- Posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Institute Tested, Consumer Approved
By Joanne Krell
Director of Communications, Cadillac/HUMMER/Saab
Cadillac has made a lot of news in recent days, with a series of world premieres of new vehicles and the ongoing strength of the new 2008 CTS. Here’s an important bit of news that you might have missed on the safety front. The CTS is a Top Safety Pick for 2008 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
This is a major achievement and comes from a trusted authority on automotive safety. The Top Safety Pick award goes only to vehicles that earn the highest rating in IIHS front, rear and side impact crash testing, and also feature electronic stability control to help drivers’ ability to avoid crashes. CTS is one of only three luxury cars so honored.
As CTS earns accolades from critics and consumers — in the fourth quarter, sales were up about 60% for the ‘08 model compared to the ’07 model — the car can add Top Safety Pick to its growing list of positive claims. This is another landmark in Cadillac’s ongoing renaissance. And as we showed with some of our recent world premieres, there’s a lot to be excited about.
One Comment
Edward Hayes
Congratulations!
And this is a testament that of all the turmoil over the three year development of this car, that GM did not compromise on design, expertise, or quality.
What GM did was identify and differentiate the fat from the muscle. In the end, thank God, they were able to avoid the cutting of the muscle and flesh. Like I said long ago Mr. Wagoner was cutting costs like a surgeon not a mad man with a machete. Sounded like a joke but the statement rings true now.
Ford and so many other automakers cannot identify the fat from the flesh and their wielding their machetes and cutting all their gems like Volvo and Land Rover and I fear, they are also cutting important white collar engineers and employees integral to their operations.
Chrysler is a sad example of how they cut, or perhaps pushed out so many talented people that they just do not have the resources, skill, and knowhow to produce world class cars anymore. And some things that they cut can never be rebuilt.
Like I said long ago Joanne, and I am telling you and everyone hoping that these lessons stick and that todays as well as tomorrow’s leaders of GM whosoever they may be, that they learn lessons here. So, so, so many people here on this blog and in the industry wanted GM to destroy it’s brand like Pontiac, Saturn, and Buick of course, some still do. But obviously that would have been the wrong move. Also a wrong move would have been to get rid of top management. Glad that did not happen either, again, it would have been another wrong move.
But the fact that GM has made all the right decisions, both on the product side and the cost cutting side, just proves, it was the skill of a surgeon that did this. Now today the lessons must continue. And here it is once again.
You must do all three things at once, continuously, consistently, and all the time that is…
Build up, tear down, and be unchanging.
The unchanging is the brands. Stand behind them. The quality workforce that has expertise spanning decades must also be unchanging.
We must tear down. Factories that are inefficient, sad as it is, they must go. No workers need be financially hurt, they should be taken care of, but their children will not work at that factory, nor are these jobs promised to anyone forever, we know it, they know it.
And of course, build up. Build new factories, build design centers, expand existing facilities that show consistent and superior performance. Sometimes even despite a cost disadvantage the best things must be preserved.
There will always be car and manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and around the world but we must understand that the US is not growing and thus, the job growth will indeed be in growth areas.
Some will be scarred of GM’s future in which it makes Buicks in China at a third of the cost here and exports them to the US. But if GM does not do it there are a hundred other automakers that indeed will.
At least it is based in Detroit, USA and in the end that may be all we can ask of this new global automaker.
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