The Post a Picture of Your Ride as it Sits Thread

MisterSnoop said:
I wish other people could drive.
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Oh man, so sorry to see that.

I don't know what it is, but people seem to forget how to drive before/during a holiday period. It has me contemplating NOT driving anywhere over the weekend.
 
DFB said:
The RWD-based CTS and ATS, then CT4, CT5 and CT6 were intended to rival the German brands. At the time, it was seen as a necessary change to bring in a new customer base, so they mimicked vehicles such as the 3/5/7-series BMW, and C/E/S-Class Mercedes. Most who drove them had great things to say about the chassis and steering ability of these new vehicles.

At one point, Cadillac's chief engineer was an Aussie who started with Holden. The design chief for many years was also an Aussie, the supremely talented Mike Simcoe, who had designed numerous high-profile Holden's including the Monaro (Pontiac GTO) and VE Commodore (Pontiac G8). So, there was a lot good being done, even when GM was struggling.

And yet, despite the excellence of these RWD models, it didn't necessarily translate to the sort of sales GM had hoped for. Considering all the money GM pumped into modernizing Cadilac, it's rather ironic that the most successful modern Cadilac is actually based on a Chevy/GMC..........................the massive Escalade.

I think where GM went wrong with these RWD cars, they tried too hard be the American BMW instead of being a Cadilac..........................as in putting the focus on comfort, build quality, refinement, supreme luxury. Instead, they gave customers a sporty ride and aggressive styling. People who wanted a BMW driving experience just went and bought a BMW.....................and because of the badge itself. And those who wanted a Cadilac which lived up to their expectations went bought an Escalade instead.

For the record, I'd happily have one of the modern Cadilac's, GM's chassis engineering can certainly shine when given the budget.

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I didn't like Caddys until they got "The German touch". From a performance perspective but most certainly the aesthetics perspective. But I'll never dis someone's taste in cars. The CTS-V and now the CT5-V are epically good.
 
Tasmania said:
Or they hit you get out and say, "it's just a car"

NO IT'S SOMEONE'S PRIDE AND JOY. 🤬
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At a set of traffic lights earlier today, a women was flicking ash from her ciggie out of the window and onto my car. I nearly gave her a character reference, but going by the car and the "attitude" of this lovely lady, I decided against it. People just don't give sh.t unless its happening to them.
 
DFB said:
At a set of traffic lights earlier today, a women was flicking ash from her ciggie out of the window and onto my car. I nearly gave her a character reference, but going by the car and the "attitude" of this lovely lady, I decided against it. People just don't give sh.t unless its happening to them.
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These same people like to use "Me & I" every 3rd word they use in a conversation....
 
DFB said:
The RWD-based CTS and ATS, then CT4, CT5 and CT6 were intended to rival the German brands. At the time, it was seen as a necessary change to bring in a new customer base, so they mimicked vehicles such as the 3/5/7-series BMW, and C/E/S-Class Mercedes. Most who drove them had great things to say about the chassis and steering ability of these new vehicles.

I think where GM went wrong with these RWD cars, they tried too hard be the American BMW instead of being a Cadilac..........................as in putting the focus on comfort, build quality, refinement, supreme luxury. Instead, they gave customers a sporty ride and aggressive styling. People who wanted a BMW driving experience just went and bought a BMW.....................and because of the badge itself. And those who wanted a Cadilac which lived up to their expectations went bought an Escalade instead.
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Being a long-time GM owner and observer, I have a slightly different take on that. GM's market share in the US was once 50%. As they saw that start to slip away in the late 70's, partially driven by oil prices, on the one hand to Honda and Toyota, and on the other hand to Volkswagen and Audi, after a period of denial, their responses in the 80's were two-pronged.

