Ask Jack: A Thumb on the (Economies of) Scale?

The narrowing of possibilities, the hardness of the automaker heart, the motions of grace. Or something like that. Imagine you’re a prospective Chevrolet buyer in 1955 or thereabouts. You can order your new car in at least the following styles: club coupe (two doors, B-pillar), utility sedan (two doors, wood platform in place of back seat, rear windows do not roll down), four-door sedan (four doors, B-pillar), sport coupe (two doors, hardtop without B-pillar), sport sedan (four doors, hardtop without B-pillar), station wagon (four door wagon), Handyman wagon (two door wagon with straight C-pillar), Nomad wagon (two door wagon with slanted C-pillar and unique roof), and sedan delivery (two door wagon with no glass in back).

Today’s logical, if depressing, successor to that ’55 Chevy is the Equinox. It comes in one flavor: bland box. Period. Something happened. Just what was that something?

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  • Jkross22 I'd imagine there's a booming business available for EV station repair.
  • JLGOLDEN Enormous competition is working against any brand in the fight for "luxury" validation. It gets murky for Cadillac's image when Chevy, Buick, and GMC models keep moving up the luxury features (and price) scale. I think Cadillac needs more consistency with square, crisp designs...even at the expense of aerodynamics and optimized efficiency. Reintroduce names such as DeVille, Seville, El Dorado if you want to create a stir.
  • ClipTheApex I don't understand all of the negativity from folks on this forum regarding Europeans. Having visited the EU multiple times across different countries, I find they are very much like us in North America-- not as different as politicians like to present them. They all aren't liberal "weenies." They are very much like you and me. Unless you've travelled there and engaged with them, it's easy to digest and repeat what we hear. I wish more Americans would travel abroad. When they return, they will have a different view of America. We are not as perfect or special as we like to believe. And no, many Europeans don't look up to America. Quite the opposite, actually.
  • Dwford Let's face it, Cadillac is planning minimal investment in the current ICE products. Their plan is to muddle through until the transition to full EV is complete. The best you are going to get is one more generation of ICE vehicles built on the existing platforms. What should Cadillac do going forward? No more vehicles under $50k. No more compact vehicles. Rely on Buick for that. Many people here mention Genesis. Genesis doesn't sell a small sedan, and they don't sell a small crossover. They sell midsize and above. So should Cadillac.
  • EBFlex Sorry BP. They aren’t any gaps