I realize that some models and chassis criss-cross between Toyota and Lexus, and many models don't (unless you consider the countries that don't have a Lexus brand but sell Lexus vehicles with a Toyota badge). But what baffles me is, why is it that in general (not just in this forum), I often hear people referring to Lexus as Toyota or Acura as Honda or Audi as VW or whatever, but I rarely hear people call Cadillac an overgrown Chevy or Lincoln an overgrown Ford, even though especially in years past there have been some sad sad attempts to do little more than rebadge, add some nicer trim pieces, and charge 15 grand more for a vehicle. Are the other companies free and clear of this? No, but they also seem to get recognized for that fact as well.

FWIW none of that really bothers me because in essense they ARE their parent companies - for example when somebody calls my Lexus GS a Toyota... that doesn't really bother me because in many respects it is a really nice Toyota and not much more. When somebody I just met and/or don't know very well asks what I drive (in real life) I usually tell them I drive a Toyota. The only thing that bothers me is people who are so uneducated on the topic that they think a GS400 is nothing but a badge-engineered Camry or something, much less that they have anything in common at all. But that's another story.

Anyhow... I guess I'm just noting that I rarely hear of Caddies being referred to as a premo Chevy or whatnot, but a lot of other brands I do hear that about.

My best guess/theory on public perception of Caddy being mostly seperate from the rest of GM is that Caddy has been around for so long, whereas most of the other 'premo' brands were developed in modern times and thus the people that witnessed the original spinoff still think of the luxury brand as just a 'rebadged' _______ (insert car here).

 

Nice new Veedub you have there .

Probably to do with platform sharing. There's still the ES330 which is camry based and so that's probably why. With the new Cadillac's, there's no platform sharing between it or any Chevy that i know of outside of the trucks.

 

This is what I was going to type if you didn't answer your own question.

Cadillac has been around for the better part of a century, as has Chevy, and have always been distinct brands. In fact, Cadillac was not started up by "GM" the corporation in the same way Lexus and Acura were started by the Toyota and Honda corporate entities. Even today, most Cadillacs don't share platforms with Chevy models (Escalade does, blatantly, and so does XLR, less blatantly). On the other hand, Honda and Toyota have been around for a while, but it was a plainly known fact that they started up new marques/brands (Acura, then Lexus) to compete at the high end, just like Toyota has done more recently with Scion at the low end. I think it just exists in people's heads that way.

Plus, there is a little more sharing (at least currently) amongst Lexus/Toyota. Caddy has the Escalade and XLR (Vette), but Lexus has the LX470 (Land Cruiser), GX470 (4Runner), RX330 (Highlander), ES330 (Camry).

I'm not saying those are all rebadges (the LX470 and Escalade pretty much are), just that they are "common" platforms.

I think you basically got it, though. With Acura/Lexus, we saw the "spinoff" in modern times, regardless of how separate they are today. On the flip side, though, Cadillac was never "spun off" from Chevrolet/GM, but was created as its own company (and later became part of GM).

 

Cause of the way they make them look different I'd say.

 

Yea, I have to say I see less design style between Chevy and Caddy, whereas Lexus/Toyota have the same flair, and now with the new Civic, Honda/Acura look to be headed that way also. Not saying it's a bad thing, but I don't like it myself.

 

Its already been said , but

Lexus are fancy Toyota's

Acura's are fancy Honda's

Infinity's are fancy Nissans

Audi's are fancy Vdubs

Chevy's are Chevy's

and

Caddies have their own chassis and engines

Because it WILL be brought up , the LS2 , LS6 , the Escalade and XLR are your only chevy ties .

A better generalization would be Saabs are more like fancy chevy's . I think that just pertains to the 9-3 and 9-7x though . Not sure what the 9-5 is based off of and the 9-2 is a subie .

 

So those guys are finally getting to you huh Threxx? j/k


Just repeating what the other's have said, but when the imports started to get big around here (mid 80s) it was because they were viewed as cheap and reliable transportation, but little else. Meanwhile back in Japan, they had they're luxo cars already over there and the toyota/honda/nissan name wasn't linked with cheap like it was here in America. In order to get over the stereotype, they had to come up with a new name to break away from it.

As for the platform sharing, I think it was a lot worse back in the early 90s because the luxo versions look so much differant then the econ versions now. Infiniti seems to be the only company that is stuck in that rut, but they are starting to change with the new M and Q.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and the reason Cadillac isn't lumped in there is because they were their own brand when they started. They had their own engines and platforms. That changed of course in the mid-late 70s when GM combined everything. True, Caddy does get the new stuff first, but it does get filtered down to the lesser brands later, so it is still sharing.

 

I wish Chevy built a LS2 sedan based on Simga and sold it at a Chevy price

 

There was at least one nasty little crossover between Chevy and Caddy back when Caddillac had a rebadged Cavalier in the late 80's/early 90's.

 

Not to mention the Catera in the late-90's, early 00's.

I'm actually a bit surprised Cadillac had so many problems with the Catera when the Omega has been pretty reliable all its life across the pond...

Off-topic, I guess...

And Threxx bought an Audi??? I'll be damned...

TS

 

I think it has more to do with the fact that when you look at certain parts of the vehicle, like Acura for example, you will see the name HONDA on it. Like when you pop the hood. So people start associating it with the "bigger" more well known name, which is of course Honda.

Scion is another example. People don't know what it is or who its' from. So, naturally to quickly answer someones inquiries, you would say that it's a Toyota.

 

Cimarron. That's actually an example we used in new product marketing on how to severly damage brand image with accessing downscale markets.

It really was about the dumbest choice at the time.

 

While doing a search on that car (I never heard of it) I came up on this review.

http://www.carsurvey.org/review_73222.html

 

FWIW, there's quite a bit more shared between lower GM brands as a whole and Caddy, FWIW than just the LSx, GMT-800 chassis, and Vette chassis. They just hide it pretty well.

GM is the king of rebranding the same chassis more times than one might care to count. Not that I blame them because they have so many damn brands under one roof, it'd be dumb and cost ineffective to do anything otherwise. Heck, I don't even blame Lexus for using the Camry platform for the ES. They did an incredible job of making it potentially worth the extra 3-4 grand over the loaded up Camry - wayyyyy nicer interior, and countless extra features not available on the Camry.

 

Right now the only platforms shared with Caddy and other GM brands are the GMT800, Y-body and the G-body. Buick has the Lucerne and Caddy has the DTS. So Caddy uses half of its 6 model lineup with other GM divisions. Except for the Escalade which is pretty much identical to other GMT800s, Caddys are pretty well differentiated than its 'lower rank' brothers. The DTS has more sound insulation and only comes in v8 form. It also has Magnaride, which I am unsure if the Lucerne has. XLR has TONS more stuff than the Vette does. It rides on a longer wheel base and has a unique folding hard top and it uses the Northstar or supercharged Northstar, hardly a rebadge.