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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 (Apr 09, 2007 9:39 am) I don't understand straw man reference. I posted the problems per 100 vehicles or whatever the rating system is. People can kvetch as much as they want over what a problem is rated by JD Powers. I suspect they are intelligent enough to consider a rattle different from a transmission failing at 1000 miles as in some recent vehicles. |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 08, 2007 4:18 pm) Here are excepts from two extemporaneous Time Magazine articles about the Cimarron; I apologize for the length of the first, but it tells the story Detroit is fighting back (page 2 of the article) May 1981 1. Like the successful X-car series that GM launched in the spring of 1979, the J-cars (Chevrolet Cavalier, Pontiac J2000 and Cadillac Cimarron) are designed for the new era of scarce and expensive energy. The four-passenger subcompacts, which replace models like the Chevrolet Monza and Pontiac Sunbird, fall in size between the bigger X-cars and the smaller Chevrolet Chevette. Powered by four-cylinder engines, the new autos are expected to get about 26 m.p.g. in the city and 43 m.p.g. on the highway. While the economy and styling of the J-cars are appealing, the prices are likely to be shocking to buyers who have not recently been in an automobile showroom. The Cavalier will carry a base sticker price of about $7,000. The J2000 will cost several hundred dollars more. The most startling version of the J-car is the Cadillac Cimarron. For years the Cadillac name has equated luxury with size, and buyers have spent $20,000 or more for opulent, lengthy Fleetwoods and Eldorados. The Cimarron represents a bold attempt to transfer that 78-year-old image to a car that is 4 ft. shorter than the now standard Cadillac and nearly the same size as a Toyota Celica. The mini-Caddie will carry the expected gewgaws and gimcracks, including electric remote-controlled side-view mirrors, an array of interior lamps and leather upholstery. But it will also have some unusual features for a Cadillac, like a tachometer, usually found only in sports cars. Price of the car: about $13,000. The Cimarron represents a major gamble for Cadillac, which hopes to sell 30,000 of them in the first year. Asks one skeptical competitor: "Can you hang a Cadillac name plate on something as thinly veiled as the Cimarron? I doubt it." The new model is designed to appeal mainly to a new Cadillac customer: well-heeled younger drivers who can afford a $12,900 BMW 3201 or an $11,100 Audi 4000. But will a sports sedan customer be attracted to a car that has traditionally been synonymous with conspicuous consumption? And will he pay several thousand dollars more for a Cadillac than for a similarly equipped Pontiac J2000 that is built in the same plant? Admits one GM executive: "It will be a real test for the Cadillac name plate." Mr. Smith shakes up Detroit May 1984 2. When the company began building smaller models—the X-, J-and A-cars—in the late 1970s, it ordered its divisions to use the same basic models to save money. The most egregious instance was the J-car, which was forced into service for all five divisions. Recently a Cadillac engineer was asked to explain the principal difference between the Cadillac Cimarron and the Chevrolet Cavalier, two J-cars. His reply: "Oh, about $5,000." |
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Replying to: plekto (Apr 09, 2007 10:28 am) Cheapen the image? In my eyes (I am in my mid 20s) Cadillac is about as luxurious as Acura and Infiniti. It isn't as prestigeous as BMW, MB and Lexus.
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And how much worse would their image be if they came out with a half Saab/half Cadillac joke like the BLS? Right - it would slip down instead of rising upwards like the new CTS will help it do.
