smk4565

Both are premium brands though, and they share engines between the R8 and Gallardo.

Don't forget the W engines that are shared with VW, Audi. Bugatti, and Bently. Today a company needs to share with divisions or it will need to share with other companies. BMW has worked with GM and now is talking to Toyota to share cost on new technologies and parts. Development cost are so high any more the cost need to be spread out as much as they can. This is why even cross town rivals GM and Ford shared funding in the transaxle they co developed. you mean like the V6 that the E, C, SLK, R, ML, GLK, and CLS use that comes from the Sprinter? The Sprinter originally had an inline five cylinder, replaced by the 72 degree V6 that is used in the E-class and S-class (and Jeep for a while). But the engine makes more power in the sedans than it does in a Sprinter. The 3.5 liter gas V6 in all those cars is a 60 degree V. And I never complained about sharing a V6 with Cadillac and Buick/Chevy, because you can tweak the engine for each car. As they do with a CTS and a Traverse, or as Honda or Nissan do. Although they both have 3.5 and 3.7 liter V6s for some differentiation. My complaint was V-series cars sharing an engine with a Chevy. An AMG engine for example is only in an AMG product.

The teaser photos look good; I like the full width tail lamps and I am glad to see someone put some bold styling into a compact car. So many small cars are boring looking. Not sure about the name, but since alliteration is hot right now with domestic cars, Dodge Dart fits the mold. Chrysler/Fiat build quality I am not sold on however.

Japanese cars may be for the most part economical and reliable, but they are mostly boring to look at and boring to drive too. Japanese brands haven't had that good of a sales year, especially Honda and Toyota. Hyundai is doing well, but Toyota might have it's best days behind them. And what Toyota/Honda product is really fun to drive, they are all appliances. Europe has many more luxury and performance cars that are interesting.

But the CTS-V isn't built on the same platform, suspension, transmission and engine as a Malibu or Cruze. And actually, I'd prefer Cadillac make their own engine that is not used in Corvette for their V-series cars. But that is another topic altogether. I am not convinced the ELR won't just be a Cadillac Volt with a different body, maybe with a battery upgrade.

The argument of "they need this car to spread out the development cost of the Volt" I think is a bad one. The Volt should be able to support its own development cost, and even if it couldn't spread it onto another Chevy. It shouldn't be Cadillac's role to spread development costs of a slow selling Chevy. Cadillac should be building cars that luxury buyers want, and cars that will improve their brand image. By saying we need the ELR to help cover Volt costs smells of "old GM" thinking and supporting legacy costs and sunk costs should not be the goal. The goal is to build profitable vehicles that people want.

What is odd to me is the EPA made the rating, it isn't really Hyundai's fault. But maybe the EPA rating will change next year.

I am all for saving gas and think Cadillac needs hybrids and diesels. But I would rather see a hybrid CTS or plug-in CTS than another car built of a Chevy platform. It seems that GM's plan is to have every Cadillac platform share with a Chevy, that is a dangerous path to go down. Plus, Cadillac keeps stating they are a performance luxury brand but slow FWD cars isn't performance. If the ELR does 0-60 in 6 seconds flat then great, but if it is just slow like the Volt then it doesn't belong in Cadillac's line up.

Great design couldn't save the XLR. I think the XLR is the best looking Cadillac ever made, but it didn't have the build quality, performance, interior, etc to justify the price. The BMW 6-series had 550 units last month in the USA, but they sell over 1,000 a month globally. Which is low volume, but it is basically a 5-series coupe, it isn't different model. The Z4 has pretty low sales, only 3,200 this year in the USA. If they built a plug-in CTS that sold 400 units a month I'd see that as a better investment than an ELR that sells 500 units a month.

I don't think fuel economy or being able to drive 30 miles on electricity is enough to sell a car costing maybe $60,000. People spending that much money on a car aren't looking to save $2,000 a year in fuel costs. At that price point, Cadillac is going to have to offer a lot more. A Volt with a nicer interior sounds to me like Lincoln thinking, and we all know that doesn't work.

