Is Cadillac this bad???

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The Mustang has been, sometimes, a decent looking, or even nice looking car. The highly prized early car is an amalgam of every styling cliche known to man, while the Mustang II is best forgotten. Some of the later 'sities and early 'seventies cars are not bad.
In any event, unless you are either blind, blind drunk, on drugs, or insane, you cannot utter the words "The Mustang is a thing of beauty".




I'm neither blind, blind drunk, on drugs, or insane (I think). And I absolutely CAN say that I think the new Mustang is a thing of beauty. I agree on the Mustang II, and I didn't really like many of the 80's and 90's offerings. But the new design is very, very nice IMHO.

gedcruise, you forget the first rule of aesthetics, that BEAUTY is in the eye of the beholder. And apparently, millions of others seem to agree with me. So either there are a lot of blind, drunk, drugged, insane people out there driving Mustangs, or to some it is actually quite nice looking.

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I'm waiting for it to download. IMO Caddy has been junk since about 1984 when they came out with the 4100.

You can't work on them. If you do find someone that will work on them you will pay out the nose for what would me much cheaper on a different brand of car.

Also owning a car that must use stopleak in the coolant to stop coolant leaks from a bad casting design is asking for trouble.




Can't work on them? At Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, teenagers have been tearing down those 4100's for years and can do anything you want with them. The last time I was in there, they had a Northstar that they do the same with. BTW, I've got an uncle in Georgia with an old Sedan Deville with that engine. It has well in excess of 200,000 miles on it and still runs great. He bought it used with about 150k on it.
 
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My hypothesis about Cadillac is that for years they've relied on an older generation of loyal buyers who either weren't that sophisticated about cars or were merely interested in having a "Cadillac" as a status thing, or even that they *thought* Cadillac meant "quality". GM could get by with that for a long time, but not any more.




I think this is more true for GM as a whole than just Cadillac. Look at GM's core market now =>Trucks & SUVs, where the Japs don’t have comparable products in. I will lay out my bias’s before I share my opinions: I have no brand loyalty to any manufacturer, but I am not a fan of the Asian products. 2 reasons, a) Corporate head offices are overseas and so are the big jobs and b) I don’t like their build philosophy on how they engineer their vehicles. My Dad and uncle are both loyal GM users and while in University I worked at a Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Caddy dealer, so I am not necessarily biased against GM, but I do have quite a familiarity with them.
My biggest complaint with GM was for years they were more interested in making profitable useless gadgets/options instead of building quality cars instead of like Toyota that built bare bones cars that were well built basic transportation. Examples of this is Onstar, Satellite radio, power seats, heated seats, trip computers, tire pressure monitors, oil life monitors (that one’s good). Allot of the comments in this thread about #@$%! Caddies is as GM’s flagship div, Caddy always gets this #@$%! exclusively first and as a result it works the bugs out for its sister divs. Also because it is the flagship div, it is the pinnacle of GM engineering, hence hi-tech parts that perform well but are a PITA to work on. (IE Northstar). My 2 Cents, if you like GM, look at Buick, very prestigious, well built, decent components and exceptional value in a high end car. And don’t go for all that extra junk that you don’t need, it all just breaks in the end.
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My biggest complaint with GM was for years they were more interested in making profitable useless gadgets/options instead of building quality cars instead of like Toyota that built bare bones cars that were well built basic transportation. Examples of this is Onstar, Satellite radio, power seats, heated seats, trip computers, tire pressure monitors, oil life monitors (that one’s good).




Totally agree. Conceptually, these gadgets and systems are nice. But the company must be willing and able to make them work effectively in the long run. It all goes back to the whole "core competencies" issue in business. Focus on what you do well, improve and perfect it, THEN *maybe* ease into some peripheral things, e.g. these extra gadgets. But do it slowly and deliberately, and do it right, then you've got the makings of something special.
 
The guy is crabbing about a car that goes into limp-home mode, and then limps home? It went 200 miles in limp mode! Agreed, he has had more than the usual list of issues, but, news flash, what manufacturer doesn't? Some of the million dollar equipment I service comes in bad. Anything that goes down an assembly line, built by humans, (and yes some of them are hungover, or high), subject to tolerance stacking, and cheap, penny pinching, bean counters will occasionally have issues. Roll the dice, and you'll find every auto manufacturer has had a lemon. My nephew just bought a Land Rover. Front U-Joint failed at the axle while running 70 down the highway. 6500.00 in damage, to body, trans, and drivetrain at 11,000 miles. Official statement from LR... "We've never seen this before."
 
Rail on as you will, I've had 9 GM vehicles since 1985, including a 1984 Chevette. In fact, I'll list them all and give you the mileage when I sold them.

1. 84 Chevette, 1.6L 4cyl 100k

2. 83 Pontiac J2000 1.8L 4cyl 90k (Was totaled when I was t-boned)

3. 86 Firebird 2.8 V6 95k

4. 96 Chevy Blazer 4.3 V6 100k

5. 99 Silverado 5.3 V8 125K (Sold it to my secretary, now has about 140K miles)

6. 03 Tahoe 5.3 V8, Currently 57k (Still own)

7. 04 Suburban 5.3 V8, Currently 52K (Still own)

8. 06 Pontiac Solstice, 2.4 4cyl 8,000 (Still own, and dearly love!)

