http://www.forbes.com/columnists/col...0308flint.html
"Mercedes-Benz has a problem with its American business because the cost of importing cars from Germany is so expensive due to the strong euro currency. So it goes to its associate Mitsubishi, which builds the Galant sedan in Illinois. Mercedes and Mitsubishi cobble together a modified Galant, with new sheet metal and a nicer interior and with the Mercedes ornament on the hood. They call this car the Mercedes-Benz D 280. They only sell this " MitsubishiBenz" in the U.S. They never ship one to Europe.
"Would you buy this phony-balcony Mercedes? What do you think Car and Driver magazine would say about it?
What do you think the Europeans will think? I'll tell you this for sure: The European auto press, which doesn't like American products anyway, will dump on it. I understand GM's overall logic for pushing Cadillac in Europe. Despite its size, GM doesn't have a worldwide luxury brand. Cadillac is just an American brand, and Opel in Europe is kept out of the luxury segment by Poppa GM. So GM's new short-term goal is to sell 10,000 Cadillacs a year outside of North America. A few years down the line, GM wants to boost that number by several orders of magnitude."
If a BLS sent to America would end up being priced near the CTS, then the CTS sent to Europe should end up being priced near the BLS. Better yet, even if you lowball the development costs and figure it would cost only $100 million to create the BLS, the cost works out to $5,000 per car over 20,000 cars. That would cover a few years' sales. To me, it would make more sense spending that $100 million by knocking $5,000 off the price of the American-built Cadillac CTS to make it more attractive to Europe."
Another benefit of using that $100 million to push the CTS in Europe: GM would be sending a real, made-in-Michigan rear-wheel-drive Cadillac to Europe. I think the CTS would have a lot more appeal than the BLS, which is a worked-over Saab with front-wheel drive. And I see no reason why GM couldn't adopt a good diesel for the CTS in Europe."