After ceding the segment to foreign brands, Detroit tries to compete again

For years, America built some of the world's most coveted luxury cars. Between the wars, marques like Packard and Duesenberg were driven by millionaires and movie stars. But beginning in the 1970s, increasing competition forced Detroit to concentrate on more high-volume cars, all but ceding the luxury segment to rivals in Japan and Germany. By the 1990s, Cadillac and Lincoln had become a punch line, the car of choice for retirees and funeral homes. It looked as though America would never again produce a world-class luxury car.

That may now have changed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17421521/

 

Its not can...its how well we ARE competing.
Caddy has stepped it up a long time ago and is considered a luxury brand that is moving very fast p that ladder..

this article is about three years late.

 

They can build great luxury cars. The Question should be why Don't they want to build luxury cars.

Cadillac seams to be the only one that is trying, and even then they are staying away from the $70K+ market.

 

I think Lincoln moved too far for too long to get back to the top. Caddy is doing just fine though.

 

The next round of Cadillacs ....starting with the 08 CTS is looking like should dispell and doubts .

Lincoln ....I would class more as a mid-lux Buick type division now .

 

Hmmm, I was thinking more like "mid-lux OLDSMOBILE type division now.

 

Yeah, certainly it goes Jag / Volvo / Lincoln / Mercury / Ford.

Lincoln main competitors are now probably Acura, Saab, etc.

 

I think a fairly important point is being missed here.

No matter how good a current (or upcoming) Cadillac might be, it’s going to be very difficult to build a car that is the equal of a BMW 7 series or an A8 or even a top of the line Japanese luxury car.. I’m not at all saying it’s impossible for an American manufacturer to do it, just that they have some very stiff, and very entrenched, competition.

The biggest hurdle they face, may well be that people who buy a BMW for example, don’t just buy it because of its power or technological perfection or its interior; they buy it because it’s a BMW and because it says something about the owner.

Part of the appeal of buying a car like a BMW or Audi or Porsche is that it isn’t American; part of it is a bit more exclusivity. Owning a BMW or Porsche, etc, gives the impression, in the buyer’s mind at least, that is he/she is a bit more enlightened and refined than the more mundane, Cadillac buyer.

I guess what I’m saying is that at the level Cadillac want’s to play in, being nearly perfect in style, engineering, interior materials, fit and finish, etc. is almost the “minimum requirement” and it takes more than that to become truly desirable…to be a “got to have car”.

Buying a car in this level has a whole lot more to do with emotion than mechanical or technical superiority.

 

Yep. In other words, they're snobs.

I wouldn't really disagree with your reasoning though. Cadillac just needs to keep doing what it is doing; it has come a long way just in 5 or 6 years. BMW and Mercedes are the established snooty brands. Lexus is the established boring but rock solid brand. Cadillac just needs to forge its own identity; the styling to do so has certainly been there.

 

Well, I wouldn't say that Cadillac owners aren't.

But a Euro-Inferiority complex is a very old and deep element in the American psyche. Not just limited to automobiles -- fashion and other luxury products as well.

 

Well, I will say that Caddy is kinda disappointing me so far in the regard that they don't build a non-sport car nicer than the STS/DTS. Sure you could say STS-V but that's really nothing more than an E63 or whatever... they don't have anything to compete with the S-class, and the XLR is just a joke, especially on the inside, for a 100k dollar car, when you put it next to the Mercedes and BMW competition.

Aren't Cadillacs a sign of being rich/successful in Japan? I wonder if that's because of the same reason why a 5-series says "I made it" more than an STS, here in the US? They probably also cost considerably more in Japan than they do here - oh and I guess they're "big" and in Japan, especially in the cities,, driving a giant car costs a lot due to additional parking requirements.

 

I disagree in part. Speaking in generalities which is never a good thing I think a small portion of the American population may suffer from a "Euro-Inferiority" but these people tend to be wannabees that are better off living in Europe. I think the rest of us are indifferent or think the Europeans can F themselves with regards to the automotive scene.

 

I guess we can disagree about the "why" but the sales figures for such nameplates as Audi, Porsche, BMW, MB, Infiniti, Acura, Lexus and the rest certainly bear out that American's are buying a lot of them.

 

Then again, think of how many luxury (or semi-lux) brands you just named in that sentence. There's a lot more luxury choices out there for people than just the traditional American two (Cadillac/Lincoln) and the European two (MB/BMW). It isn't like it was even 10-15 years ago.

 

LMAO - and they begin with names like Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Automobile, Consumer Reports, etc, ect, ect. Whom unfotunately dictate to the sheoples which infest the US of A