I'm a graduate student in Richmond, Va., working on a market research project about Cadillac and its brand image and, specifically, how the company can make in-roads to women 35 and older.

If any women would like to take the time to share some thoughts about their feelings -- good or bad -- when it comes to Cadillacs, it would be a huge help to a student in need (of course I'll share the results with you all!).
Here are some questions:

How you feel about Cadillac? In particular the Cadillac Escalade?
What motivates you to buy a luxury car?
What current attitudes or beliefs do you have about Cadillac? Are they even on your radar screen?
If you don't mind, I would really appreciate if you could tell me your age range (35-44, 45-54, or 55-64). If you don't want to include your age that's no problem, just share your thoughts.

Guys - if you have a wife, girlfriend, daughter, friend who has some feelings about Cadillac - share those as well.

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you all!

 

Why is your study only on women?? Just kiddin'.

My girlfriend really likes my Escalade EXT. She's 24. She likes the upscale, luxury brands, like Cadillac and BMW. Just my observation, but I think the smaller the woman, the more they like to drive these huge SUV's due to a feeling of security. Anyways, she likes all the electronic gadetry in the Escalade, and the attention that people give her. I almost bought an F-150, but went against it, and she liked my decision.

 

The fact that I'm on this site telegraphs I'm already a Cad aficionado and so probably useless to this research. Nonetheless, since you asked:

Cadillac - Still the standard of the world from an American perspective. That's the beauty of Cadillacs, they are unadulterated, American road-burners. These cars reflect U. S. culture and geography: big American metal tooling down horizon-length highways. Except for the dark days of the '80s, Cadillacs have maintained the big footprint, exceptional horsepower and torque with excellent gas mileage. Bad for Cadillac, good for me, Cadillacs aren't purchased by just any idiot. As with Corvettes, one needs a strong 'sense of self' to man a Cadillac. Americans today are morphing away from the red-blooded mindset to that which could be termed, 'American Lite.'

Escalade - Gorgeous truck, proprietary Cad motor with high horse/torque. If money were no object, I already have three vehicles including an Avalanche, I would already own the EXT pick-up version. The Av/EXT profile is extremely compelling as recently proven by the Honda Ridgeline bastardized rip-off.

As a 52-year-old woman, my view on OTHER women when it comes to cars is that there are three main categories with many overlaps between -

1. Soccer Mom, couldn't care less about cars. Wants something that can be parked while talking on the cell, practical, that blends in with her peers' vehicles.

2. Yuppie/Dinks, don't know much about cars but want to be perceived as smart and monied. Typically look for prestige to one-up their girlfriends or blend with their circle. Prestige to the unaware = European or Japanese boutique makes, e. g., Acura, Lexi.

3. Traditionalists, model or take cues from their fathers or husbands, e. g., 'Buy American,' or, 'This is a Ford household.' Most traditionalists will retire with the boomers. Traditionalists, while appreciating what has come before, are not afraid to differentiate themselves from the unwashed masses driving Camrys.

So, Cadillac has an uphill climb as they are well aware. The new line of Cadillacs has the attention of the auto rags but, I believe, the cars are too edgy for Soccer Moms or Y/Ds. They definitely do not blend.

The biggest problem both Ford and GM have to overcome, and it may be fatal, is the relentless slurs emanating from the press. An entire generation of Americans now believe those cars are junk and the management is evil. They think of those manufacturers along the same lines as Richard M. Nixon. The press lauds European and Japanese manufacturers and buries their recalls on the back pages. It's absolutely criminal.

 

What an extrordinarily well written post!! This lady has got her act together and know what she wants. My compliments iowavette.

 

Yep, Iowavette, you have a good and true perspective.

I read automotive mags montly, and they always have some minor complaint about American cars. It gets to the point of being ingrained in every reader, that it simply brainwashes them to think foreign cars are always better, especially Japanese cars.

Whenever anyone has this mindset, I ask them to provide proof. When they usually say, "Well, I had a great Toyota and a terrible Chevy", I ask them if they've really got a true sampling of each product. Statistically, in order to draw a conclusion, a sample population has to be taken which can ensure the conclusion drawn is accurate, but taking one car out of literally millions is not a sufficient sample population.

I've heard of good and bad stories of all car makers...even the luxury Mercedes and BMW.

 

i have a 1984 domestic truck which has never been apart, and it has over 200,000 on it.

that being said, my girlfriend drives a truck...and shes little...

