Interesting read... John Smith did an excellent job and Zarella needs to get credit for sticking to their guns when the going got tough. The timeframe for the turnaround is amazing and points out what all is required for products to get to production.

If Cadillac took that long, other divisions would realistically be longer


Autoweek report

 

Cadillacs transformation is nothing short of amazing. I hope their investment pays off in the long run. I'm sure it will.

 

Cadillac is about the only thing I can give praise to Zarella for...

But, it is a big thumbs up ...

 

Cadillac still has a long long ways to go.

 

Lots of other great tidbits as well, such as:

* Who blocked Cadillac from having an SUV (strongly & repeatedly)? Zarella.

* How much did the Cadillac CTS cost to create? $4 billion. (it REALLY explains why Sigma is a Cadillac chassis, and not anyone else's)

* What GM "Beancounter" (of all places to find allies ) became a huge promoter of Cadillac's very expensive re-creation? Rick Wagoner, now the CEO of GM.

* Why didn't Cadillac revamp itself in the early 90s? GM was broke.

* Who went to each design studio and yanked out the best designers from Olds Pontiac, & Buick, etc to put together Cadillac's CTS design? Wayne Cherry himself.

* Who hung tough with the CTS's radical Arts & Science look when styling clinics didn't go as planned & alot of other GM executives started running scared and wanted a different design? The much villified former GM CEO, Ron Zarella.

In a related article, a question to Wayne Cherry:


For some reason, I think that's funny.

http://autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?...t_code=08920747

 

Nah. I think two "longs" are unnecessary. There is a ways to go but there is also always room for improvement in anything.

 

Great points GuionM.

Let me explain why i think that cadillac has a long way to go.

I compare cadillac to BMW. To me BMW's lineup is the best in the luxury segment, aside from the styling. The 3-series is the best selling car in its class. The new 5-series is awesome, the new m5 is going to blow everyone away, aside from the c6 .
I think that cadillac doesn't have the product portfolio to compete with BMW. The cars that they have are nice, but I'm waiting to see the second generation CTS. Cadillac needs to address the performance coupe segment. They also need more V-series cars. Those V-series cars need to be better than BMW's M-series. Yes, the STS-V needs to blow the doors off a new M5.

I am rooting Cadillac on, but they are not the standard of the world again...

Yet!

 

I have high hopes for whatever the STSv comes as