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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: m4d_cow (Aug 30, 2008 9:58 pm) Well that is good. Cadillac needed to reduce its average age.
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Aug 31, 2008 9:46 am) I know everyone says that - but that rationale escapes me to some degree. The median age grows older every year. Older folks usually have most of the money...somebody has to build cars for them, because I can tell ya, at 55, I'm not interested in a Chevy anymore, as if I ever were. There is this continual struggle to lower the age of your buyer - and so if you do that successfully, you risk offending the old farts who like your cars, if you're CAdillac. Oldsmobile did it - look at them now, Buick did it, and has never been as strong selling since. Personally, I think they should be careful about abandoning their market, but that's just me.
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Replying to: nvbanker (Aug 31, 2008 3:59 pm) |
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may also change the dynamic...when my grandfather aged, he was an old fuddy duddy...same for my father, no change when he was older... Now we have that baby boomer group aging, where they are not turning into old farts anymore, at least not at the age of 60-65, maybe not even 70-75...having had imports and sports cars like Audi, Porsche, Infiniti, MB, etc, they may not be ready for the Buick Electra 225 like Dad and Grandpa were, so the auto dynamic for the next 20 years may be nothing like the last 50... In other words, I think the last 2 generations, WWi and WWII, looked forward to the rest home at 65...Now, we see 65 as the new 50, and we have choices our predecessors did not, at least not to the extent that we did, so maybe Buick and Caddy had better design powerful youthful cars, as their geezer market will disappear and the next geezer market may not see themselves as geezers until they are 80 or more... Change is in the air...
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Aug 31, 2008 4:57 pm) You just made my point for me - after Oldsmobile killed off "your father's Oldsmobile, which was GM's best seller after Chevrolet - half of those customers who didn't want an Alero, they wanted a Cutlass, went to Buick and bought a Regal or Century, the other half went to Mercury to replace their Delta 88 with a Grand Marquis. Buick sales skyrocketed when Olds changed. Then, in GM's infinite wisdom decides to kill the Park Avenue, LeSabre, Regal & Century, give us all new models, that are nothing like the olds ones that were selling so well. I know the old ones were horribly dated, but horribly dated geezers loved 'em, and you know what, old folks do die off every year, but, WE MAKE MORE EVERY DAY TOO!!! I am just saying, someone has to build cars for the fogeys - and if GM keeps trying to lower their buyer's age, they may singlehandedly resurrect Lincoln inadvertantly - they've done it before..... |
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Aug 31, 2008 4:57 pm) Regards, OW |
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Replying to: marsha7 (Aug 31, 2008 6:31 pm) Regards, OW |
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Replying to: nvbanker (Aug 31, 2008 7:16 pm) Just my opinion. I believe the new Lacrosse will not change sales significantly. Regards, OW
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Replying to: nvbanker (Aug 31, 2008 7:16 pm) Yes the Regal and Century were long in the tooth but they were not selling well. #1 they were hugely rental fleet and 2nd we were giving the retail Centurys away. You could actually get a Century with a base price of $19,995 and with incentives under $17k, The new LaCrosse on the other hand starts at around $26k and you lose a lot of the market when you increase the price almost $8k. Yes someone will want to meet the needs of the older market but you cannot do what Buick was doing. Every year the average buick buyer age went up one year and volumes went down. You just cannot allow that to continue. And as someone else said the new older people (me included) are not so restricted on what they buy. Not many (new older folls) want the Park Avenue type of vehicle. Anyway Buick is not trying not to significantly drop their median age, just want to get back to an age with some volume and keep it from increasing 1 year every year. I do agree they should have kept their old names on the replacement models but I do say they have to keep the average from rising.
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Sep 01, 2008 4:15 am) I keep going back to what works and received significant development under the same name that became an iconic brand. Discontinued was the cost cutting mantra over the past few decades. What was lost along Madison Avenue over the years is quite apparent in Detroit today. Regards, OW
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