One, they tried to benchmark Honda and Toyota by starting the Saturn division (this was a failure and was ultimately turned into just another GM division, supplanted in the "benchmark" by the "if you can't beat them, join them" NUMMI venture). To address the European leakage, GM through the 80's and 90's made a series of vehicles themed to be more of that ilk, particularly sport sedans. Whitewall tires and chrome trim were supplanted by blackwalls and blackout trim...these models included the Chevy Eurosport, Buick T-Type, Oldsmobile...um, I can't remember the branding on that one, the Pontiac 6000 STE and Bonneville SSE, and the Cadillac Seville Touring Sedan (or STS, which was later turned into its own model).

None of these were particularly effective at staunching the loss of market share for GM. Cadillac had the most acute problems (shared somewhat by Buick and Olds) in that GM had long relied on brand loyalty. Young new car buyers would start with a Chevy, as they progressed in their lives/careers they would move up to the arguably sportier Pontiacs, then to Oldsmobiles and Buicks...and when they had finally "made it", they would graduate to a Cadillac.

The problem was as GM lost the new car buyers who never bought a Chevy, buying a Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen instead, when they progressed through their life they bought an Acura, Lexus, Infiniti, or Audi, some of those brands (Acura, Lexus) created for the US market to take advantage of the culture here.

Since Cadillac was at the end of the line, the aging demographic was felt most acutely there (although also at Buick and Oldsmobile), as the median age of Cadillac buyers got older and older they feared their owner base would simply die off, collapsing the brand. So they got serious about trying to woo away the other segment, as you noted, Mercedes and BMW, which were marketed a little differently here than Volkswagen/Audi, which lead to the development of the CTS and STS, succeeded by the models you mention.

I would also argue that the popularity of the Escalade, rather than being some continuation of the bygone Cadillac tradition of the past, is due to other cultural factors. The Cadillac sedan owner of the 70's, 80', or even 90's would have nothing to do with an Escalade, and I would argue that even the current Cadillac sedan owners don't want anything to do with an Escalade, if they go SUV they will go with one of the Cadillac crossovers (do you use that term in Australia? a crossover SUV?).
 
Setec Astronomy said:
The Cadillac sedan owner of the 70's, 80', or even 90's would have nothing to do with an Escalade, and I would argue that even the current Cadillac sedan owners don't want anything to do with an Escalade, if they go SUV they will go with one of the Cadillac crossovers (do you use that term in Australia? a crossover SUV?).
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In which case, the Escalade has been successful in attracting a new customer base.

Probably the same sort of concept that happened with Porche in the early 2000's. I remember that hatred directed at Porche for making its first SUV, the Cayenne. The purists said it was the beginning of the end, how dare a dedicated sports car company make a huge SUV. And yet, the Cayenne and Macan's existence made subsequent Boxter, Cayman and 911 possible. In a way, it saved the company and then allowed them to play with the fun stuff.

Going back a while now, I remember Autoline After Hours saying that Escalade was extremely profitable for GM, mainly because of the shared Chevy/GMC platform, which sold for a considerable price premium. Again, like the Cayenne sharing the a VW/Audi platform and powertrain. All this meant Escalade allowed Cadilac to make image leader models that would appeal to a typical 3-Series/C-Class buyer. It's just a shame those models didn't take off, by all accounts, they were/are excellent vehicles.

I'd say the same for the C8 Corvette. GM told anyone who would listen about how the Corvette had to change and attract a new, younger customer base. So why did the styling package end up being so compromised in the pursuit of pleasing the OLD customer base, ie that rear end needing to fit golf clubs. Does a 911 or Boxter fit golf clubs? No, they prioritized making a car that looks how it should, while delivering real substance in terms of handling. You can just imagine the Germans being asked to make provisions for golf clubs in a 911..........................."vwhy zshould zyou vwant to do zhat? Buy zah Cayenne instead. :ROFLMAO:
 
DFB said:
In which case, the Escalade has been successful in attracting a new customer base.
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Having a Cadillac was always a status symbol, it's just the Escalade became a status symbol for a different demographic.

