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ford's big mistake is going retro crazy. when financial research says that 20somthings and 30somethings are the people with teh money, ford decided to make cars for the 50something crowd. the only retro ride that turned out to be actually cool and performance oriented also quickly priced itself out of the buying power range of all but the elite of teh 50something crowd.
GM is going have buikc dead with in the next 5 years. sharing platforms on a GLOBAL level like all the car companies do is one thing. or even on two completely different target market and price points in one market(look at toyota and scion). GM is trying to flood the market with the same cars at teh same price with only mild cosmetic changes. it hasn't worked for the last 25 years!!! why would anyone think it is going to work now?
Caddy's are nice cars, but they are not race cars, and at the price point they come in you get to choose from companies with a much stronger luxo-performance reputation. taht is bimmer and benz country, and GM isn't making a dent pretending that caddy's can zig. that should have been left to pontiac since they already had a long standing reputation for strong performance in more creature comfort oriented vehicles.
what GM has failed to realize is that you don't tell the public what your reputation is, they tell you. the accelerating pace at which they are dropping market share just goes to show they aren't listening.
later
tim
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