smk4565

This looks very close to the old one that nobody bought, just with an uglier grille, so even less people will buy this. It seems all they did was add some wood trim to the inside and put the new grille on and call it a day. That is worse than Buick trying to pass the LaCrosse Super off as something new. No V8, no success. Can't compete against the Germans with a V6 only car. They at least could have done a diesel or hybrid that got 25 mpg, at least then it would have an advantage over other cars, but this is like a run of the mill average luxury car from 2005 trying to compete in 2009.

In response to Croc, Saab sales worldwide are poor, only 120,000 or so last year and GM LOSES MONEY on the brand. Why continue to throw good money after bad in a brand with decreasing worldwide sales that doesn't make money? Why not spend it on Cadillac and make it a real global brand. If a rear drive Impala and a V8 Cadillac that get 19-20 mpg are killed due to CAFE, then why are 13 mpg Hummers ok? These aren't global sellers, they can make that money elsewhere. There may be local ads for some cars, but they don't nationally advertise them all, they focus on the newest stuff and the Silverado. Toyota has half as many models as GM so they can advertise each one twice as much, and has a smaller dealer network so competition on price is less. I own an Oldsmobile Aurora. I know exactly why Oldsmobile buyers left GM, and it is because the cars Olds built in 2000-2003 were better than the ones Buick and Pontiac built in 2005-2007. Why would an Intrigue or Aurora driver that got DOHC, Bose, stabilitrak, etc in 2001 go buy an 06 Lucerne or LaCrosse with a 3800? I sat in every Pontiac and Buick (enclave wasn't on sale yet) at the auto show last year and none of them I thought were even close to my car, it felt like sitting in one stripped down rental car after another. GM had nothing to offer Oldsmobile drivers so they left for Acura, Lexus, Lincoln, etc. If they got rid of Pontiac Avis and Enterprise would hurt the most, and the SS Chevy's could easily fill the cheap performance void. If GM had Toyota's money I'd say sure keep 10 brands going, but they don't. Toyota's yearly profit is more than Ford's whole company is worth. For GM to compete with that they have to cut number of models and spend far more per vehicle. All 3 Lambdas sold 137,000 units in 2007, the Ford Edge sold 130,000. When you focus on one vehicle you can get the same sales as 3 vehicles with diluted funding.

Platform or Badge engineering hurts because now people can cross shop and Acadia with an Outlook and Traverse to drive down price. GM creates competition for themselves. They also can't advertise all their products, so they advertise the first 6 months it is on sale then not again until the new model comes out. I think they should sell or kill off Saab (money loser, sales loser) and Hummer (sales loser, CAFE penalty), let Pontiac fade away and join Oldsmobile by 2013 and dump the Outlook and get Saturn selling small, fun to drive, fuel efficient cars. Then they'll have better brand focus and can develop better products and advertise them more.

The Lexus RX400h gets 27 mpg city, that whoops the Saab (19 mpg) or the 18 mpg Enclave. Mercedes has 4 diesels now (E, R-class, ML, GL), with the S-class diesel/hybrid coming and BMW has diesel coming this fall. Cadillac has nothing small or gas friendly coming until 2012, by then they will be very much behind. I didn't really consider Volvo, Lincoln or Acura as real luxury brands they are entry level only.

The Escape is only about 176 inches long, and is a big seller, especially with the 34 mpg hybrid version propping up it's image. The Equinox is near 190 inches long, as is the Trailblazer. Lambdas are 200 inches long like the Tahoe. The Trailblazer is dying, so Chevy is left with Traverse, Yukon, Avalanche, Suburban (plus GM has 2-4 versions of all those) for full size SUVs and only the Equniox left to cover the small and midsize SUV markets, which are the biggest 2 segments. It's poor product planning at it's finest at GM, just like how Cadillac has no small car or gas friendly car, while all the other luxo brands have hybrids, diesels or smaller than a Cobalt sized cars.

The tan helps the interior a lot, but there is still a lot of plastic over lapping plastic. If it's priced cheap that shouldn't be too much of a problem though, the Trailblazer has an all plastic dated interior, this is a step up from that. I think this will compete more with the Trailblazer, Acadia and Tahoe more than anything from Japan, really GM is just creating competition for themselves, but the GMT360s are near dead, and I suspect that when the GMT900s hit the end of their life cycle, they do fewer version than they have now. When does the minivan or 180 inch long CR-V/Escape style SUV come out? (the Vue is well over 4000 pounds, that isn't a compact) They have zero offerings in those segments and a dozen full size SUVs.