DFB said:
Going back a while now, I remember Autoline After Hours saying that Escalade was extremely profitable for GM, mainly because of the shared Chevy/GMC platform, which sold for a considerable price premium.
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GM and Ford definitely laughed all the way to the bank selling trucks to "civilians", along with the Town Car/Crown Vic (come to think of it, Crown Victoria sounds awfully Australian), which remained (basically) unchanged for long periods.

DFB said:
You can just imagine the Germans being asked to make provisions for golf clubs in a 911...
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Yes, I can. ;)
 
MisterSnoop said:
I wish other people could drive.
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That’s a terrible thing to happen today. We feel for you. The way you describe it would’ve enraged some of us. Just crazy.

Setec Astronomy said:
The Cadillac sedan owner of the 70's, 80', or even 90's would have nothing to do with an Escalade, and I would argue that even the current Cadillac sedan owners don't want anything to do with an Escalade
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I see this as fact.^

I have no problem agreeing that the Escalade & CTS pretty much saved Cadillac, but that doesn’t mean I respect those 2 models and even to this day I hate the Escalade.

Cadillac people used to have the same distinctive way of being, calm, friendly, easy going mature individuals, mostly men who you could engage in a good conversation about classic cars and a shared pride in owning a Cadillac that made us all a bit the same no matter how different we may be the fact that we had that similar bond meant we all knew we were the same kind of people at our core.

Nowadays “Cadillac owners” not people, are splintered into 4 groups.

- Traditional Cadillac people. The people who like and appreciate Cadillacs 2005 and older. [the 2006-11 DTS is also accepted in our group]

- Escalade owners. I honestly don’t have much to say about them because we pretty much never interact with each other, but for the most part seem to keep to themselves and seemingly care more about owning an Escalade than the fact that it’s a Cadillac.

- Wives, women, soccer moms, beta males, aka XT4, XT5, & XT6 owners. This group does little to no speaking for themselves, because it’s generally their husbands who bought the vehicle and their wives who drive them, therefore nobody really has anything of worth to say and as long as they start everyday nobody’s complaining.

[I do have 1 complaint though, and that’s that these vehicles are among the worst to ever have a Cadillac badge slapped on them, and a bare bones XT4 is a borderline embarrassment to the brand, and I’m willing to bet Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac rolled over in his grave when the 1st one of them rolled off the assembly line].

- Cadillac EV owners. This group of people are quite the interactive bunch. They’re tech savvy to say the least and therefore very active online/on social media because that’s their natural habitat. They generally have a positive outlook on the brand and will fight and defend the EV movement if you ever decide to speak negatively about it. They’re willing to go to war, but they seem equally willing to defend their choice in buying a Cadillac EV, so at least they’re on the good side. They’re also a respectful crowd and don’t bother anyone so no major complaints about them.

- Honorable mention… Post 2005 Cadillac car owners. This bunch is becoming more scarce by the day and includes 05-11 STS owners, which there was little of them to begin with, SRX owners, very few of them are still around, CTS owners, ATS, XTS, all these people have seen their cars discontinued by the brand and therefore they’ve mostly moved on as well. Many of these cars are now with their 2nd/3rd/4th owners.

- CT6 owners have been abandoned by their own country.

- New Cadillac CT4, CT5 owners are a niche group of car enthusiasts

- V Series Cadillac owners are an even more exclusive niche group of car enthusiasts.
 
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Klasse Act said:
Hey Ric, who was the Cimarron, Catera, XLR & ELR buyer

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
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The Cimmaron buyer was the father of the Catera buyer.. The XLR buyer was the uber rich guy going through a midlife crisis with money to burn, just like his predecessor, the Allante buyer.

The ELR buyer is in the current EV crowd, however his parts are starting to become unobtainium.

Legend has it that the Cimmaron and Catera had a 1 night fling in Las Vegas in the early 2000’s and one of them later gave birth to a car that would become known as the CTS. Lol.
 
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