smk4565

Lexus's reputation and image is far superior to Cadillac's. They have some high end products like the LS460 that convey status, Cadillac doesn't have that. Cadillac is supposed to be performance-luxury, not mommy mobiles, even the X3 and X5 are longitudinal engines and more performance based. Cadillac could make a Malibu with a nice interior and sell a ton too, but that won't make them the high status brand they want to be.

Any Saab product is a waste of money at this point, especially this one. They lose money every year, their sales shrink every year, but GM figures they better keep spending money on a car no one wants, while ignoring segments like minivans or a 40 mpg car. The Cadillac BRX is a horrible idea as well, front drive, transversely mounted engines need to be banned from Cadillac, as well as any transmission that isn't 6 gears or more. Cadillac can't build credibility with a dressed up Equinox, a 90s platform DTS, '04 9-3 wagon rebadge BLS, and a corvette rebadge XLR that is slow, not that luxurious and costs $80,000. The CTS is their only good car, aside from the soon to be cancelled SRX, which is the most awarded vehicle they built in 15-20 years. The BRX is basically like saying we give up, we'll compete with Lincoln and make MKZ and MKX type cars.

Agreed. Look at a 97-2000 Buick used and see what condition the paint is in. They do well in 3 year reliability, but not 10 year. Buick says will keep dropping, they serve a purpose for a few more years while their core buyers are alive, but after that they are useless. Obviously Saab should die first in the fewer, but better models plan, but Buick (like Mercury) is on death watch. When they redo the Impala it should be nicer than the Lucerne or Chrysler 300, the Malibu LTZ could have a better interior too. In hindsight, Oldsmobile was really a blend of what they have been trying to make Buick, Saturn and Pontiac. Olds had some luxury, some performance, and some import fighter ability. Maybe they should have kept them and pumped a lot of money in 1 brand, rather than a little money into 3 brands and dilute resources. Would have given them a better Chevy-Olds-Cadillac hierarchy. Might have failed, but could have worked.

Funny stuff, and I totally agree. This and the Cimarron are neck and neck for worst Cadillac ever. This car is just hurting their image more so in Europe. Cadillac needs to realize they need a real small car for Europe, the CTS is too big and they can't just rebadge anything, they need a unique product.

I never drove a CTS-V, only the V6 version. I hope to drive the 08 cts tomorrow. I know several people with GM pushrods, I used to own one, I have never experienced a GM pushrod as good as a DOHC V8 engine. Cadillac is the only luxury brand that uses a pushrod engine aside from the Bentley Arnage. If the pushrod was so good, Lexus, BMW and Mercedes would use it. They know what sells in the luxury segment, GM doesn't (unless it is a truck), and GM gives Cadillac parts bin stuff from Chevy and expects that to compete with BMW, it doesn't work. Luxury marques really rely on image to sell a car, the companies with the best image sell the most, it is hard to make an image with a Chevy pushrod when the other brand has twin turbo 6, 8 and 10 cylinder engines and a V12 in the showroom.

They are near dead, sales are down this year, they have been down 20% of more several months in a row. The Enclave gets outsold by 40 or so other SUVs If they made a really good Malibu and Impala there would be less need for Buick. The 08 Malibu exterior is one of the best looking cars I think, I wish the interior were better though. Buick won't ever appeal to young people, they are the car of the baby-boomer's parents. I know there is a market for a soft-quiet near luxury car, but there are cars that fit that market much better than the dated Buicks. If Buick made a class leader, I'd say they are worth keeping, but they don't.

I think this car is embarrassing. The wreath and crest should never be on a piece of junk like that, they might as well put one on front of the new Malibu. The wood trim around the shifter looks glued on, almost like the G6's fake wood does. The exterior is ugly, and the Saab 9-3 isn't even that great of a car, putting a Cadillac badge on a lesser car is not going to get them established in Europe. Cadillac never made a wagon in 100 years, there is a reason, wagons are not cool. I know they are searching for sales, but the Escalade pickup and a 9-3 wagon badge job aren't the way to get them. Anything with a wreath and crest on it should be a standard of the world level car.

