Long and off the audio topic:
Ran across this post, and found my above comments about Cadillac more germane than when I wrote them. At that time, I had never shopped for a Cadillac.
After owing nothing but domestic automobiles, with the purchase of over 30 new G.M. vehicles, I finally went to a Manufacturer other than a domestic/G.M. one, and was absolutely amazed at how the rest of the world builds and sells automobiles.
From the mid-70s I had been purchasing G.M. vehicles with an employee discount, thinking that my deal was a good one, and up-front it was, but at the resale end, I was getting hosed.
Consequently, I did my homework on resale, and visited a Lexus Dealer.
After decades of G.M. Dealer treatment, my wife and I were in disbelief at how poor the buying experience, auto aesthetics, and build quality were, when compared to what we experienced at our local Lexus Dealer.
On our way home, I exclaimed that every G.M. General Manager and above, should be required to go through what we had the pleasure of experiencing, and perhaps they may have a clue why their buying base is eroding.
Yep, we compared a Cadillac to a Lexus. They were similar vehicles, and similarly optioned, the Cadillac was $6K more than the Lexus (there went my employee discount).
We actually drove the Cadillac three times over a couple week period, and the Lexus twice. We went to two Cadillac Dealers. The salesman at the first advised us that he was new to this car selling business (because of his age, we assumed perhaps a second career).
After we drove the Lexus, we went back to the same Cadillac Dealer and advised the salesman of how impressed we were with the Lexus and the sales experience. He stated that Lexus trains their sales personnel! Hello!!! we were shopping for a $40K+ Cadillac and we dealing with untrained sales personnel. On the other hand, our Lexus salesman was exceptionally knowledgeable, and wonderfully accommodating head and shoulders better than we had EVER experienced. His Management were equally so.
At the second Cadillac Dealer, our salesman was a notch above the other Cadillac Dealer, but still not close to our young, but highly skilled Lexus salesman. However, upon entering the showroom, an unpleasant odor that permeated the building slapped us in the face perhaps decades of stale cigarette smoke or ??
Moreover when my wife and I had occasion to use the restrooms, we were appalled by their maintenance -- our local 20 year old Movie Theater has more sanitary, inviting facilities (oh, the restroom visit was prompted by the wide selection of help yourself beverages the Lexus Dealer offered to all those who entered both new customers and those in for service). Did either Cadillac Dealer do same nope! In fact the only beverage I every received at a G.M. Dealer came out of the salesmans own pocket.
What a great way for G.M to showcase their flagship car line! Poorly maintained, odorous facilities, staffed by untrained sales personnel. Yep, it isnt your fathers Cadillac, but his cronies are making marketing decisions, manning the showrooms, and still primarily doing business as it has been done for decades what a shame!
Granted, Cadillacs have improved, but based on our recent experience, their vehicles are not on a par with Lexus, and based on what Ive seen and experienced, they never will be! They just dont have a clue or the bean counters have too much of an influence on design and engineering; or their overhead is just simply greater than Lexus, preventing them from putting the same level of engineering quality and support into their vehicles; or they simply dont think they need to, or care to compete, on a head to head basis I dont know why, nor really care.
We did buy the Lexus, and have had a blast with it. In fact, a couple weeks after our purchase, in somewhat serious jest, I asked my wife if she would like to visit the Dealership (its about 30-miles from our home) it was such a pleasant experience. You can bet that thought never crossed either of our minds with our dozens of previous G.M new car purchases.
Time will tell whether we remain happy Lexus Owners; however, based on comments from friends and acquaintances since our purchase, it would appear that will be the case.
Oh, I almost forgot, since this has been so far off Audiogons main topics, I must mention that the audio in the Lexus is better than any G.M vehicle weve every owned. In fact, we have a year old G.M. vehicle with the upgraded Bose, and it isnt as good as Lexus base system (not their Mark Levinson upgrade). In fact, every feature on the Lexus appears to be a notch above what we experienced on the Cadillac, or on our other year-old equally priced luxury G.M. product go figure.