Caddy BLS *NOT Vauxhall, Saab* or is it?

[Lukas]

Hi!
 

I just need your advise:

 

Is this "Cadillac" BLS a Saab 9³? 

 

https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrauchtwagen/auto/cadillac-bls-2-0-t-elegance-160462819/

 

 

Or is it a Vauxhall Vectra with a Saab-engine maybe? I guess it is far from being a Yankee-car, is it?

 

Were they even available in the US? 

 

For sure the miserable 1.9D-version was only available in Europe...

 

https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrauchtwagen/auto/cadillac-bls-wagon-1-9-d-business-aut-158855924/

 

 

That looks even more like a Saab somehow. 

 

Please, enlighten me! 

 

Lukas

[eddyramrod]

Run away!

 

This is what a proper Cadillac looks like, and it comes with a multi-part name, not just a random bunch of initials.

[SiC]

Basically they took a 9-3, restyled it slightly but using as much as possible from the Saab/GM parts bin as possible.

[Skizzer]

It shares door skins and some other superstructure with a Saab 9-3 and all three share a platform and some engines, I believe.

 

Someone who knows a lot more will be along shortly.

[SiC]

Spot the difference:

 

 

[eddyramrod]

I spy RHD and peasant gears.  That's supposed to be The Standard Of The World?  Fuck off with your globalisation, GM, and give us proper cars again.

[SiC]

Even the stereo facia is the same.

[cort16]

And weirdly they sold the Subaru Impreza as a Saab in the states

 

9-2x or something

 

[chaseracer]

The BLS was manufactured in Trollhattan alongside the 9-3 and the 9-5, if that provides a clue... 

[Lacquer Peel]

And weirdly they sold the Subaru Impreza as a Saab in the states

 

9-2x or something

 

Don't forget the 9-7X.

 

Mental.

[Lukas]

The BLS was manufactured in Trollhattan alongside the 9-3 and the 9-5, if that provides a clue... 

 

So in reality, it´s a Saab 9³ with slightly different looks. 

 

Thanks for the Info! 

[chaseracer]

^ Pretty much, Lukas, yes!  As a Cadillac, it's as American as pickled herring...

 

[Rod/b]

Don't forget the 9-7X.

 

Mental.

I was thinking of buying one of these, but swiftly decided against after test driving some. They were awful. The dashes had all lifted like Rover 800s, and the interiors were all without fail dropping apart like the GMs they were based on. Even the nod to Saab that was the retractable cupholder in the dash was broken in every one i looked at.

 

These were probably the biggest dump that GM took on the Saab name in fact.

[Rod/b]

 

^ Pretty much, Lukas, yes! As a Cadillac, it's as American as pickled herring...

As above the Saab 9-7x is about as Swedish as Country and Western music.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Run away!

 

This is what a proper Cadillac looks like, and it comes with a multi-part name, not just a random bunch of initials.

Zoo 019.jpg

So doe these;

Cadillac Bit-Like-Saab

[Lacquer Peel]

GM badge engineering at its worst.

The Subaru Traviq comes close to beating the SAABillac disasters.

[cort16]

GM badge engineering at its worst.

The Subaru Traviq comes close to beating the SAABillac disasters.

 

just googled that. WHY??

[Mr_Bo11ox]

These are about as appealing as getting a ‘Moroccan chickpea & harissa enema’ off Ainsley Harriott

[overrun]

I spy RHD and peasant gears. That's supposed to be The Standard Of The World? Fuck off with your globalisation, GM, and give us proper cars again.

You won't like this, but Cadillac build quality and 'luxury' is only impressive to Yanks.

 

We have built much more refined, better equipped and screwed together cars, and don't require huge V8's to deliver sub 200BHP and the fuel consumption of a cross-channel ferry.

Painfully slow and archaic slush boxes are far from a reason to celebrate, either.

 

If my car is gonna drink fuel, I want it to for a reason.

I see no redeeming features in old Yank tanks.

[Lacquer Peel]

The "land yachts" aren't great cars but they have some shite appeal. I wouldn't kick a Caddy or Olds diesel out of bed. Just avoid the line dancing confederate flag wavers

[cort1977]

You won't like this, but Cadillac build quality and 'luxury' is only impressive to Yanks.

We have built much more refined, better equipped and screwed together cars, and don't require huge V8's to deliver sub 200BHP and the fuel consumption of a cross-channel ferry.

Painfully slow and archaic slush boxes are far from a reason to celebrate, either.

If my car is gonna drink fuel, I want it to for a reason.

I see no redeeming features in old Yank tanks.

Don't knock it till you've tried it...

[Lukas]

You won't like this, but Cadillac build quality and 'luxury' is only impressive to Yanks.

 

We have built much more refined, better equipped and screwed together cars, and don't require huge V8's to deliver sub 200BHP and the fuel consumption of a cross-channel ferry.

Painfully slow and archaic slush boxes are far from a reason to celebrate, either.

