All Entries Tagged With: "General Motors"
Memorial Day Caddy
By Gunnar Heinrich
GOD DAMN beautiful!
That’s probably what the old wheel’em ‘n deal’em GM salesman would’ve shouted about this circa 1954 Cadillac Fleetwood as he then tried to sell you on the power brakes “convenience feature” for $48. And you know what? He would’ve been absolutely right.
The Fleetwood is a beautiful car. And it’s the kind of misty eyed throwback to GM and the US auto industry’s heyday that made the two-ton chrome plated behemoth more fitting to share with you in honor of Memorial Day than the Blower Bentley, many Ferraris, or solar powered three wheeled metallic-coffin that I spied.
Circling the sedan that’s at least a foot longer than the current gen. DTS, I almost expected Ike with a secret service detail to return after an afternoon of grip ‘n greets. Not so, sadly but that doesn’t stop the Fleetwood from channeling post war presidential magnetism.
Eisenhower’s seal of approval is what likely moved a few Cadillacs in the day. That and the omnipresence of lascivious chromium, those jet age cues, and that commanding presence…. beautiful.
GM Kills Pontiac
Gone?
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Liz Murphy for ADL
READING that General Motors is set to kill Pontiac by the end of 2010 as part of the Great Leap Forward “Viability Plan”, there is still one question that needs answering: why Pontiac?
It’s true that the division lost its way for years and years, but when GM introduced the Solstice and the G8 there was clear indication that the line was seeing a rejuvenating transformation – and sales have remained strong.
So far this year, Pontiac’s sold more cars that Buick and Cadillac combined and has moved more units in the US than Audi, Acura, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Infiniti, or Jaguar.
So, again, why is the brand of the Firebird, Solstice, GTO, and the glorious G8 the one getting the axe?
Live GM webcast may explain…
*UPDATE* Nope – GM bond swapping and the Treasury’s equity stake in the automaker dominated the press conference with CEO Fritz Henderson.
Pontiac Succeeds Despite GM Playing Favorites
Pontiac has become one of the General’s stronger performers.
By Gunnar Heinrich
SHOULD General Motors survive from… pick possible cause of impending doom:
- Chapter 11
- UAW
- The Obama Administration
- Act of God
it would then be wise for the good folks at GM to reconsider Pontiac’s future.
That the General intends to keep Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC as part of a focused core of four comes as no real surprise when you consider how company management lavishes those divisions with extra-special love and affection.
Such is the top brass’ favoritism that time and again the company’s resorted to taking R&D limelight away from other divisions (ex. Saab) to benefit the cherished ones (ex.Cadillac).
Meanwhile Pontiac which didn’t make the final four cut, has been treated more like the redheaded step child.
Yet for all of GM’s bad parenting, the present-day sales numbers tell an illuminating story.
Year to date sales in March for both of GM’s upper market divisions – Buick and Cadillac – have been dismal. Cadillac sold 8,209 units while Buick parted with 7,369 so far this year. That’s down from last year by 53% and 40%, respectively.
But, you say, it’s the economy!
Well, consider then the dreaded foreign competition.
In the same period, Lexus sold 14,239 L-Badged Toyotas, Mercedes-Benz parted with 15,602 tri-stars, and BMW – 17,520 roundels.
And those figures were down from last year by 43%, 25%, and 24%, respectively. This tells us that Cadillac and Buick sales weren’t all that strong to begin with.
Pontiac, on the other hand…
GM’s sporting division which has produced the most-excellent G8 GT (can I get an Amen?) was down 30% from last year with sales to date adding up to…drum roll please… 17,583 units.
Nice.
Pontiac sales have so far eclipsed all of GM’s luxury competitors and are still more than all of this year’s Buick and Cadillac sales combined. So much for playing favorites. In GM’s American family, only GMC and Chevy have sold more cars this year.
So, should GM survive, Detroit would do well to consider giving Pontiac another shot.
