Our former Operations Manager drives a Cadillac STS. "Big Deal" you say, but it is a very big deal. Chris is a 40-something automotive industry expert, and his past rides have usually originated in Sweden, with a long list of super restored sanitary Muscle Cars. He hails from a family of RISD-trained, cutting edge design, product types, and again, they tend to favor clean up offers from Saab and Volvo. So, for Chris to risk ridicule at the Thanksgiving table in order to own a Sioux Falls Cadillac is synonymous with a car big change. But find no error in the family of Chris' recent election of the horse. Make no mistake, we are witnessing a minor miracle in the making. In total about face in Cadillac's corporate zeitgeist, market perception and product line - and it is a wonderful thing.
Fifty years ago, declared himself proud Cadillac "Standard of the World" and that the claim was not idle boasting. In 1912, Sioux Falls Cadillacs won the prestigious Dewar Trophy for manufacturing excellence. In an era when most cars were painstakingly assembled by hand with great self-assembly and component overhaul - several production Cadillac was completely disassembled, parts co-mingled and the cars together, but revisions allowed one of their components. These cars are then driven 500 miles without any mechanical failures of any kind. A fantastic achievement - it spoke to the Cadillac impressive production levels of accuracy, manufacturing process control and standardization. Mind you, this result came long before the era of advanced metallurgy, CNC machining and Demming inspired Total Quality Management.
For 50 years, therefore, was known as a Cadillac design, quality and design leader, with innovative features like electric start, automatic transmissions and some of the most exuberant Harley Earl inspired styling world has ever known. In those days, a Cadillac in the driveway meant the funds needed, social status and prestige. A Cadillac was really something special.
The party came to an abrupt end in the 1970s and '80s, as a result of Middle East oil embargoes catalyzed a steep rise in fuel prices. Cadillac responded with a series of technical fiasco as the V8-6-4, Diesel, Seville, and Cavalier-based Cimarron. Cadillac compensated for the poor engineering industry with over the top baroque styling intended to evoke the past glory days. Once again missed the mark - so that by the 1980s the only ones who voluntarily run Caddies were white belt and white shoes Florida crowd and, um, "urban adult entertainment executives" with names like Huggy Bear and Sweet Lou. We were actually a 1982 Coupe DeVille, and it was, bluntly, a piece of the ultimate vehicular feces. Grim times indeed.
A decade later, the car sophisticates as Chris returns to the Cadillac marque. In this hyper-competitive global economy are very few companies get Mulligan - and Cadillac is determined to stay in the game this time.
Whether Caddy has regained the title of "standard in the world" is debatable, but there is no denying that the swagger is back. 13 years after its introduction, still world class Northstar DOHC V8 32V fresh, potent and competitive. We recently enjoyed some extended seat time in a Northstar powered DeVille and the car positively to the Midwest miles for a refined, quiet and feloniously illegal 125 MPH plus. V-series performance cars are lively and pretty darned exciting - everyone has a sub 5 second dash to 60. While the flagship XLR has yet to achieve sales projections are selling briskly CTS and SRX and Escalade SUV is the market leader. The "art and science" design motif is a polarizing, like-it-or-hate-it look, but certainly less controversial than Chris Bangle's "flame surfacing" styling of the BMW. Heck, we may also be a Led Zeppelin-flavored ad campaign to remind us that the Caddy is sincere about wooing the 40-year-old market.
We're serious car people - and our competitors are largely made up of serious car people too. Cadillac has begun to get our attention, our interest and our dollars. The management team at GM have been pummeled recently by the press, but they deserve some props for the face of Cadillac. Again, the Cadillac one goal mark for the car lover - a sure sign that all is right in the automotive world.
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