Let's hope that what's good for General Motors is still good for America

[tozerco]

Just my two cents worth.....

Firstly, I assume this old discussion has won new impetus because of the more recent global financial events. Not sure the two things, other than from the point of view of the more recent problems GM (and everybody else in business) has in getting their hands on the cash it needs to operate, are really related.

Secondly, maintaining a vehicle building capacity for military purposes is demonstrably not a reason to maintain a vehicle building industry! Making military materiel is far too specialised nowadays to be left to mere car makers. Look at what happened to Humvees when they first went to the Middle East! They are no match for a 14 year old kid with an RPG let alone a roadside bomb.

The US is like most of Europe and Australasia - we have come to enjoy relatively high standards of living while we taught the rest of the world how to do what we did but they now do it cheaper and better. Now it's their turn and we need to get smart again. I think we need our governments to invest, not in saving today's jobs, but in all the smart bits the cheap labour states can't provide. We need to set the new standards in car safety, performance, efficiency and build material technology by spending the money on developing these bits. Then we sell them those bits to put into the cars that they will inevitably build cheaply for us to buy..... or we don't buy them!

If that means we will be buying a 2015 Cadillac built in China with loads of western country developed and owned technology in it, so be it.

....just as long as we also provide the designers!

Regards,


John Tozer
#7946

[Rusty Shepherd CLC 6397]

I didn't know that the DTS was going to be discontinued and I agree with Mike that that's a mistake.  The current one is (even more so than previous DTS/Devilles) handsome, comfortable, roomy, and quiet. It also really looks "like a Cadillac"; even someone who didn't know cars would immediately know that it was a Cadillac. I really like my CTS, but many traditional luxury car buyers would find the ride too firm (as I did when I first got it) and the steering effort a little too high; it drives much more like a 3 series BMW than a traditional Cadillac. With Lincoln ending retail sales of the Town Car, anyone wanting a traditional luxury car ride and feel will be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars more for a Lexus LS460 or an S-class Mercedes.  Chrysler does have a stretched version of the 300, but I'm sure most people would agree it's just not in the same class as the DTS.