Agreed. Too many rebadged vehicles. Saturn should lose the Outlook and focus more on smaller, fuel friendly Euro-syle cars, kind of like VW. GM just has too many brands that offer the same rebadged stuff, not much is different from the 80s or 90s. Same thing is about to happen with Epsilon: Malibu, Impala, LaCrosse, Aura, G6, 9-3, 9-5. 7 sedans off one platform. Then they have to market them all and update them all. No wonder GM has so many average products that don't get advertised.

Overall I think it looks good on the outside, the rear end looks like the Enclave. I think this vehicle will drive the price of the other Lambdas down a little bit. The horsepower bump is good since the Lambdas are all over weight. They don't really need the Saturn version once this comes out. I'm not a fan of the Dodge inspired 2-tone, rental car gray interior with overlaping plastic. What I don't like about the Lambdas is they all have the same radio/center stack and same shifter and cupholders. They really only need 2, like Ford with the Edge and MKX. The Edge almost out sold the Outlook, Enclave and Acadia combined last year, and Ford has a poorer image than GM.

I consider BMW a good car because the 3 and 5 series win awards and magazine comparisons like crazy and have for nearly 20 years. They are also strong sellers, and BMW has the best resale value of any luxury brand. They usually rank top 10 in dependability by JD Power, they may have some mechanical problems but they usually last a long time. Of course the CR-V doesn't feel as a solid as a CTS, the CTS is a good car and the CR-V is a $17,000 piece of junk. Honda makes a lot of good vehicles, Toyota has average vehicles, but a great reputation and people buy that reputation. GM has dated cars that are sold to rental lots and local governments. A diesel rear drive Impala would get better gas mileage than a 4 cylinder Malibu. CAFE is no excuse for GM to not have a rear drive Impala on sale within 1 year, the real reason is wanting to save R&D dollars for trucks.

It's GM's own fault that they lose money and have negative cash flow. Consumers looking to buy a car don't care about GM's financial struggles, they want to buy a good car (or what they perceive to be good) so they buy Hondas, BMWs and Toyotas. BMWs are good cars because they constantly innovate and re-engineer their products. I wish they would just sell Cadillac to someone that can turn them back into a great American car company that builds world class vehicles. GM is more concerned with pumping money into 4 of their damaged and dying brands than saving their second most important one.

I don't think GM knows what they are doing. They don't know how to build a global luxury car, and they don't know how to build sedans that cost $75-100,000. The quote at the bottom of your posts that states how with the V8 dead and making cars off corporate platforms and corporate V6s makes them no better than Lincoln is very true. 2012 for a Zeta Cadillac is a joke, the Zeta platform came out in 2007, so Cadillac will get a 5 year old platform that was used for middle class sedans. That is like building and 08 Cadillac off of an 03 Impala chassis, although the DTS built on a 95 Aurora platform is basically that. Sigma came out in 2003, since then the 5-series got an all new platform in 2004, and will get another all new platform in 2010. Cadillac needs to update platforms and engines more quickly, but I don't think GM gives them the money needed to do it. I hope Cadillac can come back, but since 2005, I've seen them fall more behind the Germans rather than catch up.

Usually larger engines use more gas than smaller ones. I am assuming the reason GM is doing a 4.9 liter DI engine with cylinder cutoff is to replace the 5.3 liter with a more efficient engine with no loss to power. This is a good move. Pickups have high volume due to few competitors and the commercial market. GM has 2 vehicles on the top 10 sellers list, Silverado and a 58% fleet sale Impala. The top 3 selling SUVs are the CR-V, Escape, Rav4, GM doesn't have a good small SUV or a minivan anymore. Two huge markets they don't compete in because they keep making big trucks. This GMC pickup thing is 5 inches longer than a Yukon, this isn't a downsized product. If the Canyon/Colorado were as good as the Japanese pickups they could do a hybrid or diesel version of them that would help CAFE greatly and get people that don't need a half ton to downsize. As for the Lambdas being the most efficient 7/8 seaters out there, they aren't. They are rated at 18 mpg (19 for front drive) which isn't bad, but the Honda Odyssey is rated at 20 mpg. The Mercedes ML320, R320, and GL320 diesels all average 21 mpg, 1 more than the Tahoe hybrid.