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Replying to: plekto (Apr 09, 2007 12:32 pm) The new CTS won't help to raise Caddy's image because its flagship is still the pathetic DTS. Caddy will be in the win-"no loss" situation with an entry model serves as the 3er/C fighter. Move the CTS up to mid size (which the new one apparently is) and redesign the next STS to be its flagship. Then what happen to the DTS you ask? I got two words for you: Buick Lucerne. |
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While digging through the Time Magazine archives for the Cadillac articles I quoted in my post above, I stumbled across this article The Rattles in the Engine G.M.'s Chevrolet division has been in trouble for some time, and last July G.M. turned it over to ex-Pontiac Boss Elliott ("Pete") Estes for some quick fixes. Chevy's styling was a bit bulgy, and its workmanship gave rise to widespread customer complaints about ill-fitting upholstery, rattling doors and leaking windows. Estes visited every one of Chevy's assembly plants, test-drove cars straight off the assembly line, and ordered repairs on the spot. Quality control is an old and chronic industry headache. Ford, which works at quality control more conscientiously than any other automaker, has 11,000 people directly concerned with it. There are up to 15,000 parts per car, and some of them have as many as 100 "critical" characteristics. Human error is as inevitable as sin. Ford had to recall 3,218 cars to correct "brake-fluid contamination" because one worker confused a brown barrel of windshield-washer fluid with a yellow barrel of brake fluid. The company thought it had ironed out bugs in the electrical system by teaching workers to marry red wires with red wires and black with black and then had to repair many cars because an assembler was colorblind. It is a fact widely recognized in the industry that cars made on Mondays are prone to defects. Reason: plant absenteeism runs high on that day, and managers are obliged to put second-string men on the line. Care to guess the year? 1966 |
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Replying to: louiswei (Apr 09, 2007 11:13 am) This is exactly what Toyota does...they walk you in from your first car as a college kid, your $12,000 Scion, up to your first young family sedan, your Camry, and as you prosper up through your Lexus 300 series to your ultimate Benz/Cadillac/BMW equivalent, your Lexus 460. Toyota is also clever enough to badge their cars as Lexus at the certain price point where "entry-level luxury" starts. Besides, Cadillac is already at the other luxury makes "entry-level" price point. It's already "cheap". What it isn't, is sporty or youthful in its products (yet). Cheapest BMW -- $32,400 MSRP Cheapest Lexus 33,470 Cheapest Cadillac $29,825 Cheapest Benz -- $29,650 So the idea would be to convince a young buyer that a Cadillac can be exciting to drive, and then work them up the ladder as they prosper. Or, a second strategy would be the Lexus approach, where you get outstanding reliability and luxury for a good price. By "outstanding", that means better than anyone else, not 3rd or 5th. I think Lexus has won the Longterm Dependability Award for what....12 years in a row, something like that? |
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BEFORE the Oil Shock by two years: President Nixon has long been worried that the U.S. is losing out in world markets because domestic labor costs are inflating so fast and kicking prices up so high. With that in mind, he stretched his usual hands-off approach to private pricing matters just a bit last week and called into the White House leaders of the two sides in the current steel-labor negotiations. He gave them both an innocuous pep talk, urging them to make a settlement that would allow the steel industry to remain at least somewhat competitive in the world. Budget Chief George Shultz assured newsmen that the President "wasn't trying to tell them what to settle for." The Administration is resigned to a steel deal that will push up labor costs by at least 10% a year—and give workers in other industries another inflationary target to aim for. Several key indicators show just how badly these inflationary settlements are hurting the U.S. Items: > Steel imports in May hit1,800,000 tons—an amount equal to 16% of the nation's overall steel market. The total was the second highest in history, topped only in August 1968, when customers were also hedging against a strike. > Sales of imported cars in June surged to a historic high of 149,000, capturing 16.1% of the U.S. market, or well over one-quarter more than a year ago. In the year's first six months, sales of Volkswagens dipped slightly to 289,000, but that decline was more than made up by the incredible rise of Japanese cars. Toyotas rode up 57%, to 140,000 cars sold, and Datsuns jumped 136%, to 99,000. Japanese cars are selling fast because of high quality and low price, and their manufacturers benefit notably from the relatively moderate cost of Japanese steel (automaking steel sells for an average of $156 a ton in Japan v. $200 a ton in the U.S.). What U.S. Producers are up against |
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Replying to: gagrice (Apr 09, 2007 9:15 am)
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Replying to: gagrice (Apr 09, 2007 9:15 am)
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