{"id":1787,"date":"2009-11-07T09:47:50","date_gmt":"2009-11-07T14:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2009-11-07T09:54:26","modified_gmt":"2009-11-07T14:54:26","slug":"cadillac-the-cadillac-of-luxury-performance-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/cadillac-the-cadillac-of-luxury-performance-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac: The Cadillac of Luxury Performance Automobiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Zimmer wrote<\/a> in a recent post in “On Language” for the NY Times:<\/p>\n

The Cadillac division<\/span> of General Motors<\/a> has seen better days, with woeful sales figures even compared with those of other brands in the slumping luxury-car market.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to claim that while the phrase “…the Cadillac of …”\u00a0 has continued to indicate the highest quality, most desirable of something, Mr. Zimmer feels that this no longer applies to Cadillac vehicles.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Mr. Zimmer’s view is a decade or two behind.<\/p>\n

External Events: 1974 OPEC Oil Embargo, 1979 gas Crisis Change the Automotive Landscape<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

Cars lined up at the gas pump. Copyright United States Library of Congress<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, in the late 70s and 80s Cadillac struggled, along with much of the rest of the Automobile industry.\u00a0 Oil Embargos and fuel shortages suggested that radically different cars were needed, and automobile manufacturers rushed new products to market, sometimes in ways that did not play to their traditional customers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When the oil embargo hit in 1974, Cadillac was making 500 cubic inch (8.2L) V8 engines. Due to the expected rapid shift in consumer desire for fuel economy, changes had to be made.\u00a0 At the same time, it became less expensive to import cars from Europe, further stressing sales of American luxury cars.\u00a0 In 1979 a second crisis emerged, in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.<\/p>\n

Woops, I’ve done it again<\/strong><\/p>\n

GM and Cadillac had a series of faux pas, including issues with badge engineering, problems with diesel engines, electronic control issues with the multi-displacement 6-8-4 V8 (1981) and reliability issues with the HT4100 (1982) engine.\u00a0 The HT4100 evolved into the 4.5L and 4.9L OHV engines, which were very reliable and high quality.\u00a0 However, the damage had been done to a number of buyers who left the marque and never returned.<\/p>\n

1992: Cadillac Re-invents Itself<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting with the re-designed Seville and Eldorado models in 1992, and with the new Northstar 4.6L V8 and powertrain in 1993, Cadillac began to re-emerge as one of the pre-eminent luxury performance car manufacturers in the world.\u00a0 In 1999 the first Cadillac full-size SUV, the Escalade, arrived and has received wide accolade.\u00a0 In 2003 the new CTS led the further re-invention of Cadillac, continuing an arc of excellence.<\/p>\n

Today<\/strong>\"2010<\/a>: Cadillac is once again the Cadillac of Luxury Performance Cars<\/strong>\"\"<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Cadillac is currently one of the industry leaders by independent survey in initial and four-year quality and reliability.\u00a0 Cadillac has the best warranty policy among luxury car manufacturers. Today’s Cadillac vehicles mix performance, luxury, and convenience in a way that Cadillac’s founder, precision machinist Henry Leland, would definitely approve of. With vehicles like the new Cadillac, CTS-V Cadillac is once more the “Standard of the World”, and the Cadillac of Luxury Performance Cars.<\/p>\n

Mr. Zimmer, I suggest you visit a Cadillac showroom and test drive the current models before your next Cadillac article.\u00a0 Consider the facts<\/em>, then “May the best car win”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Zimmer wrote in a recent post in “On Language” for the NY Times: The Cadillac division of General Motors has seen better days, with woeful sales figures even compared with those of other brands in the slumping luxury-car market. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,217,216,215],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-site-info-news","tag-cadillac","tag-embargo","tag-leland","tag-nytimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1840,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}