The IS, M3, RS4 are also much smaller than the CTS, they don't need as much power to move. A friend of mine has a Corvette, it is pretty loud, especially the exhaust. Sports cars are generally loud though, so it doesn't matter, luxury cars are quiet and smooth. Cadillac at some point has to make a small car, and make the CTS-sized car their middle car and price it with other middle cars. They can't leave the 5-series/E-class market vacant forever, and when they move in to it, they can't have a pushrod. Really it doesn't matter to me what they do with the CTS-V, I doubt I'd ever buy one anyway, I'd take a DOHC V8 making 370 hp over a 500-600 pushrod any day, and I'd pay $2000 extra for the DOHC with less power.

Pushrods have too many disadvantages, like needing huge displacement to make power, harshness, vibration, noise. They can't get away with that on a luxury car. Notice they couldn't get away with it on a Malibu, it won't work on a Cadillac. Lexus is doing a V10, Audi has a turbo V10, BMW is working on a turbo V10, the level of technology in those engines is really high, people will pay the premium for high tech stuff, the pushrod offers nothing special to buyers like that.

Looks like an Outlook but worse, for some reason the Chevy grille isn't working on this vehicle, kind of like how the Olds Aurora/Alero style front looked bad on the Bravada. GM has just repeated the 4 minivans mistake. Their small to midsize SUV lineup is really weak now, the over weight Vue is really all they have until the update the Equinox.

A 335xi with sport package, cold weather package, keyless access ($500), premium package, automatic ($1375), satellite radio and rear parking sensors is $48,700. Take off $2000 if you don't need all wheel drive. The 2 items in parenthasis Saab doesn't have. It is pricey, but not $55,000, plus it's 0-60 time is the same as an Aston Martin DB9. Or compare this car to a CTS, the CTS has a far better interior for the same money. The CTS probably handles better than the Saab too, despite being bigger and heavier, because Sigma is a far better platform than Epsilon. No car with a transversely mounted engine handles great, they may be good, but never class leading.

Agreed, the 335i is pretty good. This looks like they gave the 9-3 a dose of Pontiac, big exhaust tips, spoiler, some ground effects, add 30 hp (still 25 short of the competition) and call it a performance car. They need to sell or close Saab, give every dime of theirs to Cadillac.

Metal grille looks better than the plastic. Otherwise the car looks bad, horrible interior. GM doesn't realize that the 3.6 liter high feature engine is average, the Japanese have had engines that make more power and get better mileage in their midsize sedans for a few years now. Pontiac should become the fleet sale brand, so they can end fleet sales on all the other brands (aside from commercial use full size vans/pickups). Pontiacs are basically Chevys with lower quality materials and plastic cladding inside and out. Either GM is really stupid, or really poor and can't fund this brand. Either way, why keep this brand around? All they are good for is rental cars, and I don't know if that is even a good idea, because it will give GM products a poor reputation. The G8 is going to be a bust also, because no one will pay over 30k for a Pontiac, it is like paying 30k for a Mitsubishi or Kia. The G8 V6 also has less power than a Camry, Accord or Altima, but weighs nearly 400 pounds more, how sporty can it be?

ZR1 is a good name choice. I am glad they went with that, using SS badging would have looked tacky. ZR1 is more legendary too.

I am actually 26, and never owned anything but a GM car. I want to see GM make better products, so this 20 year decline they are on ends. If you sit in a 335i, the interior is pretty nice, I don't like BMW's styling, but the materials are high level. Where as I like the design and layout of the STS, but the plastics are bad, there are gaps, etc. The 5-series and E-class offer a V8, that makes up for their 3900 pound weights. The CTS is going to be compared to the 3-series, IS and G, and the weight will hurt it in handling and gas mileage. Luckily the Lexus IS is a gas hog too, but Cadillac could really benefit from the 30 mpg car, whether it be a hybrid (good for CTS) or small turbo direct injection engine (this would be good for the BTS). As far as size, I personally like 190 inch long cars, that is a popular size (Camry, Accord, Malibu, CTS, etc). But for people without kids that dirve alone 95% of the time, I see the appeal of a smaller car that is sportier and more fuel efficient like the 3-series. Cadillac has to get their lineup straightened out, then they can morph this CTS into a great car. Personally I'd call the Alpha car the CTS, and the Sigma car STS, because CTS is known as entry level.