Ugly. It looks really bad from every angle. Do people really want an El Camino/Ridgeline/Subaru Baja combination? I suppose we'll find out soon enough. On the plus side, 326 hp from a 4.9 liter pushrod is a solid improvement over the 315 hp 5.3 liter. GM needs to be able to downsize engines and increase efficiency without sacrificing power to stay competitive. Is that 326 hp running E85 though? If so with 87 octane gas it may not be as powerful. GM is addicted to trucks though. How can they kill plans for V8 Cadillacs or a rear drive Impala and say CAFE is the reason, while they have 3 brands of GMT900s, the H2, and soon 4 brands with the full size Lambda SUVs, and now bring out a Zeta pickup/suv combo. GM has 3 good cars (Malibu, Corvette, CTS) and a ton of bad ones. They should fix their car lineup and not worry about a Hummer H4 or 3rd GMC pickup.

Yes, but they don't sell 6 cylinder S-classes in the USA anymore. They due in Europe due to $8 a gallon gas and government/limo use for cars that stay in the city and never go fast. The S400 hybrid is a V6 plus electric, expected to deliver 40 mpg. If the DT7 (they should use CTS, DTS, etc, CT5 or CT6 sounds dumb) can beat a Civic or Aveo in gas mileage, I'd be fine with a V6, otherwise bring 400 horses from a DOHC V8. Cadillac's global sales are about 1/4th of Mercedes or BMW. If they were a bigger player in foreign markets it would make more sense for them to have a diesel V6 in their flagship. But Cadillac seems reluctant to do a diesel or hybrid sedan in the USA, and they don't sell much outside the US. The design cars for the American market, the American market S-class is 382-612 hp and $88-180,00, that is what they need to build.

If the DT7 has a V6, that disqualifies it right away from competing with the big boys. The LS460 and S550 are 382 hp V8s as the low end engine, the 7-series is all new for 2009 and will have 407 hp as the base engine. The S-class is the standard, if Cadillac wants to challenge someone, they might as well go after the best. Cadillac will never get ahead of the Germans by beating them on price, people that shell out $95,000 for an S-class clearly don't care about 90% the car for 75% the price, they want the best and most prestigious car.

DTS buyers are dying, and the DTS and STS have horrid resale values that drive down the resale of other Cadillacs. I just saw a 2008 STS V8 with nav system and all options for $36,900 on Autotrader.com. That is over $20,000 in depreciation within the current model year. Cadillac must give up on the land barges if they ever want to be anything but a better version of Lincoln. If the DT7 has a base price of $88,000 it is an S-class competitor, otherwise it's a Town Car competitor. Zeta's not good enough to compete with the S-class, GM knows that; the DT7 will be a 200+ inch long floaty car with plush seats and a 300 hp V6 costing $45,000-55,000. And they'll cling to 30,000 sales a year to a 70 and up crowd and limousine market.

Why would GM cancel a DOHC V8 for Cadillac when Audi, BMW and Mercedes all have DOHC V8s and V10s or V12/W12 as well. GM likes to follow the Ford-Lincoln, Honda-Acura model. It's easier and cheaper to just make entry level luxury cars with the corporate V6 on the corporate platform.

Ooo good, 2 Cadillacs based off a Pontiac/Chevy platform. Every Cadillac (minus the XLR) should have a diesel option, BTS, CTS, Zeta car, Escalade, etc. If they don't do it, they'll just be chasing the Germans in that also. I know Lutz will claim it costs $4000 more to do a diesel, but the Mercedes GL class diesel meets or beats the Tahoe Hybrid in mileage (both are very close in size and weight) and the Tahoe hybrid is a $9100 extra cost, $4,000 is a bargain compared to that.

