GM launches Cadillac Drivers' Blog
Believe it or not, we're actually impressed with General Motors for diving head first into the choppy waters of blogging. The GM FastLane blog, for instance, is used on a regular basis by top-level execs, including the always interesting orator Bob Lutz, to inform, correct and promote GM's wares to the online community. Recently a new blog was launched by the General called the Cadillac Drivers' Blog. We've gone through all the posts that have been published since the site quietly went live on January 31st, and they're an interesting read from the perspective of Cadillac engineers charged with testing the luxury marque's prototypes out on the open road.
The inspiration for the site appears to have come from the very spy photographers these engineers are tasked with avoiding at all costs. The lengths to which spy photogs will go to catch a glimpse of what these engineers are doing made them think, "Why not let people see a bit more of what we're doing?" Why not indeed. Currently the posts focus on testing for the 2008 Cadillac CTS, both in the suffocating heat of Death Valley and the arctic cold of Michigan's upper peninsula and the Kinross facility in northern Sweden. Who knows why the Cadillac Drivers' Blog was launched, but credit must be given to the engineers who author it who seem to enjoy escorting us readers into their world.
[Source: Cadillac Drivers' Blog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bobotheclown 3:26PM (2/22/2007)
Kinross is in the UP, not Sweden. From a post on the blog, it sounds like Arvidsjaur is the town where they are testing in Sweden.
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BOB 3:33PM (2/22/2007)
GOOD FOR THEM! (although I was kind of taken aback to read that a 1966 Cad in Sweden "looks like from the early 70's", until I realized that people young enough to be doing that testing are not the generation who knew Cadilacs)
AND-- I must admit that my first thought was how could the typical Cad driver do a blog, when they fall into 2 categories:
1-- Not computer literate, busy taking wife to cardiac appointment at Cedars-Sinai hospital before visiting great grand children.
2-- Possibly computer literate, if not lterate in English, working stolen laptop in stolen Escalade.
I am glad there are young engineers making the cars better. I look forward to the day when all the Cad models will be market leaders, as they once were.
And I hope all the idiots are gone, such as the one at the LA Auto Show, 10 years ago on the CAD stand -- when I asked her, "How come, when I was young, a guy who made a few bucks would rush out and get a Coupe de Ville, but, now I am 50, and no Cadillac is young enough for me?"
She replied, "You must drive one of those FOREIGN cars"
I got in my Mustang and left.
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daniel 5:00PM (2/22/2007)
hey everyone, i'm trying to compile some research on the 2008 cadillac CTS. if anyone wouldn't mind taking the survey posted below. thanks!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=135523327008
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david 6:16PM (2/22/2007)
bob, you're about as believable as bill clinton and george bush combined.
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doglet 6:44PM (2/22/2007)
this is my new favorite blog, incredibly interesting for an engineering student. this is process that transforms a computer optmized machine into something that you and i would like to sit in, drive and live with day to day.
this is where the details get set and a car will suceed or fail based largly on how well these people do their jobs. i had no idea there was so much traveling involved testing and refinment. hot and cold weather testing and going to one racetrack or another to see how the suspension, brakes and everything else works under all these unique conditions.
this is what i wanted with that ford bold moves site but that devolved into a big commercial about how bold ford trucks are.
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BOB 7:19PM (2/22/2007)
#4 -- My Auto show story is completely true, as right as your manners are wrong, and your snide remark is unspecific.
...The woman was under 30, wearing a Cadillac blazer, long brown hair, ugly, with a lower-class Michigan accent, not exactly what you used to think of as Cadillac material.
...If you mean my take on who drives Cads now: OK, a bit exaggerated, but look around in LA, and see is it true enough to make the point.
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Fabulo 7:43PM (2/23/2007)
AutObLog = GM friendly. Is this AOL pressure or something?
Not even trying to be cynical but the GM fastlane is everything but a genuine attempt at blogging. GM executives? You're joking right? The whole thing is corporate self promotion, run by the marketing department, and heaven forbid you would voice any negative comment in the feedback.
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