"Can you imagine in the 80's saying, 'Thank God for Cadillac!'??"
The Cadillacs designed in the '80's were damn good vehicles. My 1990 model had a massive amount of interior space and weighed only 3400 pounds. If those cars had modern engines, they'd be some of the very best in the world. The newer Cadillacs (such as the sedan pictured above) are remarkably ugly and uninspired. For $55,000, why buy Cadillac's copy of a Lexus when you can just buy the real thing instead?
GM shouldn't get rid of Buick or Pontiac, and I think getting rid of Oldsmobile was a mistake. Their problem is they have too many models competing with each other. Each name needs its own identity--and they need models that don't suck, too. Buick *still* doesn't make a single model that can perform as well as my decade-old Buick does. Worse products for ever-increasing prices don't sell well....a 1st-grade child can understand that, why can't the execs?
I agree with the statement someone said above that the US automakers have "lost their way". GM has a long history of cancelling every popular vehicle they produce and replacing them with failures. Ford seems to enjoy designing vehicles that seem like little more than cheap uglified copies of what the other companies are doing. Chrysler has done well with the new 300's, but one model won't save the company. They need to apply that inspiration to the rest of their lineup. Unfortunately, their Dodge name is typically hit with the ugly stick, so they cancel out their own success.
Pickup trucks shouldn't be $35,000 yuppiemobiles. I agree with that, too.
I'm one of those people who has no desire to ever drive a car built by a non-US name. Neither GM nor Ford builds a single model that I'd think about buying. If they can't even appeal to diehards like me, it's no wonder that people who don't care what brand their car is buy something else!
"the modular OHC v8's are the cheapest in the industry."
Lazs, if you're talking about Ford's modular V-8, that engine is a piece of crap. I've driven plenty of cars with that engine (not to mention my wife owns one). The Ford modular V-8 is a pain in the neck to work on, it makes less power than my Buick's LT-1, and it gets *worse* fuel mileage despite being in a lighter car. It particularly lacks low-end torque. They should have stayed with the 302.
Small cars are flimsy and unsafe. I don't care if it gets 50 MPG if it's just going to be a coffin. Nonetheless, the US automakers need to build the best small cars they can for the idiots who value a few dollars more than their lives.
J_A_B