The CTS is overweight. A 335Xi which is all wheel drive is 3825 pounds, in rear drive it is 3605 lbs, and 3582 lbs for the coupe, all with automatic. Car and Driver's as tested weight for an all wheel drive CTS was 4034 lbs. A rear drive CTS starts around the 3840 lb mark. By comparison a 535xi awd is 3946, and the V8 550i is 3968 pounds with an automatic. The G35 sedan is 3508 lbs and with all wheel drive it is 3704, thus making is over 300 pounds less than the CTS. The CTS has a weight problem.

I think there is a problem with 5-series size and 3-series price. The cars in that group are the Acura TL, Lincoln MKZ and Lexus ES350, all front drive entry lux cars, not the best in performance. And Lexus and Acura both offer a smaller car, Cadillac has nothing small, big lineup gap there. The other problem is the 5-series has so much equipment the CTS isn't even close on, like 13 speaker 7.1 stereo vs 10 speaker 5.1 stereo, 20 way power seats vs 10 way seats, adaptive cruise control vs nothing, head up display vs nothing, etc. The 5-series has far more technology and equipment and a 360 hp V8, soon to be 408 hp in 2 years. The Camry is the size of a CTS, no one compares them, a 300C is the size of a 750i, but no one compares them. Comparing a CTS to a 5-series is kind of like that. I think the new CTS will sell better than the old, but the 3-series sells 600,000 cars per year world wide. That is a sales success. The CTS should at least top 100,000 worldwide, really they should do better than that with ease or something is wrong with their car and/or marketing. I think Cadillac and GM in general don't realize that matching the competition won't do it. People that gave up on domestics 10, 20, 30 years ago are not going to all of a sudden come back for an equal car. They have to surpass and become the benchmark car to get people to change buying habits.

They should do manual and automatic then no buyer's preference is left out. I'd like to see something between the 300 hp engine and the 500 hp engine also. I hope the CTS-V doesn't get even heavier than the 4000 lbs the car already weighs. The STS-V gained 200 pounds over the V8 STS. GM should focus more on weight reduction to get performance, rather than just enlarging an pushrod V8 and getting more power. Speaking of which, no Cadillac car should ever have a pushrod engine, but I know the CTS-V will get one and we'll hear about how it was cost effective.

GM's fleet sales were up 24% in August. They have been claiming they would reduce those, but I guess they got tired of that. They have to get off the fleet sales, they are still nearly 25% of all sales going to fleets, they need to cut that in half.

But what class is the CTS in? Is it in the 3-series/G35 class, or the 5-series class? Personally I think it is in 3-series class, some think it competes with the 5-series because they are the same size. Cadillac really needs a smaller car, because a CTS or 5-series sized car just can't accelerate or handle with a 3-series. The CTS wears too many hats, I suspect they'll nail it when they do the MCE, and have other cars in the lineup so the CTS can focus on it's real demographic. Gas mileage does matter to people buying $40k cars. My mom buys luxury cars and drives about 24,000 miles per year, so gas mileage is a big concern. If it didn't matter, Lexus wouldn't make hybrids, and BMW/Mercedes wouldn't be planning hybrids. Although in Europe BMW has a car that gets 50 mpg and Mercedes is pretty advanced with diesels, so it is just a matter of making it for this market. Cadillac needs the UV8 badly, I hope the engine is great because the new 5-series (with all new platform, not a carryover) comes out in 2 years and they are doing a twin turbo V8 with 408 hp and more fuel efficient than the current V8. But on the flip side, they also need a CTS that averages 25 mpg because of cars there is going to be a 5-series hybrid also and Lexus has hybrids, Mercedes diesels, etc. What I really want to see is Cadillac step up an go head on with Lexus, BMW and Mercedes. They need a lot more products to do that. The CTS is the first step of getting out of the Acura, Lincoln, Volvo tier, now they need a product and technology assault to get up with the big 3.

