What does Cadillac need to become a world contender?

[SBF]

I'm not accepting the answers of that they need to close up shop or give up, etc. They could pull it off, but the General needs to back them up.

At one time they were the epitome of luxury, a standard if you will, but by the early 70's they fell into the bean counter culture and became the joke of luxury soon there after.

They have been getting better since the bailout and I feel like they could take on the likes of Mercedes and BMW, but they are still lacking something. What that is, I'm not sure.

I feel like they need a flagship luxury sedan to take on the likes of the S class and 7 series. Something large and loaded to the gills with luxury offerings. They need to develop a new chassis instead of it being based off an existing one that was developed in Micronesia for GM Korea.

What say you?

[tut]

on topic: i have no idea. apart from going upscale like bentley

unrelated; i know BMW has a fancy classy ring to it, but jeesh they're buckets of shit :/

[thewalrus]

I almost wonder if they need to revise their styling. The hard-edged, sci-fi looking trend was really novel in the early 2000s - but is it starting to look a little dated, almost? I also wonder if the sharp edges and extreme angles aren't turning off some of the wealthier, more conservative personalities that they need to be pursing.

Maybe going back and touching on the earlier 50s / 60s styling cues would be good. Without going full-on retro, of course.

[1300zuk]

I think they need a distinctly American flagship besides the escalade. They should make fun of BMW luxury, because people who want a BMW buy a bmw or a Hyundai.

They should forge their own path instead of try to copy BMW, MB, Infiniti, and Lexus

[Turbojett]

[thewalrus]

[Pennzoil GT-R]

Design and refinement, as always. Cadillac are still concerned with ticking all the latest feature boxes without realising they need to get the old ones right first.

Clunky gearboxes and cheap leather are not enough to compete in the luxury segment, especially with how far the likes of Mercedes have come in recent years.

[Honor]

A Time Machine

[Turbojett]

[thewalrus]

As a novelty on tracks? Absolutely. Just like horse riding. But I can't see how you could have a mode that lets you switch to human-driven when on real roads. I think the upshot of auto-driving cars will be that the whole system will function more effectively - more quickly, with better use of space and time. A driven car will fuck all of that up - because you'd have one yahoo merging erratically, driving too slow, or following too far behind. Then consider the insurance consequences for the person who decides to "drive" their own car in that system. Every accident will be their fault. And the likelihood of an accident will go way up. I bet you couldn't even get insurance.

[Turbojett]

I still don't believe that self-driven cars are going to be as ubiquitous as you think in 20 years. Perhaps as common as hybrids are now, but at most I think, in twenty years they'll have their own lanes on the highway and there will be laws stating that they need to stay right on surface roads--unless they need to turn left of course, but even then they could still have their own lane with their own traffic signal cycle.
Now fifty years, that's a different story. Autonomous cars will have the bulk of the freeway, and human driven cars will have their own separate lanes on the freeway and surface streets, assuming they can still drive on the streets. But I still believe they will still be around and driven, even if they aren't being made anymore.
There is still going to have to be a period where self-driven and manually-driven cars have to share the road.
It's not going to happen in the blink of an eye, where one day we go from none, to standard issue for everybody the next. Meaning there's going to have to be some sort of sensory system in place in autonomous cars to allow them to avoid the regular cars still on the road.
As far as insurance goes, it's strictly for protection against human error. If cars are driving themselves, there would be no human error, so insuring a self-driving car would be pointless. So of course you will be able to have your human-driven car insured because that's going to be their entire clientele.

[thewalrus]

[Swerve]

[Turbojett]

The Mustang's new-ish over there though, isn't it? Like they just started officially selling it in Australia a couple years ago? But yeah, it's always been very popular over here. They have always had a "Mustang for every buyer" philosophy, and it's part of the reason it's so iconic. You can veritably build your own sports coupe exactly the way you want it. Probably the same reason why everybody's eating it up over there. They know the Mustang is an icon, but now they finally see what the fuss is about.

And yes, Cadillac absolutely should have built the Sixteen, as well as the Cien.