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Originally Posted by Nimisys
arguably with buick, but they are just now activly tryign to reinvent tha brands image. however cadillac has done quite well with the Sigma cars (STS, CTS, SRX) in competing with BMW/Mercedes/Audi. Escalade continues to dominate its class, even though it is due for a redesign in the next 2 years. of all of GMs domestic divisions, Cadillac is probably the best at metting its demographic. Buick is where cadillac was in 98.
Gm to go bankrupt in 5-10 years? possibly but not likley. they are a very complex company with fingers in many different pies. we are only taking about their domestic car brands, ignoring the performance of thier overseas brands and other components in use. BMW for example uses GM's 5l40 and 5l50 5 speed Hydramatic transmissions. Holden is doing extrmely well in australia. while a BIllion in losses sounds huge, considering the scale the company work at it really isnlt as bad as it could be. they are already tryign to revitalize brands, spped development time (kappa platfrom took 2 years form concept to bring to market), and their reliability of ther powertrains is simply amazing now. i have seen genIII motors with 200k+ miles running like they only had 30. they cut the n.a american zeta cars because they would not be economical. enginnering has been spread across 3 continents, centered in michigan, sweden and australia, to develop platfroms and engines that can be used globaly. the new v6 in use in the CTS, is a prime example. its sees duty int he CTS, STS, SRX, rendevous, LaCrosse, and a turbo version is upcoming for the 9-3 aero. the epsilon platfrom gets used by chevy for the malibu, saab for the 9-3 and cadillac for the BTS in europe.
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I will agree with you that GM tends to make good automatic transmissions. Jaguar used to use a TH400 transmission, though now I suppose they have switched to Ford.
I would also agree that Cadilac has done OK, though they still don't appeal to me. They have a whacked out looking front end, and still look awfully big But they are getting better. Perhaps it's the Led Zeppelin songs in their commercials.
The CTS is your entry level caddy. I think they replaced the ill-fated catera with this one. (The catera being one of the biggest pant loads ever, right after that 4-6-8 disasterville POS, or the HT4100 engine, take your pick. )The HT 4100, which was Caddy's replacement for the one-year-only V-8-6-4, did more to shift the luxury car market to the foreign brands than all of the advertising men on Madison Avenue could.
The next level up is the STS which is all of a sudden about the same price as an Audi A-6.
For me, I'd rather have the A-6. It's a far cooler looking product than the big old caddy.