The CTS is a big improvement over the old one, but they still have more work to do. I am concerned about it overlapping classes in size and price, it is like the CTS was penalized because Cadillac has poor lineup planning. I also hope it doesn't become irrelevant in 2 years like what happened with the STS. The STS was made to catch up with the class, then everyone blew by them in a year and now the STS is on death row. The 320 hp Northstar was class competitive in 2005, now it is a joke, they better not repeat with the CTS. I think the DI V6 should be standard and a turbo with 360 hp should be optional. They have to get ahead of the class for once, or make a CTS hybrid, because the BMW and Lexus can beat it in gas mileage. I've read 5.9 for a DI V6 with manual. A 2008 Honda Accord is 5.8 seconds, but comparing to cars in it's class, the 335i is 4.9 seconds 0-60. IS350, G35/G37, 535i are all 5.2-5.6 seconds.

I look forward to driving one as well, I need to be at the dealer for an inspection in a couple weeks so I hope they have one. I am a few years away from buying a car, but my step dad is kind of looking, although he has a V8 BMW which I suspect could mop the floor with a new CTS, so I don't know if he'd want one. He drove a G35 and thought it was crap. I think Cadillac dropped the ball with the plastic on the grille and base wheels. If they spent and extra $1000 and raised the base price $1000 they could have fixed that. GM never wants to go the distance, they go 90% of the way and think it is good enough. To get ahead of the competition they need to go the distance, hold nothing back. I fear the CTS's weight will be an issue, I read a review today where they tested it at Leguna Seca, and said even with the 304 hp engine, it wasn't enough to get up the long hill with any kind of excitement. To me, a 4000 lb car needs 300 hp base and about 380 optional to be competitive now, the CTS doesn't have that. I hope to buy a Cadillac as my next car, but I don't think the CTS is top of the class yet, I think they have crushed Lincoln, Volvo, Sabb, Acura, etc, but not yet taken down the big boys. Plus it is only 1 car, Cadillac needs 3-4 more vehicles that are fantastic to get their image back.

Honda and Toyota already have integrated consoles like that, and Nav systems, etc, Buick is about 10 years behind mainstream cars, and even farther behind the premium ones. That steering wheel and gauges are ugly, I realize they are just conceptual drawings but I am not impressed. In my lifetime Buick has never done anything that impressed me. The 3.6 DI engine is good, but there should be 2.8-3.0 DI V6 as well, since I think 300 hp in a front drive car is too much and they could improve on fuel economy with a smaller engine, and many care more about gas mileage. GM should scrap all pushrod V6s, all 4 and 6 cylinders should be VVT and DI with a 6 speed auto by 2010 model year. Aveo could use a 5 speed auto.

300 hp in a front drive car is too much. The 252 in the Malibu is fine, but the 17/26 mpg is not when the Accord is 19/29. GM should have gotten better mileage out of it, or made a new 3.2 liter DI V6 with 250 hp that could get 20/30 mpg. I think the 2.0 turbo is underutilized also, 260 hp and 22/31 mpg, that is tough to beat. They have to try something, they are still chasing the competition, which they can't do forever.

The Malibu looks nice, I really like the styling, but I think the interior (the gray and cloth ones) will be a let down compared to other cars in the class. 4-cylinder refinement and the V6's power/fuel economy doesn't match the other cars, plus the Japanese have the reputation for reliability that Chevy doesn't have. It is shame too, the Malibu looks great, but I fear they missed on some details and people will select the Accord and Camry over it. GM still plays catch up in a lot of segments, even if they build a car equal to the Accord, why would Accord owners trade in on an equal car. To break that loyalty GM needs cars that are 15% better than the next best car in the class.