinking of buying a Silver Thunderbird...
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Replying to: sls002 (Jan 18, 2007 7:10 am) There is no issue here with me. The car could have sold 100K copies in 5 years, it was still a dismal failure because it didn't even come close to beating the competition of the day, which was stated to be the SL per Cadillac. Just because it sold well proves that Cadillac buyers are loyal, and we all know they had no problem buying any one of the heaps Cadillac sold in the 80's. Again, a pointless matter about sales. Sales are only one criteria in determining whether or not a car is a success or not. By all other means the Allante was an utter flop. M
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Replying to: british_rover (Jan 18, 2007 8:13 am) M |
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Replying to: sls002 (Jan 18, 2007 9:43 am) I don't get this, but it is interesting. The Allante was a 60K car with a non-power convertible top, it was FWD, it was underpowered and had very poor structural rigidty for a convertible. Even it had been RWD that would have fixed all the other problems it had. The car was typical GM of the day, half-baked and ill-conceived and put on sale way to early in its development. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but the current XLR most certainly does compare to the SL, much more so than than Allante ever did during its day. I don't see how you could think otherwise. This class of car isn't about sales as much as the sedan classes are so why are you so hung up on that? The XLR doesn't sell any better for the same reason the Allante didn't, because it is overpriced. The 100K asking price for the XLR-V is really over the top for a "Cadillac", but it is easily the best car GM makes or any American brand for that matter. Cadillac tried to price the XLR like the Germans instead of taking a page out of Lexus' book. Lexus knew the SC430 couldn't compare to the SL so they priced it like a CLK550, not a SL550. Cadillac should have done the same, a 65K XLR and 85K XLR-V would have sold better than 78K XLR and 100K XLR-V do. To say that XLR cars don't compare to the SL and to imply that the Allante did is just way off-base. The XLR is way more "together" and competitive with the SL than the Allante ever was. Sure the Allante was "together" by 1993, but hadn't it been on sale since 1987? It took GM 6 years to get the car right? If so it deserved to flop. The Allante even looked the part and the name sounded elegant, but like so many GM cars they were out to lunch on the details and that is what killed it. That and the ridiculous assembly process must have come the most brain-dead folks at GM at the time. M
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I remember both the Allante and Merc and I don't know how they were even comparable? Pardon me if I am wrong, but wasn't the Allante FWD? And I don't recall the Benz being anything but a rear driver. So wouldn't this be a more logical comparison to the Caddy?  Both had about the same success from what I remember. |
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