 

Now automotive longevity is a whole other topic. My Dad started a trend with his '63 Ford Country Squire station wagon. He retired it at 315,000 miles. It hauled antiques for a couple of years longer with a different owner. He then put a similar amount, after I turned him to the dark side, on an '84 Chevy Blazer. He gave it to my sister at over 300,000 miles. They still plow snow with it in upstate New York. They sold it briefly to make way for my brother-in-law's preferred Toyota, pathfinder or forerunner, can't remember. It didn't have the torque to effectively plow so they had to make another swap in order to get the Blazer back. Dad's '01 Yukon now has over 200,000 miles on it. My Mom's '93 Jimmy has close to 200,000. Don't talk to me about import durability. General Motors wrote the book with it's engines. It should also be stated that only one of those cars ever had any mechanical word done to it. The '84 Blazer had the four-wheel drive repaired somewhere around 80K miles.

By the way, these are guesses but my Dad keeps little, black books on all his vehicles in order to log all gas and service intervals. He knows exactly how many miles he's covered. I follow that lead but unfortunately typically sell or trade my vehicles after four years at most.

Something else that would be interesting and I believe we have an expert on hand we could tap for the facts [CTSV]: I've often been fascinated to learn that, for example, Rolls Royce used Chevy 350 turbohydromatic transmissions and, I believe, Cadillac air conditioners for years. It's also my understanding that a highly regarded, by the auto rags at least, manual transmission used by BMW is actually a GM product modified for BMW use. It's a apparently the forebear to the six speeds now used in Corvettes. Suspect there are contractual requirements to maintain a proprietary hold on that kind of information but it sure would look good headlined in the Wall Street Journal or better yet, that yellow rag, USA Today.

 

Iowavette,

That's a good perspective. I know that I've read several articles regarding engine designs, and many so called journalists and enthusiasts complain that GM sticks with the antiquated pushrod V8 engines designed in the 50's. However, there are pros and cons to the engines Toyota (and the like) uses (predominantly DOHC engines) versus the GM pushrod.

I’ve written about the advantages and disadvantages of the Dual Overhead Cam and Pushrod engines for my club newsletter, using material I’ve found on the internet and various other sources, but I have the article archived somewhere, so I’ll just write what I do remember from it.

1. The DOHC was first used on a car somewhere in the 1930’s. It was not a new design by Japanese automakers.
2. The DOHC has more moving parts, therefore more expensive to initially manufacture.
3. Since the DOHC has more moving parts, it has more avenues to failure.
4. Due to the simplistic design of the pushrod engine, durability is better than the DOHC. In engineering terms, use the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid).
5. The DOHC engine operates quieter than the pushrod, one of the main reasons Toyota and Honda love this engine type.
6. The DOHC design has a higher profile than a pushrod, therefore if you stuck the DOHC in the modern Corvette, it would require a higher hood, and therefore change the profile of the car .

Anyways, this is a brief list of pros and cons, and is not all inclusive. I am not saying one is better than the other. Just saying that each engine serves different objectives.

 

Thanks for the insight. I tend to self edit areas not of interest such as the DOHC engines. On the other hand, believe the Northstars ARE DOHC design, if I'm not mistaken. I have no idea as to durability given my propensity to trade but they certainly make world class torque from a very small number of cubic inches. An auto show a couple of years ago had a Northstar cross-sectioned. I was surprised at its modest size.

What do you think of the Porsche pancake motors? What can you tell me about them? Are they a descendent of early aeronautical designs? Suppose I could look it up. They neither look nor sound right. The guy that does my hair owns four 911s he's built himself, but, what we talk about while he's coloring my hair is Chevy powerplants. He caught the Corvette bug from me and also decided to go small-block Chevy in his street rod.

To really head off topic, have you ever taken a look at Ducati motorcycle engine designs? Search on 'Desmo heads.' If EVER there was an opportunity for breakage, this is it. It reminded me somewhat of the solid lifters I had in my first Corvette. They needed regular attention to prevent disaster and so does the Ducati design. The 'Desmo' design makes for high revs without valve float, they say.

 

Yep, it's not to say Domestic car makers don't use DOHC designs. It's just that I hear too often the V8 pushrod bashing. Ford uses DOHC, and I thought the Northstar was a DOHC also.

I've seen a comparison of V8's from Ferrari, NSX, Corvette and a few other cars, and it compared shear size to power output, and the Corvette engine is a very efficient packaging method on a size to output measure.

No, I don't know much about Porsche engines, nor Ducatis, but I can say that Porsche engines are very respectable for the amount of power output it has compared to it's displacement. The new 911's are getting 415 HP (at the crank) from 3.8 liters of displacement. Amazing.