I remember hearing as diesel became more popular, and production rose, that the cost of it could drop below gas. A year or 2 ago diesel was priced about the same. The 335d averages 7 mpg higher than the 335i, that is 33% increase in mileage vs maybe 10% increase in the cost of diesel fuel. Ethanol is less available and while it costs less, the E85 Impala gets about 15 mpg vs 21 for gas, so the savings go away. Obviously diesel is not the solution to everything, a diesel engine does cost more (but they run for 500,000 miles). I think for trucks it is a no brainer option, good thing to offer in Cadillacs. A 4 cylinder turbo diesel could be used in a Malibu or other small-midsize car or small SUV. Offering flex fuel and hybrid is good too, those are often cheaper to do so for Cobalt/Malibu/Saturns that is a good thing to offer. GM has so many products they need a mix of all to hit CAFE guidelines but more importantly win consumers back from the imports.

This is an obvious move, I only wonder why it takes them 18 months to put the diesel engine in, they should have that for sale this year. The diesel V6 should be offered in the SRX and CTS for 09 model year as well. Diesel is the solution to a lot of CAFE problems, I'd love to see the diesel V8 in Cadillac sedans (assuming they ever build one that isn't in the entry level class). I think GM is making a mistake by focusing more on ethanol rather than diesel. Bob Lutz seems to think diesel won't catch on in the USA, but when BMW and Mercedes do it, others will copy. In Pittsburgh ethanol is sold at 2 gas stations, vs hundreds or thousands possibly that sell diesel. Plus ethanol doesn't save the consumer any money, diesel will. A hybrid diesel (S400 hybrid gets 40 mpg highway) would be great for GM to offer, but the cost of that would probably only work on a Cadillac.

GM for sure has a weight problem with a lot of their vehicles. It's funny that an H3 pickup, G8 GXP and Hummer H4 are all a go, but a rear drive Impala that would beat any of them by 5 mpg is killed due to CAFE. The GTO had 400 hp and no one bought it, I am not yet convinced the G8 will be any kind of success. It it too similar to the Aussie version just like the GTO was.

The news was GM cancelled plans for a DOHC V8 to replace the Northstar. So either they keep the 16 year old Northstar around, which is both heavy, thirsty and not that powerful or they give up on V8s, aside from a Corvette engine in a V-series. I'm all for DI V6s and turbo V6s and turbo-diesel V6s, but they need a V8 too. Cadillac's worldwide sales are better than Saab, Hummer and probably Buick. I am not sure of Chinese sales volume of Buick vs Cadillac. If GM paid more attention to Cadillac they could grow to 500,000 units worldwide. M-B can meet CAFE standards because the Smart Four2 gets 33/41 mpg (2006 epa) and that will balance out all their V12 and AMG V8s. Plus they have diesel and a hybrid S-class coming, and no pickup trucks getting 16 mpg to counter act. BMW has Mini Cooper and diesel engines.

If Cadillac had a larger worldwide sales, a better XLR, a flagship, a midrange model, etc they could probably sell $70,000 V8 cars. Lexus sold 329,000 vehicles in the US alone last year, BMW nearly 300,000, if Cadillac could get up near that volume and 1 out of 4 had a V8 they'd use 70,000. I think canceling the Northstar replacement is a easy way out of building a true middle luxury car and an S-class fighter, and they will just focus on lower end luxury like Lincoln and Acura. The DI V6 may be close to the Northstar in power but the Northstar is old. The Lexus and M-B V8s are 380-390 hp and torque, vs 304 hp and 273 lb-ft Cadillac's V6. That is a big gap. An even bigger gap is the new BMW V8 with 408 hp and 446 lb-ft. A V6 can't compete in that class, and using something from the Silverado no matter how much tweaking is done won't work in the $55,000+ classes of cars.

Since this is V6, I would guess it would be around 18 mpg, but the H2 is 13 mpg and H3 is only about 16 mpg yet they won't cancel them because of CAFE. And I am upset that Cadillac won't get a V8 when Lexus and the Germans have them. Cadillac gets screwed over because GM has to fund Hummer, Saab and Buick that are all dying.

But Hummer only sold 55,000 units as a brand last year. Cadillac could sell 70,000 V8s, especially if they can get overseas sales going. And a V8 engine is cheaper to design than a whole car/truck. GM is whining about a 35 mpg standard hoping it will get reversed or using it as an excuse to charge more for cars or not build V8s. Cadillac will lose sales. When high gas mileage and "green" are the in things, investing in Hummer makes no sense.