If you read yesterday's Sun Sentinel, you may have seen Cindy Kent's Manager Minute story on Kurt Dennis, the general sales manager at Ed Morse Bayview Cadillac. Cindy, as always, did a great job. I was recently at Bayview to check out the new $10 million remodeling job they did. It's unbelievable, considering what the dealership looked like before. And as impressive as it is on the outside, it's even cooler on the inside. The service waiting area, the boutique – complete with Cadillac Teddy bears and golf bags – and even the bathrooms are first class, pretty much what you would expect from Cadillac.
While I was there, I had a chance to check out the new SRX. If you look closely, you'll see a bit of Cadillac heritage in the tail lights. In a move that would make GM's early design guy Harley Earl proud, Cadillac has added just a hint of fins to the tail lights. The tail fin, a design concept taken from aircraft, helped define Cadillac in the late 40s and early 50s and it is no accident that it is making an all so subtle return, in part because of Ed Welburn, GM's design chief, is a guy who appreciates automotive history.
If you're near Bayview Cadillac, you might want to stop by and check out the new dealership and take a look at the SRX. It's a great looking crossover.
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Interesting post, Rich.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought of the Cadillac as a gas-guzzling "American" car that tried too hard. Tried too hard to be hip. Tried too hard to be "cool." Tried too hard to constantly re-define its image.
But it was interesting to me to read that, at lest in a few subtle ways, they're going back to design elements of the past. After all, what's wrong with going with what (originally) brung you to the dance? Incorporating "retro" elements that made it successful before has worked for the Mustang. Maybe it can help Cadillac.
Maybe one of the American auto industry's sins was that it's tried too hard (there's that phrase again!) to be what it isn't...and not hard enough to remember what it was (and, hopefully, could be again).
There was a time, believe it or not, when "American-made" was synonymous with quality. If Cadillac can remind people of that concept, while continuing to improve its product line...it just might work.
Steve Winston
President, WINSTON COMMUNICATIONS
Fort Lauderdale, FL