Now, now, mountainbike… ; )
What kind of mental giant is going to “forget” Cadillac is part of GM? You got people dropping Caddy 500s in Camaros and GMCs…but NEVER a Mustang or F-(n)50.
“Audi has only been part of VW since the mid-1960s”
That’s “only” been 50 years now . . .
“many people are not aware of Toyota’s ownership of Lexus”
Then those people are mentally retarded, blind, or both
I parked next to a Lexus yesterday. Each window CLEARLY had the Toyota logo
What about those dealerships that sell Toyota, Scion and Lexus only? Shouldn’t that be an implication that perhaps these 3 brands are all under 1 corporate umbrella? Put a Camry and a Lexus ES next to each other, it’s obvious they’re closely related. Open the doors, and it’s clear the Lexus ES is really the upscale cousin of the Camry
@VDCdriver must meet many of the same people I do, If you read all the car magazines or the blogs you might know exactly which brands are a part of the VW group or the fact that Lexus is a division of Toyota, it’s just not that important to some. They are more focused on how their favorite sports team is doing or running after 3 kids and the particulars about the car they own doesn’t rate much other than it takes them where they need to go and fits their lifestyle.
Bentley is owned by VW but few owners care or worry about their loss of “status” because of this fact.
Michigan has always been a “head in the sand” or worse with respect to knowing the automotive world. Lee Iacocca was one of the few who really understood cars. Moving out of Michigan can clear the automotive head.
Japanese car companies have their styling and product development in California or other non-Michigan location.
After all, when you buy a Mercedes or Audi or BMW, reliability is not paramount on your list. It’s often marque identification and the move to New York is just to get Caddy out of Detroit and into the self promotion capital of the world. It has nothing more to do with any thing other then where the return address is on all those recall notices. Car owners of these cars are more concerned with that return address then reliability or recalls. At a party once, I swear, I heard two BMW owners talk about their recalls as if they were proud of them. It gave them a chance to talk about their cars. I can’t imagine a couple of Corolla or Malibu owners should be anything more then PO’d they got them in the first place