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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: jimbres (Feb 27, 2008 1:39 pm) In fact, looking at BMW's from the 1980's and Yugo's from the same decade, we can swear they're from the same manufacturer...
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Feb 27, 2008 3:54 am) |
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Replying to: circlew (Feb 27, 2008 5:15 am) Nothing from Germany could ever touch the ElDorado, which explains why Elvis and F. Sinatra owned them. The best Germany could do is resurrect WWII-era vehicles, add power steering to them and a huge 6L engine, old technology and ugly interiors with high noise levels and a truck-like ride ("I bought my 300SE 1988 Benz for $50,000 because it's vault-like solid. Like my F-350 SuperDuty pickup."), so we saw nothing significant from Germany until this century. Japan started making nice luxury cars in the 1990's, starting first in 1991 with the Lexus LS 400. Before that, Cadillac was the luxury car. If I'm wrong, then please support your argument with something like pictures instead of vagaries. Thank you. You can't do it though, because everything from Germany was crude and primitive up until the 1990's. If I'm wrong, show some pics of german cars that cost around $30,000 new from the 60's, 70's, 80's. You can't do it without embarrasing Germany... . |
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Feb 27, 2008 6:52 am) I'd suggest that car X is prestigious if significant numbers of upper-middle & upper-class professionals/managers/entrepeneurs buy (or lease) it. In my town, which is a fairly affluent NYC suburb, this segment of the market is voting German with its dollars. From what I've seen, this is true of most demographically similar zip codes on the east & west coasts. It might be different in the flyover states. It wasn't always this way. When I was a kid - in the late 50s & early 60s - Cadillac owned these buyers. The only serious competition came from Lincoln. I can recall just one Mercedes in my home town (also a fairly well-off NYC suburb), & it belonged to a career Foreign Service officer who brought it home after completing a 2-year stint in West Berlin. Apart from this, Cadillac was the car of choice for the local ruling class. No one thought that this would ever change. But it did. By the later 1980s, the doctors, bankers, lawyers, stockbrokers & successful businessmen were driving German iron: Mercedes, for the most part. The only exceptions were folks who, for personal reasons, would not buy anything made in Germany. By this time, the typical Cadillac buyer was either old or a member of what I'd call the blue collar aristocracy - the Con Ed foreman who had worked a lot of overtime, for example. Nothing wrong with that, mind you, but certainly not nearly enough to sustain a luxury brand. So I'd say that if Cadillac can recapture a significant chunk (20 or 25 percent, say) of the upper-middle & upper class market segment, it will be perceived as a top-tier player. |
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Replying to: pmc4 (Feb 27, 2008 7:27 pm) What difference does it make? I own a 2001 BMW 330i, not an 80s BMW. My car is 2 generations removed from the 3-series cars of the 1980s. Your question doesn't make sense. I have a great deal of respect for the Cadillac brand. The Caddies of the 50s & 60s were magnificent cars. Consider the '57 Sedan de Ville, for example, or the '64 Coupe de Ville. Beautiful cars. The '67 & '68 Eldorados are simply drop-dead gorgeous. So I'm no Cadillac basher. But after '73, Cadillac lost its way. If you were a Cadillac marketing manager & you had to develop an ad campaign that tied the new CTS to the one of the great Cadillacs of the past, which car would you pick? A timeless beauty from the 50s or 60s or one of the rolling bathtubs from the 80s? |
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Replying to: pmc4 (Feb 27, 2008 2:24 pm) Nope. I firmly believe that the only wood which belongs in a car should be a structural part of the body, and I think that only Morgan still builds them that way. Putting an overvarnished strip of whatever on the dash is silly, and putting a plastic strip of pretend whatever on the dash is simply shameful. |
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Replying to: pmc4 (Feb 27, 2008 7:39 pm) That proves everthing! I do not look at cars buy the status of the owner...good grief, Batman! Here is a 1980 Merc 450 for sale with 105K miles for $10,500  Here is a picture a 1980 FWB (my dad owned the same color in 1984)...nice but the slowest car on the road and turn-in of a water buffalo. I wonder how much one would sell for today? By the end of the '80's Caddy had lost all of it's luster IMO. The point is Caddy was great during a long past era and now it's not. Period. The end. Along the way, others have eaten their breakfast, lunch AND dinner! Regards, OW
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Replying to: jimbres (Feb 27, 2008 8:00 pm) I couldn't even get a CTS at the time as my dealership was sold out. Funny thing is, as I was closing the deal on my DTS, a woman comes in almost frantic asking if they had a CTS. Looks like Caddy's got a hit! Sometimes I wonder if I should've got a CTS as well? It's a bit too small for my tastes, but I really love what they've done with it. Trouble is, by the time I got a CTS outfitted to my tastes, I'd have probably spent as much or more for it than my loaded top-of-the-line DTS. |
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Replying to: pmc4 (Feb 27, 2008 7:39 pm) Nothing significant from Germany? Only little gadgets like fuel injection, ABS, large scale production of airbags, crumple zones, workable ergonomics, dual circuit brakes, the list goes on. Crude and primitive? The S-class cars since the W111 and especially the W126 were the most advanced sedans in the world when they were introduced. The 107 and 129 SL cars were also very advanced, hence how they have aged gracefully while most of their counterparts looked ancient after a few years. Don't ask for pics when the pics you provide are innacurate and irrelevant.
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Replying to: circlew (Feb 28, 2008 5:51 am) |
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