Bimmer325

You might lambaste Toyota. I don't lambaste a company for smartly engineering and marketing its vehicles. GM wishes it could sell Chevys and Buicks based on badge.

And somehow that's supposed to reflect badly upon BMW. BMW's products are consistently excellent. Their formula is consistent, logical and unchanging: RWD, solid engineering and dynamics, familial design, constant updates to models, etc. BMW doesn't have a DTS marketed to an audience completely different than that of the rest of their cars. They don't have any models using 90s technology. BMW doesn't have an STS that's been left to rot on the vine. BMW sells cars that are unified and globally relevant. Cadillac does not. The fact that BMW is able to sell cars based on a badge is due to decades of consistent engineering and marketing. Cadillac will have to do a lot more than it's recent "renaissance" to get to this point.

3-Series, IS, G, etc. all offer a 300+ hp engine. Every car in this class has available AWD. A manual should be available in a car in this class. Yes. No.

The CTS is carrying Cadillac's entire reputation on its back. It's a more competent product than Cadillac's own more expensive sedans. The STS has gone without updates and is outclassed at this point in its life cycle. The DTS--even though it isn't meant to compete with cars like the LS, 7 Series, S, etc.--is damaging to Cadillac's image. A 4-speed transmission, FWD and dated styling don't convey "world class" the way the CTS and CTS-V do. Cadillac needs to realign its models with its competition. A smaller-than-CTS model would cover the highly-competitive 3, A4, IS, C market, and allow the CTS to move slightly more upmarket in price and continue to do battle with the 5 Series. Also, I wonder how many people step up from their 3 Series into on one of BMW's more upmarket models (5, 7, etc.). Cadillac needs something to draw young professionals into the family and keep them there for life.

Oldsmoboi: I assumed you were talking about a vodka martini. If you don't specify "vodka" a martini should be gin.

Croc: agreed on the 21 thing. If one thing can be blamed for the culture of binge drinking among young people in this country, it's the current drinking age. At 18, we're considered capable of voting, enlisting in the military, owning firearms, etc. Virtually every right of adulthood comes at 18...except for the right to drink. What message does that send? The right to drink is built up to the point where people drink themselves to death on their 21st birthdays. The only alcohol-related education anyone in this country receives before turning 21 relates to abstinence. It's ridiculous. Meanwhile, the government has every state by the balls in regards to their choice to lower the drinking age.

Why? If you don't specify, you're getting Popov. That's how it works.

The claim that torque steer is "a thing of the past" is BS. If anything, FWD worked better a decade or two ago when cars were lighter. Every time I get behind the wheel of a front-driver I'm shocked by how terrible it is dynamically. Torque steer, Novocaine-numb steering, terrible traction/wheelspin, unbalanced handling...it all seems to be the norm for FWD.

WTF, were the doors designed to open and throw passengers out onto the street during a collision?

I've been seeing a lot of these around.

It wasn't the media that killed Pontiac?

What a poorly written letter.

Camino, got it. Anyway, Pontiac hasn't been a performance brand in years. G6 owners will be more than happy with a Malibu when it comes time to trade in. If Buick wants to compete with Acura or whoever, they're going to need cars that perform. If Buick wants to die, they can keep making cars like the Lucerne.

What exactly is the "Pontiac" template? Cars like the G6? The G5? The G3? The Vibe? The G8 they didn't develop or engineer? Seriously, I want to know. All I'm saying is that it doesn't make sense for Buick and performance to be mutually exclusive things.

Buick needs this car now. If Pontiac had engineered cars that performed like this, they wouldn't have one foot in the grave.

If Buick wants to survive, they'd better start making cars that don't "fit" the Buick brand.

I understand where you're coming from, ocn. One thing you need to understand is that we're from two different generations. Throughout my lifetime, Pontiac has churned out mediocre product after mediocre product. I know ten people who have rented a Pontiac, and not one person who owns a Pontiac. Pontiac is more of a marketing ploy than a carmaker. They don't engineer cars. The G8 is the best Pontiac produced during my lifetime. The G8 isn't a Pontiac. It was developed by Holden and rebadged as a Pontiac. So many people here refer to Pontiac as this focused, thoroughbred performance brand, forgetting that nobody born in the last 20 years has any reason to think of Pontiac as anywhere near that. They've built shoddy Grand Ams, Avis-queen Grand Prixes, death-trap minivans, floaty Bonnevilles and embarrassingly styled junk for my entire lifetime. I'm sorry for the loss of the Pontiac you remember. But that was a damn long time ago, and a whole generation of people alive today don't care. And it's not our fault. It's GM's.

So, the death of Pontiac caused your interest in cars to "evaporate?" Sorry, but if that's the case, you weren't a car enthusiast to begin with. There are plenty of brands around that make more exciting cars than Pontiac.

It's funny. Opel has better cars than just about any GMNA brand and everyone here is glad to see them go. Then again, GM loyalists have never really had a handle on what's good for the company.

This thing looks GREAT.

Sure beats the hell out of Cadillac's garbage in this segment.

Trunk space isn't even something I consider when looking at a car. I didn't even open the trunk of the IS before I drove one off the lot. That said, the CTS is too big for me. I'd be more interested in a smaller-than-CTS model.

Looks like the interior out of a 2003 Town Car. Really doesn't advance interior design in any way.

I just wish the SRX wasn't so chintzy looking.

Agreed 100%. I honestly can't believe there are people who still think gay marriage is an "argument" of some sort. It's more an issue of right vs. wrong than anything else.