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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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"GM's reputation for building high quality luxury passenger cars is ruined forever anyway, until every last person who bought a Caddy in the 70's and 80s is dead" That is the absolute truth...while that may be over 20 years ago, and seem quite historical, it is those folks who, assuming they were still competent to drive and still alive, started buying the Lexus and Infiniti and MB and BMW in the 90s and into the next century (i.e. now)...and not just them but their adult children, who watched Mom and Dad complain about the junk Caddy or Lincoln they bought, which certainlt turned their kids, in their 20s-40s, to seek out other brands, mostly imports... That reputation for quality, or the lack of it, is what has caused the imports to now carry a 50% market share...junk Lincolns and Caddy pushed two generations away, and now they have to EARN their trust back, just advertising "Buy American" will not do it, as they saw what junk they goy when their parents bought American years ago... Trust, once lost, may take YEARS to get back...the union folks have no conception of this, as they just think every new year the buyers will line up for their (potentially) shoddy product...they do, but in lower numbers... When a car does not work, spends it time in the shop, or rattles or vibrates, I believe most buyers will blame the people who made the car...they may not think "UAW" but they think GM workers or Ford workers, probably not management...and then they simply avoid the product... GM can survive but they had better make ALL their cars like the CTS and Lucerne, because any junk made now will cause them to lose this generation and the next, and they simply do not have that much time to spare... Buyers expect quality and if they do not get it, they may now abandon you forever...cars cost too mucg to be unhappy with a GM car this year and then buy one in 3 years...if someone buys GM junk today, GM has lost them for the next 100 years...
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Replying to: aldw (Jul 18, 2008 4:41 pm) That's what makes the changes so sad. We can win a war with good old US manufacturing but we can't devlop competitive cars?? No excuses, just garbage, greedy management. Now we have to import Australian Pontiacs! Regards, OW
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Replying to: circlew (Jul 18, 2008 5:36 pm)
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Replying to: laurasdada (Jul 18, 2008 6:33 pm) What a shame. Regards, OW
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Ok, what can I say. The Caddy XLR just has some kind of hold on me. For the fun of it, on the way home I stop at the Caddy dealer. Two XLRs with the tops down, one a new '08 the other a used '06. After a few minutes, salesman comes over with the keys, figured he was going to see if I was interested. He basically ignores me (like he's my wife!). So, I say, "Takin' it for a ride?" He replies, "No, just putting the tops up, closing soon." He hops in the '08 and the dance begins: Trunk opens high, panels fold in, top comes up and lowers onto windshield and then...nothing. Trunk won't close. Sales dude sits there for a couple of minutes, kinda shaking his head. Reversed his field, top goes down, properly. Waits a minute, then top goes up properly. Hey, you hit .500 in the bigs and guaranteed Hall of Fame! As he headed to the '06, he just looked at me and kinda shrugged. I got into my uber-shiny TL and opened/closed the sunroof without incident as I left... |
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Replying to: circlew (Jul 18, 2008 6:46 pm) |
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Replying to: circlew (Jul 18, 2008 11:31 am) The Cadillac from the last half of the 70's were good cars, although the diesels may have been less reliable. The problems really started with the 1981 8-6-4 engine and was then follow up with the 1982 4100 engine which was very unreliable with something like 25% of them failing. By comparison the Cimarron was a very reliable car. |
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Replying to: marsha7 (Jul 18, 2008 5:03 pm) I dunno Bob - I remember my father making disparaging comments about VW Bugs and their lawn mower engines when we'd tool around in his '53 Buick. I never bought a Buick but I've had at least 4 VWs. My wife grew up in a Fastback/Squareback family and she hates VWs. She made me sell this one after we met. So all those kids growing up in Camcord families may wind up enthralled with CTS's. |
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indeed, I've nelected the Chinese auto indutry's history, which is all tied up with volkswagen... but I cant find anything on Subaru being sold to toyota, got any link? thanks.
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Replying to: m4d_cow (Jul 19, 2008 8:23 am) Toyota Boosts Stake in Subaru's Parent (Inside Line) |
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