Tag: Cadillac Cien

Fried Friday

Many thanks to my wonderful wife’s parents for providing us with safe harbor.

Power was restored shortly before Noon yesterday, about a day ahead of the preliminary estimate by the utility company. We returned home mid-afternoon. I know many people fared worse, even much worse, and some are still without power, but I have to admit that I am fried, I am frazzled by events.

Looming large is the seeming disappearance of any interest in our house, which has now been on the market for about a month. We had no showings at all last weekend and it’s now been well over a week since the last one. We made a token reduction in the asking price just so the house will appear when people search for listings where the price has been reduced. Almost all potential home buyers begin on the Internet and one field that can be searched is houses that have had price reductions.

We can’t enjoy living in the desert until we sell this house. Technically, I guess we could, but after having had a very bad experience in moving out of state without selling our house first, we do not want to tempt a repeat.

Logistically, moving without selling this house would be very difficult. After the Equifax breach of 2017 we froze our credit files; they remain frozen and we hope to never have to un-freeze them. We cannot obtain a mortgage with frozen credit files. While we could, theoretically, liquidate more of our equity/fixed income holdings to raise sufficient funds to buy a house without a mortgage, we will not do so. We are completely debt-free and will do our damnedest to stay that way, but do not want to reduce the size of our investment portfolio any more than is absolutely necessary. The proceeds from the sale of our current house will provide most of the funds for buying a home in the desert.

We also do not want to be 2,000+ miles away from a property we still own, from a property on which we would still be liable for taxes, insurance, etc. I cannot describe how painful it was to pay property taxes for more than four years on a house in which we would never live again, in a state in which we would never live again.

I don’t think it will help, but please send us good thoughts. We cannot remain in this state of limbo. (I’ve never heard of that state. Is it on the East Coast? 🙂 )

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On this day in 1906, Cadillac was granted a trademark for its crest. From this Hemmings article a picture of the original Cadillac crest:

 

Post Image

 

Of course, the symbol used by Cadillac has changed over the years. The fortunes of the company have changed as well.

For decades, Cadillac was the leader in American luxury cars. Now, Cadillac is struggling to find an image and products that will give it a strong position in the automobile market. In 1985, new Cadillac sales in the US were almost 300,000 units and about 2% of the market. In 2019, Cadillac sales were about 156,000 units and less than one percent of the market. (Data from CarSalesBase. Based on some of the data I have, a 300,000 figure for 1985 would have been more than three percent of the market.)

Once again, I will offer my opinion that Cadillac should manufacture a super-luxury car, both as a way to make a profit and as a halo car that will enhance the image of the company. In the recent past I have offered the Cadillac Elmiraj concept as a basis for such a car. I am also a fan of this Cadillac concept, the Cien (picture from GM Authority):

 

See the source image

 

How many US households have a net worth of $10 million or more? The answer is more than a million, probably about 1.3 million to be more precise. Virus or not, many wealthy people/families still live in this country. Cadillac wouldn’t have to have a large percentage of these people/families buy a super-luxury car in order to make the project profitable. In addition, of course, foreign buyers might be interested.

Cadillac’s previous failures with the AllantĂ© and the XLR might still be casting a shadow on sentiment regarding the development of a super-luxury car. Of course, neither of those cars were actually pitched towards the highest end of the automobile market. What is that remark supposedly made by Einstein? “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”

 

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On this day in 1962, Johnny Carson became the host of Tonight on NBC; the name of the show was later changed to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He hosted the show until May of 1992, which included a move of the venue from New York to California in 1972.

After his death in 2005 word of less than flattering behavior by Carson has emerged. His feud with Las Vegas legend Wayne Newton was known before Carson died. Almost all of us are shadow and shade even if we don’t want to admit it or even understand that “truth.”

I watched the Tonight Show hundreds of times from the late 1960s until I started college in the late 1970s. Often I would only watch Carson’s monologue at the beginning of the show, even if I wasn’t tired. I have never been enamored of listening to “celebrities” so Carson’s interviews with people from TV and movies held little interest for me.

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On this day in 1938, Hitler formally annexed the Sudetenland portion of Czechoslovakia following the so-called Munich Agreement. Winston Churchill is supposed to have said to Neville Chamberlain, “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.” Of course, Churchill was right and in May, 1940 he succeeded Chamberlain as Prime Minister.

Maybe it’s fitting, then, that on this day in 1946 the Nuremberg trials ended with the announcement of the sentencing of the defendants. Twelve of them were sentenced to death. Of the 12 defendants sentenced to death by hanging, two were not hanged: Martin Bormann was convicted in absentia (he had, unknown to the Allies, died while trying to escape from Berlin in May, 1945), and Hermann Göring committed suicide the night before the execution.

Never Forget! Never Again! To all of the anti-Semitic assh*les in the world: Zolst Leegen En Drerd!

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Speaking of anti-Semites, on this day in 1908 the Ford Model T was formally introduced. Will Rogers supposedly said this about Henry Ford, “It will take a hundred years to know whether he helped us or hurt us, but he sure didn’t leave us where he found us.”

 

See the source image

 

From inspirationseek.com (I swear that’s the name of the website) comes this picture of a 1908 Model T. About 15,000,000 of these were made through the end of the production run in May of 1927. In 1922 about 1.2 million Model Ts were produced, which represented more than half of all cars sold in the US. In truth, it can be said that the Model T was the car that put America on wheels. Too bad its “creator” was such a despicable person.

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Taking a deep breath to compose myself…from gmauthority.com a picture of a stunning concept car by Cadillac that, unfortunately, will never see production:

 

See the source image

 

This is the Cadillac Cien, not to be confused with the Ciel, a four-door convertible concept that does have some small chance of being produced. I believe the Cien was a formal declaration by Cadillac that its much edgier styling (figuratively and literally) is here to stay. I am so tired of the homogenization of vehicles in the US. I would LOVE to see a car that looks like the Cien produced and sold in America.

 

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