Re: And NOW, the Big 3 are doing what Packard couldn't do...

Posted by bkazmer On 2009/4/9 8:00:40

I expect that few will find find both ALFA's and Cadillac's styling to their liking, as one is curvy and one is angular. My point is that at least both are identifiable and provoke a reaction. I'm fine with one of you being drawn to Caddy and the other to ALFA.

Audi has a more middle of the road approach, but at least they don't have Chris Bangle. The S-class Mercedes was a big departure - a German company finally accepting that headroom driving a boxy roofline is not an immutable law. The new VW CC is clearly influenced by it.

FIAT doesn't sell a big sedan other than the Quattroporte for a simple reason - there is almost no demand for one in the markets they currently play in. The Germans have most of what market there is.

The European market has for many years had a number of OEM's with similar share (PSA, Renault, VAG, Ford, FIAT) rather than the way the US market used to be dominated by GM. The Japanese OEM share is still much lower than NA. Now that GM is around 25%, as is Toyota, the North American market is looking more like Europe.