Bob Lutz Signing Off
The writing was on the hood
By Gunnar Heinrich
BOB LUTZ has announced that he will retire from GM at the end of this year.
In comments published by the Freep, GM Vice Chairman of global product development gave strong hints that the sour market and overbearing Federal regulators had succeeded in killing off whatever drive he had left in molding GM design.
Not News, But Here It Is: GM Ranked Second in 2008
GM slips in global rankings
By Gunnar Heinrich
TOYOTA executives probably didn’t want their global sales victory to happen this way.
Given that last year was dreadful for most car makers and that ToMoCo global sales shrank from 2007′s grand figures by 4%, it’s got to be a pyrrhic victory for the efficiency minded, profit driven ToMoCo team.
Note To The General: Let Saab Go
By Gunnar Heinrich
THEY say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And in the case of General Motors’ ownership of Saab Automobile AB, that route takes an icy path through Trollhattan.
In 2000, the advertising text, “Made In Trollhattan” spooled GM’s acquisition in this gray cast:
“Swedish brains with American brawn. Saab is now a part of General Motors and it is proving to be a beneficial relationship for both parties. GM has access to our technical competence and we can make use of GM’s enormous resources and production knowledge.”
Or not. Saab has consistently lost money for GM. And GM has, in turn, invested relatively little in Saab.
The Swedish automaker is to GM what Jaguar was to a Ford; a costly acquisition that the parent company never really understood or could manage into positive sales growth.
To put the dire circumstance into a computational context, GM’s ownership of Saab is like Microsoft trying to run Apple with no money. Sad cases of shared platforms gone wrong include the 9-2X a.k.a. “Saaburu”, the generic 9-3, and (worst of all) the 9-7X SUV.
When GM was gracious enough to invite my crew and I to cover the Saab event in New York last Spring, it seemed as though things were looking up for the troubled marque and that the General had finally come round to the concept of putting the right investment and marketing into a struggling division.
The 9-X and 9-4X BioPower concepts on display both demonstrated that Saab has the ability to make beautiful, innnovative, special automobiles.
That neither of these promising concepts will see the light of production day is a testament to the fact that the parent company who never really cared about Saab when the money was good, really doesn’t give a $#!& now that its own core business is evaporating.
It’s understandable that GM’s top brass have lost hope for their red inked Swedish concern. It is, however, unforgiveable that they should let Saab die the slow death of a thousand heavenly concepts unfulfilled.
GM should do the right thing and solidify its core marques (Cadillac, Chevrolet, Saturn, etc.) by selling Saab off to a corporative entity that will treat it right and give it the money and resources to grow once more in the company’s own unique way.
No more sacrificing Saab at the expense of Cadillac.
The General would get some much needed ca$h from the sale and Saab would be set on the road to salvation. Considering the current alternative route, it’d be vastly more appealing for both Detroit and Trollhatan if GM would just let Saab go.
[Linked: Trollhattan Saab]
Cadillac XLR-V: Generational Perspectives Clash
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG by Larry Henrikson for Automobiles De Luxe
“YOU don’t have an appreciation for this car.”
My uncle, Joe Ficca, is a longtime advocate of American cars. Remembering my aunt’s finicky Alfas and my mom’s “quirky” Jags, to his core he knows that there’s something straightforward, easy, and just plain good about American auto design.
Nearly every car he’s ever owned has come from one of Detroit’s Big Three. And that includes the old Pontiac GTO sitting in his garage.
To this end, he’s much more receptive to the Cadillac XLR-V’s charms than I.
“You’ve got to understand, twenty years ago if you had a four hundred horsepower car – it stank of gasoline, idled rough, was temperamental in traffic, ran hot, or detonated,” smiling softly, he adds, “Grandma can drive this car.”
Pulling the 443 horsepower trigger he looks through the heads-up display as the big Caddy bonnet lifts to the horizon and reels in Connecticut scenery at a dizzying rate. The acceleration is explosive with the supercharger adding a high whine to the V8′s roar.
