smk4565

But that SRX has a better interior than what the 2010 has, plus it is REAR DRIVE and has a V8. The 2010 is a front-drive V6 on a glorified Equinox platform. It is Lincoln MKX part 2. The current SRX has won more awards than any Cadillac in history, the new one will win zero. The Lexus won't win any awards either, except for JD Power quality.

Front wheel drive, looks too much in shape like a 9-4x, Equinox, Terrain, Vue. It is more rounded than the current SRX which people find bland. No one can out-bland Lexus, and the SRX just doesn't look that unique or expensive. Compared to an X5 or ML350 the SRX looks kind of plasticy and cheap. There is a good 6 inch wide piece of black plastic that surrounds the whole bottom of the SRX, that is something a Ford Explorer would do, and the Range Rover doesn't, so who is Cadillac aspiring to.

This one is ugly, but all the other ones were ugly too and they sold those. I think they have a 3rd row seat now, but I bet it is tiny. I think this new one is 188-189 inches long, 275 hp from the 3.5 V6 and about 4100 pounds. That power to weight ratio isn't bad, better than most SUVs. The sad thing is Cadillac will try to make a generic front drive SRX to compete, and will fail at it.

First off, Mercedes dealerships are stand alone, Cadillac should be also, Saab's image doesn't fit Cadillac's and would be a distraction in the dealership. Second, there is no money to make Saturns and Hummer, they have to file bankruptcy in 3 weeks, making new Hummers and Saturns isn't happening. About Cadillac, this is where GM needs massive investment, the 08 Malibu cost $500 million to develop. That was just an upgrade of an existing platform, using already existing engines, etc. It costs Mercedes over $1 billion to make a new S-class, and some stuff they can recycle. Cadillac has to start from scratch, it could cost $1.5 billion easily to make an S-class competitor, another $1.5 billion or more to do the BLS. To upgrade the CTS to get it to 5/E/A6 class could take another $250+ million if done soon. The XLR's problem isn't price, it is that it sucks. So that is another $250 million or so to fix it. Plus the SRX and Escalde will need work. Cadillac needs $4-5 billion in 2009 and 2010 just to catch up to Mercedes, which is about 35-40% of GM's entire R&D Budget. If Chevy takes 50% (they do 75-80% of sales) only 10% is left for the other 6 brands combined.

I said years ago they had to kill brands, I could see in 2005-2006 how 8 brands was too many for GM to get new product to. They can't slice up the pie 8 ways and expect to compete with Toyota who has a bigger pie (money) and slices it 3 ways. Buick, Pontiac, GMC is 3 brands, if it were one, then it should be GMC Solstice, GMC Enclave, GMC Yukon, GMC G8, GMC Lucerne, etc. I just drove by a combo Buick-Pontiac-GMC-Chevy dealer in downtown Pittsburgh that went bust, even with 4 brands in a populated area they couldn't make it. They need Chevy and Cadillac to be world standard, a 3rd brand in the middle would be nice, but if they money isn't there, they can't do it. Cadillac needs about $4 billion of the next 2 years just to catch up to the Germans. Between that and what Chevy needs, there isn't much money left to go around. Buick would be relatively cheap to keep because they use the same mechanics as Chevy with an interior up grade and front and rear fascias. If Hummer, Saab, Pontiac, GMC, Saturn all go away, all of a sudden the marketing budget for Cadillac, Chevy, Buick doubles and marketing budget isn't a problem anymore.

I'd sell Saab for $1 if I could find a buyer for it. All it does is lose money.

But the economy did tank, and all of 2009 will likely look as bad as November auto sales did. GM can't survive another 12-14 months of sales like that last 2, with their current structure. Toyota is okay despite the economy, GM has to structure itself so that even in a terrible economy it can at least break even. GM needs to sell unused assets/real estate, cut marketing to near zero on anything but Chevy and Cadillac and sell Saab, Hummer and Saturn for anything they can get, even if it is $1. Right now all that should matter is keeping Chevy and Cadillac alive. They are headed to Chapter 11, if not now, then in March when the Treasury loan (if they get it) runs out. They have to make sure chapter 11, doesn't lead to chapter 7, and the only way to do that is to drastically downsize and get Chevy and Cadillac sales rising and turning profit.

3 million jobs related to the auto industry (only 250,000 of which are GM and Chrysler employees) out of 155 million jobs is 2% of the workforce, not 1 in 7 (14%). Not all those jobs would be lost because Toyota, Honda, etc would still be here and Toyota could keep any supplier it needs alive. GM and Chrysler will probably have to lay off 1/3 or more of their workforce even with bailout money. The bailout is just delaying death, it doesn't solve the real problem of legacy costs, too many dealers, too many brands, too many models and too many medicore products that people don't want.

GM's hired bankruptcy consultants, looks like that is the road they'll be taking unless the White House and Treasury can get them some money from TARP, but TARP money is set up for banks, not companies.

http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_cal...&vote=00215 Interesting that Harry Ried voted against it.