The only major problems have been as follows:

99 Silverado, replaced a part in the transmission (Called a sunshade?!?) at 47k miles, GM covered it as an originally defective part. They even gave me rental car, but only took 1 day to fix.

07 Solstice--Rear diff replaced, due to backlash out of spec. (I had no idea there was a problem. It was in for tire rotation and a small squeak in the top mechanism).

Here's one to cap it off: My dad had an 80 or 81 Pontiac Phoenix (The dreaded X car!) with the 2.5 Iron Duke. He sold it at 100k miles to a guy that drove the wheels off. It finally was sent to pasture due to rusting out. It had turned the odometer over three times before the odometer cable broke. He estimated it was close to 400k miles!

I have had great experience with GM vehicles, and am looking at another today!
 
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to this beholder the Mustang IS a thing of beauty, with the exception of '71 to '78 models.

When it comes to styling, I've always preferred Ford to any other maker, especially GM. But I drive the Chevys because they really work well.
 
Wow,, 400,000 miles in a X-body. I bet that if the FBI heard of this happening down in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, they'd add it to their report on cruel and unusual punishment. That sounds like a truly effective interrogation technique.
 
Nope otherwise they would be out of business.

Every maker has one produced a few of these cars even coveted Toyota, Honda, Lexus..... Just a risk of new car buying.

This person is really annoying (I watched first 30 secs) but Caddy should simply work with the customer to make them happy. GM does need to loose another buyer especially of niche cars with a likely high profit margin.
 
Yeah, that long in an X car sounds bad, doesn't it? That car never turned us on, but it was solid. It had a 4 speed manual with super tall gearing that enabled it to easily achieve 40mpg on the highway. It was hard for anyone to drive who didn't know what they were doing with a clutch, though, and after the first year, GM changed the gear ratios in the X-cars to something more driveable. We felt lucky to have gotten it, though. The original clutch was still good at 100k. I'm not sure how many clutches the second owner went through, but I don't think he did much to the car. He loved it and he loved talking about how he only paid a few hundred bucks for it and used it for 3/4 of its lifespan. It sure wasn't pretty to look at when it retired. It was well-ventilated! The engine still ran reasonably well, but everything else was shot.
 
The current Mustang is good looking, but not beautiful. Very few cars are really beautiful. The GT reincarnation of the GT 40 is beautiful, but it came from an era when a number of FIA Group 5/6 cars really were beautiful.
The Mustang is an example, to me, of a successful evocation of retro themes. The original Miata is another, while the PT Cruiser and the New Beetle look like caricatures to me. The HHR, to me, doesn't work at all.
 
I own a 2005 CTS LS with the 3.6L V6 and loaded with every option except the Navigation System. I like the car very much and would but another in an instant. The 3.6 VVT is fun to drive and still pulls up to 28 mph hwy. I get about 24-25 around town if I keep the 5-sp AT out of the sport mode. Comes with the 4yr/50,000 miles warranty so I will drive it for at least 2 more years.

I have heard the have differential problems with some and the diff is made by Getrag (German company).

btw-The guy who posted the video is part owner of that website so he has other motives (to drive people to the site) its would seem. There is a monster thread here that talks more about it.. Cadi Forum
 
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Rail on as you will, I've had 9 GM vehicles since 1985, including a 1984 Chevette. In fact, I'll list them all and give you the mileage when I sold them.

1. 84 Chevette, 1.6L 4cyl 100k

2. 83 Pontiac J2000 1.8L 4cyl 90k (Was totaled when I was t-boned)




In November of 2005, I sold an '87 Monte Carlo (305 V8) with 252,000 miles on the odometer. The car is still on the road, and I see it occasionally. Replaced it with a 2004 Silverado Extended Cab. The dealer gave me $100 to keep it, so that they wouldn't have to take it in on trade.
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The guy in the video is somewhat of a tool.

It seems that the motor was having an ignition problem, he proceedes to beat the * out of it, driving it, then complaining how it isn't running properly?

When a vehicle is misfiring like that, you pull it over and have it towed.

Unless of course its under warranty and you don't care about the car.
 
Recent GM vehicles--and apparently all CAN bus vehicles--will tell you, with a scantool, how many miles the car has been driven with the malfunction indicator lamp (check engine light) lit up.

I bet the MIL was blinking like a christmas tree on this car.
 
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Wow,, 400,000 miles in a X-body. I bet that if the FBI heard of this happening down in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, they'd add it to their report on cruel and unusual punishment. That sounds like a truly effective interrogation technique.




Yeah that seems almost unprecedented. My family had a Chevy Citation from the first couple of months of production.

It almost killed me when as a 16 year old I was driving with my mother and the brakes locked up on the highway and we spun into oncoming traffic. About two weeks later we got the recall notice.

Just the other day I was having a conversation with a friend on how you barely saw any of those cars on the road 4 or 5 years after they stopped production.
 
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