boblutzfan

I think both of you have valid points. I have lived in Europe and Saab is not considered a luxury car over there. The Cadillac brand = Luxury but when it is such a blatant rebadge it doesn't make sense. What would American's think if DCX took a perfectly fine Chrysler 300 and slapped a Mercedes Benz badge on it and sold it as an entry level MB? That is basically what GM is doing with the BLS. Sure, it is a fine car with a good interior - but it is still a rebadge from a lessor brand. Just a reminder - Cadillac is the premium GM brand. For those of you who complain about the CTS interior - sure the BLS is better, I would hope it is. Remember, the BLS was introduced in late 2005 and the CTS was introduced nearly three years earlier - GM has had time to work on the Cadillac image and a lot has changed since 2002/2003. The BLS isn't quite a valiant attempt at an entry-level luxury car - but it doesn't justify the Wreath and Crest. If you want a finely tuned FWD premium sedan then go buy a Saab. If you don't like the current CTS - then wait 12 months - there will be a CTS that will blow the BLS away pretty soon. Now, I realize that the DTS shares mechanicals with the Lucerne (although most are borrowed by Buick from Cadillac so not borrowed from a cheaper brand) and the Escalade is a GMT900 SUV shared with GMC and Chevy. Large Luxury SUVs are measured by a different standard than premium sedans. Cadillac has the SRX (which is unique to the brand) to compete with other European SUVs in that segment - the Escalade is designed to compete against other brands rebadged trucks... Navigator, QX45, LX470. When it comes to luxury sedans from a corporations top make - they shouldn't be rebadges... That is the problem with the BLS.

No thanks. While I understand the need for it in Europe - I like the idea that the CTS is unique not sharing a platform with any other GM brand while offering a true RWD drivers car as the base vehicle for Cadillac. The interior issues will be corrected with the next CTS within the year. I predict the next CTS will have a nicer interior than the BLS anyway.

How is this news? I thought the six speed came out months ago?

The nose of the new avenger will look nice on the next minivan. I hope that the Grand Caravan has something similar.

Wasn't the Tundra just a renamed T100 after the embarrassing launch of the T100?

I seriously doubt that GM, Ford or Dodge will loose many customers to the Tundra. I live in San Antonio and the majority of truck owerner I have talked to would never consider a Toyota truck. I think the sales will come from Honda and Nissan as they have not managed to make any serious trucks despite their best attempts. The Titan (while truly full size) has been a failure for Nissan and the Ridgeline is a joke.

The Escalade powertrain is best in class. I love it.

Great post. Welcome to the board.

Yeah, the Bluetooth thing doesn't make sense. GM tries to use the business case that they can't offer those kinds of products and be profitable - yet I argue that they aren't profitable because they don't offer those products. I guarantee that if they sold a Lacrosse with those features and that interior with a Velite grill it would be a hit!!

Here is the press release for this vehicle. It is based on our LaCrosse... why oh why can't we have interiors like this? There are also some more pictures as well. http://www.globalautoindex.com/news.plt?no=1392

I don't know that I would go so far as to say it is better than the STS - but it is definitely better than the CTS/SRX as well as just about every other Chevy/Buick/Pontiac/Saturn interior. What is sad is that GM will give other markets this kind of interior but will not do it for their home market. Look at GM/Buick's success over in China - year after year of sales increases while in the states GM suffers. Granted the market place is different over there, still with interiors like this - Buick would do much better.

Yeah, I don't like the rear lights either. Thankfully, that is an easy and cheap fix compared to the interior of the US LaCrosse.

Many new airbags are housed in the dash with no visible seams. I would imagine it is there - you just can't see the seam around it.

The comparison of the two interiors is great. I hadn't thought of the LS - but now that you mention it, the CBL (Chinese Buick LaCrosse) is very similar. I think the center stack is cleaner in the CBL. I like the vertical vents on either side of the NAV unit. These vents look similar to those found in the STS. The dash of the CBL looks much better than the 2007 Lexus ES which would be its natural competition if sold here. I wish that GM would bring this interior to the states ASAP. It has GM parts that are readily available and the design of the interior has been paid for by the GM China unit.

If that is the case - then why not give us the same high quality interiors for our Lacrosse? It seems as though we received a LaCrosse that was conceived in the 90's both interior and exterior. It may have a quiet interior and of high quality - but it looks 10 years old. This Lacrosse looks current and contemproary - especially the interior. If GM wants Buick to be an aspirational brand, then they need to give us this kind of interior in the Lacrosse. The fact that you can't even get a navigation unit in the US Lacrosse is shameful.

It has Navigation. If you look at the pictures of the interior and dash it appears to have the same nav unit that is now appearing in the GMT-900s and Enclave. GM - are you listening? Give us this interior for the US Lacrosse.

Clearly this has an interior made from many existing GM parts - notice the US Lacrosse steering wheel? Yes, the interior is high class and much better than the US Lacrosse. The exterior could use some work (like remove the hood ornament) but it is clean and the nose is better than the oval look of the current US Lacrosse.

Somebody post the pictures from the link. Here is another link with more pictures: Scroll down to the bottom of this link http://www.buick.com.cn/news/news20060222_1.htm

No... this. http://www.buick.com.cn/lacrosse_pictures.aspx

Anybody see the pictures of the new Buick Lacrosse for China? It has a different exterior and interior. It would be great if we got that interior for the upgraded lacrosse.

Just a thought: There are a couple of valid reasons why GM would ask/demand the original post be taken down. 1) The memo was completely false - GM on a mission to reduce the negative publicity might have acted quickly to minimize the damage that this would cause. 2) The memo had some truth to it - GM would leverage the statement that the memo was confidential and use that to enforce the removal. Given all the red flags that have been pointed out over the past couple of days I tend to think that #1 is true and that GM acted to minimize further bad PR. However, I am curious as to what GM said to get this removed. How was the request made? What did they say? Who did they contact?

Great read.

Very interesting. So who is VRosas0271?

So the file you recieved was from a troll?

So according to the memo - gm is calling for a review of basically the entire car? That doesn't make sense - especially if the other two platform mates are going forward. Notice that it says that production and remaining development be stopped all items in the list. There are many things on the list that are not unique to the Outlook: Brake Components Sunroof Torque Converter Transmissions (plural - very curious if true) Driveshaft The other items are brand specific - but I fail to see why GM would order production and remaining development be stopped on these undoubtedly common parts? While the request includes the common parts it goes on to say that all work on the GMT 997 and 998 should continue as scheduled. It just doesn't make sense. Again, I would like some insite from someone who knows what these GM memos look like.