If Jerry Flint was a few decades younger or being published on Autoextremist
instead of Forbes his latest column would be called a rant. That’s because the guy takes on Cadillac for among other
things a lack of a light in the glove compartment of their giant Escalade ESV. That’s not the normal Escalade mind you
but the extended version based on the Suburban. If you think that doesn’t make sense the rest of his column will baffle
you as well. He points to sales numbers of Cadillac saying they’re not impressive overall even though the CTS and
Escalade are both up over last years sales. This is during a downturn in the automotive industry and GM in general. So
two of their models, that have been out for a few years, are gaining ground in the market. That’s a plus. The fact that
the aging DeVille isn’t selling as well as it should is not that big of a deal since it too will be redesigned and the
STS, recently released, looks to sell very well and has garnered extremely good press including a glowing review by
James R. Healey in USA Today. The
only thing I see wrong with Cadillac is the SRX. But that’s a personal beef with a vehicle that has no utility and
little luxury yet costs a lot.
There are also some interesting tidbits on the GM structure and how it takes vice chairman Bob Lutz to make any
decisions over there. Flint also rips into the Chevy Malibu, Pontiac G6 and Buick LaCrosse for their lackluster engines
and transmissions. All of which we?ve heard through our comment boards recently. Flint?s lone hope is that Cadillac
putting an engineer behind the helm is a good thing, but their turnaround started with the previous boss, Mark LaNeve,
who now handles all of GM. I say Cadillac is back as the flagship brand of GM and should be left to evolve on its own.
Now if the radical transformation of what was such a boring nameplate can be applied to Buick and Chevy then we?ll see
some nice changes. Pontiac I?d say is in the middle somewhere and from what I?ve seen and heard Saturn could be turned
around right quick.