Rare Rides: North America Raises a Brow - the 2003 Infiniti M45 (Part II)
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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- Orange260z Modern Cadillac sedans look and drive great. Yeah, the interior materials aren't quite as good as the competition, but if they undercut them in price it can offset. IMHO, they need to step up in a big way on their warranty, service and customer service. H/K/G shows confidence in the quality of the product by offering long standard B2B warranties and low-cost exclusionary extensions. My Caddy became a money pit after the warranty with only 75K kms; yes, the Germans do that, but they have the established cachet that they get away with it. They need to make sure that their cars still look good after 10 years (i.e. no trim issues, no undercarriage rust issues, etc) - my CTS was all rusty underneath after two years, they told me that was acceptable and not under warranty. Cadillac needs to do more.In Canada, there are few (if any) standalone Cadillac dealerships; they are typically co-located with all the other (remaining) GM brands. However, this doesn't have to be a kiss of death - Lexus successfully built their rep despite co-location, by investing in dedicated Lexus sales areas, sales people, service advisors, technicians, lounge areas with private offices, perks (free coffee/treats, car wash and vacuum with any service, a large complimentary Lexus loaner fleet available for any service visit), etc. By contrast, for Cadillac service I would line up with the 20 other people waiting for one of 5-7 service writers that know nothing about my car because they service 10,000 different GM models, answering a question about maintenance requirements "How am I supposed to know?". During the first 4 years I had access to complimentary Enterprise rental cars as loaners, but I had to spend 20-30 mins going through a car rental process every time. The guy who would do complimentary service washes did so with a big scrub brush he just used to wash a work truck that was covered in mud. They can't sell a premium car with crappy service like that, they have to be better than their competition.If it weren't for these issues I would not have hesitated to buy a new CT5 V-sport (winter DD, want AWD). I bought a G70 instead, we'll see how that goes - but at least I have a long B2B warranty.
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I look at it and think "not bad". Then I look at an SC300/400 and realize the infinity just doesn't look good.
These always turn my head, and i've been intrigued by this generation for a long time. So rare around here that I never see one for sale. I do, however, see a fair number of the following generation M45s, which go for absurdly lower prices than comparable 'Mercs and BMWs, or Lexus. From what I can tell, they have an expensive and unrepairable issue with driver's seat frames. I still think Nissan should have brought the 8th-gen Cedric to North America.