 

If my car is gonna drink fuel, I want it to for a reason.

I see no redeeming features in old Yank tanks.

 

I´ve driven a 2008 Cadillac SRX 3.6 V6 for a few daily in 2013 and thought it was absolutely horrible. 

 

The interieur was extremely cheap, absolutely not well-built, rattled and squeaked when driving on not-so-good tarmac,

the seats where qzite firm, the ride was too firm too I would say. 

 

I was quite happy to return it after 3 or 4 days of driving around with it in Vienna. I had a 1999 Subaru Legacy at that time.

And espite it being from a completely other class and having a lot less equipment, it felt a lot better built, the interieur was 

higher quality than the Cadillac SRX. 

 

But that´s the only opinion I have on Cadillacs. So I know almost nothing about them. 

[Longblackcoat]

The dashes had all lifted like Rover 800s

.

Ooh, that's a low blow; at least the Rover has the excuse of a £1.73 development budget.

[Longblackcoat]

Don't knock it till you've tried it...

To be fair, I have.

 

They really are utterly wank, if my experience with a Caddy STS is anything to go by.

[danthecapriman]

You won't like this, but Cadillac build quality and 'luxury' is only impressive to Yanks.

We have built much more refined, better equipped and screwed together cars, and don't require huge V8's to deliver sub 200BHP and the fuel consumption of a cross-channel ferry.

Painfully slow and archaic slush boxes are far from a reason to celebrate, either.

If my car is gonna drink fuel, I want it to for a reason.

I see no redeeming features in old Yank tanks.

You are massively massively missing the point!

You should try driving a proper yank tank. They really do show what utter shit the rest of the worlds cars at the time really were.

A comparison between my 73 Mercury full size and the other old stuff of similar age I own really does show how far behind we were over here.

[eddyramrod]

What Dan Said.

 

It's no good comparing a 1973 Cadillac (for example) against a 2016 BMW.  They are designed and built to completely different standards.  The base-level BMW will probably have more electronic "luxury" kit on it than the Cadillac; three more speeds in the automatic gearbox and a relatively athletic 0-60 time.  But: it looks like everything else on the road, comes with zero ride and concrete-bench seats.  The Cadillac, on the other hand, had Style even when new, and now has more style in the rust that flakes off the bumper than any BMW ever made.  It also has so much torque that three, or maybe four, speeds are quite enough, and the gearbox doesn't need a computer to take 5 seconds working out what gear to select (voice of bitter experience!).  The ride is sublime, if you like to feel you're floating several inches above the road (I do), helped by massive 75%-profile tyres.  And the seats?  If you can find a sofa that comfy, I'll sleep on the bugger.

Compared to luxury cars of the early 70s though, things are less clear-cut, the Cadillac has competition.  Most notably from RR/Bentley and Jaguar/Daimler, although Mercedes would like to think they could join in.  I've had a 1978 Daimler Sovereign, directly after a 1979 Cadillac Fleetwood.  The Daimler was faster and more chuckable, but that's not what luxury cars are about.  Neither, fortunately, is MPG, because the 4.2 litre Daimler was significantly more thirsty than the 7.0 litre Cadillac.  The Cadillac had the better ride, narrowly, and the better (ie more comfortable) seats by some margin.  These two criteria top the charts for luxury cars, no matter what Top Gear may say.

A Cadillac BLS is a Saab, and worse than that: a Saab that's really a Vauxhall (for which read Opel) Vectra.  It can and will never be an actual Cadillac.  I'd rather just have an honest Saab or even, however boring it may be, a Vectra.  Provided the price is right, and by that I mean it needs to be scrap value.

Modern cars, even the ones that call themselves "luxury," just aren't good enough.

[Lukas]

I think you are talking about two different tasks.

 

One is sure, that the yankee-cars from the 1950s/60s/70s were better than the others. Looking at the equipment they had (AC, electric everything etc.), he might be right.

 

The other one is sure that modern ( from 1980s on) US-cars are worse than cars from Europe/Japan, that they lost the plot somewhere. And I guess he is right too.

 

So I guess you both are right.

[Felly Magic]

It all started to fall apart for the car industry in America during the 1970s, they carried on making land yachts when the world moved on, and said land yachts had woeful bhp/litre, especially in Califlower-nia spec, with some 6 pots from Ford having about the same bhp as a 1.6 Cortina in a car that weighed as much as a church, and woeful mpg/top speed, as well as legendary comedy build quality and severe reliability issues, the Septics tried making economy cars to compete with Toyota and Datsun, but they were utterly hopeless, and Ford's Merkur division, oh boy, talk about a marketing cock up, people would have probably bought them if they had the standard blue oval on the snout, and proper Euro spec engines with power, not the silly turbocharged 2.3 wheezing donkey

[Guest Hooli]

These are about as appealing as getting a ‘Moroccan chickpea & harissa enema’ off Ainsley Harriott

 

That sounds like a recommendation on here.

[cort16]

This is a real Cadillac