I think it's more that GM needs to spread the investment in the Volt hardware across multiple models... Spending more money to make a car that will sell maybe 500 cars a month and possibly steals sales from the Volt is going to be more profitable? Maybe it will be, but I have doubts. At one time they tried to spread costs of the W-body across 5 brands, or the GMT360 across 5 brands, 4 minivans, etc. All those badge jobs just led to lost money, and I realize this isn't a straight badge job. But still, hybrid luxury cars aren't selling the sales charts on fire, Cadillac should have one, but perhaps a CTS hybrid would be the cheapest and easiest to make, and sell the most. Look at current luxury cars sales, Mercedes is dominating right now, and fuel efficiency isn't their strength. So while I think a "green" car is important I wouldn't make it a priority; performance, technology and engineering seem to matter more to luxury buyers. If Cadillac can do all the other stuff well, then throw on fuel economy as a bonus that is great. But for fuel economy to be the #1 attribute isn't the way to go.

I think a Cadillac Volt won't sell, the Volt has sluggish sales, a more expensive, less practical version could be a real sales dog. I would rather see them make a hybrid ATS and/or CTS. To put a hybrid drivetrain in an existing car would cost less, and probably sell better. And diesel will be nice too.

Agreed, that is a joke. Not a Duesenberg.

So Cadillac is supposed to take on Mercedes and BMW with what is in the Chevy parts bin? That ain't going to work. This is part of Cadillac's problem, they are so tied to the rest of GM and have that mentality that the GM parts bin is satisfactory. The dead weight brands are gone, GM should be able to allocate proper resources to Cadillac to make an electric RWD car.

How long til the new Malibu arrives? That is a pretty important car, that is the biggest segment. And the new Camry is on sale.

Jeer, never liked the design of that car.

To me the disappoint would be the Malibu. Only 10,000 sold and several others in that segment are near the 20,000 mark. The GMT900s all did really well, must have been a sale going. Or maybe people got fooled by the $3.30 a gallon, and once it goes back to $4 people will flock to the Prius. Weird.

I like it at $15,000, but not if the price gets near $20k or higher. It is in great condition, but it is a 10 year old car, and Once you get above $20k, you could get a 1-2 year old Camaro or Mustang

The Volt is a slow seller, I can only imagine a Cadillac Volt really being a sales dog. Cadillac does need hybrids though (and/or diesel), BMW will have hybrid 3, 5, and 7 series in 2012. And of course Lexus is hybrid heavy and Mercedes and Audi are pushing diesels. Seems like it would be cheaper, and more appealing to customers to hybridize an existing car, rather than a dedicated hybrid like the HS250h failure.

Which is what, like 180 lb-ft? On a car heavier than a CTS. The only way for the ELR to work is to vastly increase the power over the Volt. It has to be faster than a Chevy, handle and ride better than a Chevy, otherwise why pay for it. Cadillac selling a Volt with an interior upgrade is a page from the Lincoln playbook and that doesn't work. Try 273 ft-lb. Which means that the Volt has same torque at zero that the Cadillac CTS 3.6 has at 4,600 rpm. I didn't realize it had that much, but it is still only 149 hp, and 0-60 in about 9 seconds with a top speed of 101 mph. Not really Cadillac-like performance numbers. If they boost the power up to make it as fast as a CTS, then they are on to something. I'd rather them just electrify an ATS so they are builing and electric version of a Cadillac rather than a Cadillac version of a Chevy electric car.

I am fine with small, I've been saying they need a smaller car for years. What I am not fine with is a Cadillac Cruze.

Which is what, like 180 lb-ft? On a car heavier than a CTS. The only way for the ELR to work is to vastly increase the power over the Volt. It has to be faster than a Chevy, handle and ride better than a Chevy, otherwise why pay for it. Cadillac selling a Volt with an interior upgrade is a page from the Lincoln playbook and that doesn't work.

I saw the Converj at our auto show last year, I wasn't that impressed with it. I prefer the Evoq and XLR for a 2-door. The Converj hood seemed too short and stubby. And this car could be a 4,000+ lb compact. The weight is going to be hard to overcome.

A pick up truck with the pick up bed in front, and the passenger cabin and engine in the rear. That way you can watch your cargo while you drive.

Money isn't the whole determiner in a car...the Lexus supercar sucks in comparison to the others, yet it is much more expensive than many. While I would mostly agree on the Lexus, it does do the Nurburgring in like 7 minutes 14 seconds (with Nurburgring package). So it has that going for it. The Maybach is dated now, but it still a good car. Probably not worth what it costs, but part of the reason to buy that car is to flaunt how wealthy you are. I don't think Mercedes needs Maybach though, they have the S-class, so I agree with the decision to cut the Maybach brand.