Time to bring out the bankruptcy papers, salvage whatever they can in Chapter 11. Hopefully they can save Chevy and Cadillac at least. The cash is almost gone and there is no one left to help them. Stock price will dive tomorrow.

Not even Toyota could be Saved By Zero. Most annoying series of car ads in recent memory. Outdoing the current LaCrosse is not a challenge, making the Regal or new LaCrosse better than the Accord or ES350 is. GM is king of making a new car that is benchmarked against the previous generation (Cobalt was better than Cavalier and G6 better than Grand Am, etc), rather than what the competition is doing. Challenge 2 is convincing people to buy a Buick sedan rather than a Japanese one. Everyone talks about the success of the Enclave, they are on pace to sell under 40,000 of them this year, that isn't that great for a $32-45,000 SUV. The Acadia is priced the same and handily outsells it, the Pilot and RX350 outsell it by a wide margin also. The Enclave is the 3rd best selling vehicle on it's platform. Plus it was down 40% in November, while the industry was down 30-35%.

It probably doesn't matter what the interior looks like because it's unlikely that Buick will get conquest sales, and only cling to their dwindling customer base of senior citizens drawn in by $3500 cash back and 0.9% APR.

Chrysler probably can't survive, a loan just pushes their demise off a year or two. I don't think Chrysler should get government money, let Cerebus pump money into them if the company is a good long term investment.

The front works, I like it more than the current car. Looks pretty good from the side, the rear is horrible. The back looks like a Japanese generic and ruins the car. The LED lights are an Audi ripoff, they look good on the Audi, but Mercedes didn't incorporate it as well.

The 2010 SRX and 2012 DTS hate that idea.

GM's position often doesn't match up to market reality. They may aspire for the Regal to compete with imports but it will likely be a Malibu, Milan competitor (assuming the Mercury is still alive then). Buick still fleets sedans at a pretty good rate, Honda is only 2% fleet.

I agree on the point that better than the current dated platforms and 4-speed/3800 combo cars isn't good enough. It has to be better than the Japanese sedans. And why is it supposed to compete with the Accord and Camry, the Malibu was supposed to do that. Sounds like the Regal will be midsized and priced in the low $20s, and all it will do is compete with the Malibu.

Well no bank would give GM a loan, so the government is their only option. GM isn't paying income tax right now because they don't make income, and Wagoner said something in the hearings about a tax exemption they have.

Pittsburgh has 4, one downtown (although it may have gone under) one in the south suburbs, one north (that did go bust and is now with a Pontiac-Hummer-GMC dealership, and one on the east suburbs that is at a Saturn, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Pontiac mega dealership. Saab I thought had nearly 200 dealers nationwide, 4 cars per dealer doesn't cut it. Lexus only has 200-250 dealers and outsells Cadillac with 1,000 and Buick with 1,500. Number of dealers isn't the problem, the products Saab has are.

I agree with siegan, and hopefully they mean it. This could just be another song and dance routine by the GM PR department. To me, GM's press releases have lost credibility, let's see the actions to back up their words. They have to prove they have changed, not just issue a letter or statement.

Saab's 3 models combined to sell 800 cars last month, that brand and all the models need to go away now. All of Saturn can die. Buick could use a small SUV, but the GM product planning idiots made the SRX as a dressed up Equinox, so making a Buick version is redundant. G3, G5, G6 should die in 09.

Not the S-class. The S-class is engineered better than any domestic car. Mercedes for a while in the late 90s, early 2000s, lost that engineering commitment, but it is coming back now. I wouldn't buy an M-B, but probably nothing under $100k is engineered better.

The 3-series is smaller than a Cobalt, and worldwide the 3-series has been a sales success for 20+ years. There won't be a glut in the middle when Saturn, Pontiac and Saab are gone, and a new Impala goes to a price in the high $20s rather than total overlap with the Malibu. The Delta Buick should be $25-30k like the LaCrosse is now, the Buick Epsilon about $29-35k so a base Buick is nicer than the Malibu LTZ. A lot of the 55+ crowd that Buick is trying to get doesn't need a big car, the kids are grown and gone, and they want something with a premium feel. Younger people in urban areas also prefer smaller cars, GM is missing this segment. Buick will never make it at $50k, let alone $60k, they have to live in the $25,000-40,000 range. Cadillac can't even make it in the $50-60k range right now. Cadillac can't get $60k for a midsize V6 sedan like M-B can. Mercedes spends over $1 billion to develop a new S-class, to make a great car it takes a lot of investment, so GM has to choose wisely what they pursue.

There isn't room unless GM can make all 4 better than the competition. 4 average brands will lead to eroding market share just as 8 average brands did. If they can make Chevy better than Toyota/Honda, Buick better than Acura/Lincoln, Pontiac better than Nissan/Mazda and Cadillac better than the Germans they can support 4 brands. If they can't do that, better to go with 3 brands.