It is my opinion, that Cadillac Motor Division should be the standard of quality at GM, setting the entire Quality methology there.
With the prices on those cars, you are getting an optioned out chevy these days. Nothing more. GM should make a point of buying a Cadillac is a way of life, and for life. This is the car that you can drive confidently for 400K miles. Set the standard. Failures and defects are not optional, nor accepted. The parts need to be tighter quality, and GM can't tell me they don't know how to do it (we got a "polite" butt chewing from a GM Quality exec some years ago, they can talk the talk, but they can't seem to walk the walk at all) GM needs to APPLY what they have learned. 6Sigma needs to be a way of life, not just some program that they use now and then. When a failure occurs, a 5 Phase is done. Ok, cool. NOW APPLY WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED FROM IT. It does NOT go into the file cabinet with all the rest of them. They need to go back and apply every single thing they have learned from a 5 phase. And if a supplier is a repeat problem, they are gone. Find another. GM knows how to play hardball. (if you have ever been in cost negotiations, you will walk funny afterwards....)
Cadillac needs to set the quality barometer for GM. And it needs to proliferate to the rest of GM. But failures at Cadillac with that hefty premium on parts costs, should NEVER be option. It is slap in the face to the customer, ESPECIALLY the loyal ones who keep coming back.... Eventually GM, they won't come back, they will take business elsewhere. and unfortunately, they are taking it overseas.... Which if frigging wrong, just plain wrong. And honestly, it is the STUPID things that GM is having problems with not the big things. But that is what people see and remember..... Customers rarely if ever forget poor quality that they had to deal with.
And GM wonders why Toyota is knocking on the door. It should be pretty embarassing to Cadillac that the most reliable Cadillacs have been powered by a 350 Chevy and not a Cadillac V8. And the worst quality Cadillacs are powered by Cadillac engines. That should have everyone who approved those engines fired. Crap guys, I could do a better job running a quality organization than that.