“Oh, and no brakes.”
Mashing the stop pedal on a downhill, the XLR-V leaves a faint trail of rubber that stretches behind us in the rear view.
My uncle’s perspective and my own tend to clash on these subjects. Coming off of a Teutonic high with two tight BMW droptops for ten days – much my own generation’s preferred mode of transport – it proved difficult to adjust to the XLR-V.
By contrast to the rock solid 328i, the XLR-V complete with high power assisted steering, body roll, and cowl shake feels sloppy, lumbering, and dull – unless you plant your foot on the accelerator in which case you’ve got precious few seconds until you’ve passed the point of legal-no-return.
On the track, the XLR-V seems more at home and is a riot to drive. It’s more fun on track than at any one point on the road. But it makes you wonder how much more fun a Corvette Z06 would be.
BMW’s own rep. Hardy Drackett, a man from my own upper twenties age bracket – was puzzled by the Caddy.
“Who’s this car for, exactly?”
Cadillac lists the standard XLR’s competition as the Mercedes-Benz SL500, Lexus SC430, and Jaguar XK. Logic presumes that the V would be meant to tackle the SL55 AMG or Jaguar XKR.
I’m not sure that any Benz, Lexus, or Jag buyer cross shops this American drop-top. The consensus was the XLR-V is for the 50+ year wealthy Boca Raton retiree who wants a Vette’s flash ‘n drive with a Caddy’s comfort.
And that mix the XLR-V does provide- in spades. It just takes a different generation to appreciate it.
Preview: Cadillac Escalade Hybrid and Platinum Editions
By Gunnar Heinrich with photography by Neil Rogers
UNDER the soft blue cast of an early New York summer’s eve, Cadillac’s PR staff quietly set the stage in the gated court yard of New York’s Palace Hotel to offer members of the press a preview of the Escalade Hybrid and Platinum editions.
GM’s G.M. for Cadillac Jim Taylor led the talking points by noting how far he felt Cadillac had come since the dour days of the late 90s. The Escalade is the focal point of Cadillac’s cool new image.
And on the subject of image, it’s worth taking notes on just what the Escalade presents to the world.
For those who can’t afford four dollars a gallon, gas prices have made driving truck framed SUVs as palatable as chasing three Martinis with four quarts of Drano. For those who can afford the cost to filler-up, the image association with driving such a beast is akin in its saintliness to supplying the Drano to the hapless boozer.
In this politically correct age of in… incontinent truths, who but Texans and a certain set of oily haired customers from Jersey dare ride high on a 5,700 pound, 74.3 inch high by 79 inch wide by 202.5 inch long carbon footprint whose 6.2 Liter, 403 horsepower V8 guzzles as much dino-juice exiting a parking lot as the Queen Mary II uses when leaving port?
Don’t know for sure.
But, would it help matters if Cadillac put a Caddy sized green on chrome colored “Hybrid” badge over a fake quarter-panel air intake?
Maybe…
Or would it assuage guilty feelings if Cadillac implemented a two-stage hybrid system that kicks in at various levels of speed and load so that it’s neither/nor but either and both gas and electric?
Perhaps…
Or could Cadillac convince you that if a full size SUV is what you need to tow and haul people, that the big Caddy can do it using less gas than any foreign rival of similar size?
It’s 20 mpg urban and 21 mpg highway.
No truck this size has a right to be so frugal.
But for customers who just don’t care (about much of anything, really), there’s the gas powered Platinum edition (12/18 mpg) that shows off with premium leather (worth the upgrade), all kinds of DVD and TV sets, trick LED headlamps, and an assortment of other goods and services to pamper occupants.
Yours (or theirs) for $12,000 over standard MSRP ($60,000 +/-).
Worth it?
I’ll share my notes from that last night’s ride-along in the next post. In the meantime, check out the following gallery of pictures shot by the one and only Neil Rogers.
[Click to enlarge]
Special thanks to General Motors for graciously hosting Automobiles De Luxe.
