I’m a Buick guy, and I eagerly anticipated Buick bringing this to the US. When it debuted, I was excited and fell in love with the styling. I even promised myself I’d own one someday.
amcinlinesix
amcinlinesix
Lloyd was owned by Borgward, which went bankrupt in 1961 under extremely suspicious circumstances. The internet is awash with the theory that a deeply struggling BMW basically got the West German government to litigate against Borgward under trumped-up bankruptcy charges to eliminate them as competition.
No, Americans don’t seem to want domestic sedans. GM and Ford, (Less so, Chrysler), despite making competitive sedans since about 2006 or so, could not convince buyers to switch after years of faithful service from their Hondas, Toyotas, etc.
Things have changed quite rapidly for both brands: https://jalopnik.com/how-cadillac-designed-its-way-to-a-comeback-514411719
Five years ago, the opposite was true. Cadillac was riding high on new launches (most of which ended up flopping despite being at least decent vehicles) while Lincoln was still flogging off whale-grilled Fords with alphabet soup names.
The trouble is, that 5% that wants coupes or wagons isn’t enough volume to pay for the extra development costs to make the coupe or wagon variants, certify them, or crash test them. Especially not now that coupes and wagons have to wear significantly different bodywork compared to their sedan counterparts to even be…
One major logic flaw with this design: the hard floors.
Under the skin, that 1994 Ranger, 2002 Ranger, and 2008-11 Ranger are still using the same chassis and, in some cases, inner structure, of the original 1983 Ranger.
The market hasn’t demanded cars get 40mpg since about May 2008, when gas prices hit their peak. Once they collapsed in October 2008, the market started shifting away from fuel efficiency again.
I’m sure this pendulum will never swing back, and that gas prices will always be low, and Ford will never be caught out again.
It’s a little like finding one of these under/next to your Christmas tree. Still, I can’t wait until we see the real thing.
Right. The only solidly successful products that Cadillac has been anything like consistent on are the CTS and Escalade.
Lexus has much broader market presence than you think. Lexus sold about 650,000 units worldwide last year. Cadillac sold about 350,000, nearly half of what Lexus has.
Never, ever have I said “Cadillac should not even try.” You have inferred that, which says more about you than me. Cadillac can succeed if they move in this direction. However, just like with the CUV craze, they’re about 5-10 years behind the ball. Nothing says they can’t catch up and turn around.
Truck buyers don’t want bourgeois badges. They want blue-collar badges with western-themed option upgrades.
Maybe the V-12s and V-16s of the 1930's held Bentley cachet. But nothing since 1940 has. And the folks who were of driving age in 1940 are almost all dead at this point.
I guess... but after reading such a horrendous script, I wonder what ever possessed Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones to sign up. Both Jane Alexander and Katharine Ross were Oscar-nominated heavyweight actressess at the peaks of their careers, as well.
Here’s the trouble. Cadillac’s only significant footprint outside North America is in China. BMW, Audi, and Mercedes have significant footprints everywhere. So while the Germans can develop exclusive platforms that make money due to economies of scale, Cadillac can’t because they don’t have the market presence to push…
The unimaginable amount of cash that GM has poured into Cadillac since the 1980's at the expense of its other, more profitable divisions, only to continually fail to rehabilitate Cadillac’s image, fully position Cadillac as a desirable brand with fully competitive products... it just boggles the mind.