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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: zoomzoomdlr (Nov 03, 2008 4:37 pm) |
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People don't forget bad experiences and that's not just about GM. My grandfather had (according to family legend) the steering wheel come off in his hands on his new '49 Ford. Whatever the truth to that story, he would never buy a Ford after that, and none of his four children ever did either, and that's verifiable fact. 50 years of lost customers from one defect. It's also a fact that many people still don't believe in GM's reliability, no matter how good it's gotten over the past several years. GM needs something to change people's perceptions. It's that or suffer through another generation of lost sales. I keep wanting GM to do something dramatic to demonstrate the quality of its new cars..... Say, take a CTS to Times Square, and have it running at 70 mph day and night on a demo platform for a year with robot arms opening and closing the doors and trunk, with the lights flashing on and off, stereo blasting - oil changes done with the engine running etc. The idea is that nothing should break during the test. It might not really be an effective test or prove anything in truth, but it would be a great advertisement. This kind of thing is nothing new - recall Volvo running over a line of cars with a Monster Truck (OK - they got caught cheating, but GM wouldn't cheat this time) and Mercedes did it a few years ago with 3 diesels going 100,000 miles nonstop. http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=105899 I think it would be a great attention-getter.
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Replying to: lokki (Nov 04, 2008 1:09 pm) Nah. Too innovative for GM. That's one reason I see Ford as having a better chance. Even if they don't have a lot of money to develop new cars, they take an old Focus platform and put SYNC in it. They work on a new Fusion and it has an innovative dash display. They also have Mazda which adds a lot of innovation - better than GM's sources such as Holden IMHO. And Ford is much less bloated and has a better cash position. And if GM gets Chrysler, well, 10 divisions here we come... |
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Replying to: zoomzoomdlr (Nov 03, 2008 4:37 pm) |
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Oct 28, 2008 7:32 pm) uh, the same incentive they have for building them in the US today? you think Honda will just pack their bags if GM goes under? you think creating artificial jobs with tax payer dollars makes sense? How fair is that to Honda, Toyota and Nissan who have plants here and employ Americans with decent paying jobs that quite frankly are alot more secure than any employee at GM. If you can't beat em, join em. If you can't join em, then you'll go under. This isn't about saving an endagered species. "First of all, gas was $1 a gallon when GM was lobbying for that (Hummer tax credit). Why wouldn't you do what you can to encourage people into a vehicle you make $10 grand profit on???" Because it showed a lack of vision while Toyota was busy developing the Prius. I'm amaized that even through hindsight you can't see that. And part of that $10 grand in profit came at the expense of the tax payers. We should be giving tax credits to people who are willing to conserve energy, not needlessly burn it up.
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Replying to: aspesisteve (Nov 11, 2008 1:27 pm) I don't think Honda will "pack it in", but if they share suppliers of components with the Big 3, and the supplier goes under or is unable to supply Honda with any extra components to pick up the slack for the needed demand of their cars, they'll just import them or the whole cars to NA from wherever else they are made. From this point on, there will be no incentive to add plants. What incentive is there to build TV's here??? NONE!! How many are built here??? None. |
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Nov 11, 2008 6:26 pm) With TVs, there aren't many differences from one market to the next. What sells well in east Asia will probably sell just as well in Europe & North America. But vehicles require much more market-specific differentiation. For example, hatchbacks sell very well in western Europe but bomb in North America. With cars, if you don't have a plant in a market, then you won't be a serious player in that market. |
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I get to drive a new Cadillac CTS today. Cadillac sure sweated the details as even the geniune stitching on the dashboard lines up with the geniune stitching on the doors, (no more of that cruddy molded-in stuff of the past). Even the key fob and key are nicely detailed - each sporting a raised chrome wreath & crest with colored inlays. The fit and finish in this car is amazing. What once sported hard plastic surfaces is now high-quality soft touch material.
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 12, 2008 7:15 am) I think the Citation had that crud on the seats. Whoever thought that plastic-mold-stitch was a good idea?  Did you manage to find the trunk release on the CTS? |
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Nov 11, 2008 6:26 pm) If you have 5 restaurants in your town, and 1 closes, the other 4 are going to do better, because the number of restaurants does not affect the demand to go out and eat. And I think some of the better GM products would get bought up. Some manufacturer would come in and buy the CTS plant and rights to sell it. Similarly other GM products would get built under some other name - the Corvette in Bowling Green would still get built, under some nameplate.
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