Our former Operations Manager drives a Cadillac STS. “Big deal” you say, but it’s a very big deal. Chris is a 40-something automotive connoisseur, and the past rides have typically descends from Sweden, with a long type of super sanitary restored Musclecars. He comes from a family of RISD trained, cutting edge product design types, and again, they have a tendency to favor the tidy offerings from Saab and Volvo. So, for Chris to risk ridicule at the Thanksgiving table for having a Cadillac is really a tantamount for an automotive sea change. But, nobody in the household finds fault with Chris’ recent choice of steed. Make no mistake, we’re witnessing a minor miracle within the making. An overall total about face in Cadillac’s corporate zeitgeist, market perception and products – and that is an excellent thing
Fifty years ago, Cadillac proudly proclaimed itself “Standard from the World” which claim was not idle boast. In 1912, Cadillac won the prestigious Dewar Trophy for manufacturing excellence. At any given time when most automobiles were painstakingly hand assembled with considerable custom fitment and component rework – several production Cadillacs were completely dismantled, their parts co-mingled and the cars reassembled without any rework permitted to any of the components. These cars were then driven 500 miles each without any mechanical failures of any sort. A sensational achievement – It spoke to Cadillac’s impressive amounts of production accuracy, manufacturing process control and standardization. Mind you, this achievement coming well before the era of advanced metallurgy, CNC machining and Demming inspired total quality management.
For 50 years hence, Cadillac was known as an engineering, quality and design leader, with innovative features for example electric starting, automatic transmissions plus some of the very exuberant Harley Earl inspired styling the earth has seen. In those days, a Cadillac within the driveway signified financial wherewithal, social standing and prestige. A Cadillac was truly something.
The party came to a rapid result in the 1970s and 80s, as a succession of Middle East oil embargoes catalyzed a precipitous increase in fuel prices. Cadillac responded having a number of engineering fiascoes like the V8-6-4, Diesel Seville, and also the Cavalier based Cimarron. Cadillac compensated for that poor engineering with over the very best baroque styling intended to evoke the past glory days. Again, they missed the objective – to ensure that through the 1980′s the only people voluntarily driving Caddies were the white belt/white shoe Florida crowd and also the, ahem, “urban adult entertainment managers” with names like Huggy Bear and Sweet Lou. We actually owned a 1982 Coupe DeVille, also it was, speaking bluntly, a bit of utter vehicular excrement. Grim times indeed.
Ten years later, automotive sophisticates like Chris are going back to the Cadillac marque. In this hyper competitive global economy, not many companies get the mulligan – and Cadillac is decided to stay in the sport this time around.
Whether or not Caddy has regained the title of “standard of the world” is debatable, there is however no denying the swagger has returned. 13 years after it’s introduction, the world class Northstar DOHC 32v V8 remains fresh, potent and competitive. We recently enjoyed some extended seat amount of time in a Northstar powered DeVille and also the car positively ate up the Midwestern miles in a refined, leisurely and feloniously illegal 125 MPH plus. The V Number of performance cars is boisterous and pretty darned exciting – all boasting a sub 5 second dash to 60. While the flagship XLR has yet to attain sales projections, the CTS is selling briskly and also the SRX and Escalade SUVs are market leaders. The “Art and Science” design motif is really a polarizing, like-it-or-hate-it look, and surely less controversial than Chris Bangle’s “flame surfacing” styling at BMW. Heck, we even obtain a Led Zeppelin flavored ad campaign to remind us that Caddy is sincere about wooing the 40 year old market.