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Published on 11 December 2019

In the 1920s GM boss Alfred P. Sloan, jr. began to conceive the idea of his corporation as a truly international player. Somewhere along history's road many of his insights have been obscured. Consider, for example, the absurdity of a car engineered for Europe (the Opel Insignia) being sent to Australia and branded a Holden! You're kidding. And yet, there have been local failures of imagination. Why was the HQ Holden never engineered for left-hand-drive? US foreign policy and cultural isolationism has in some respects been reflected in the products of Detroit. Cadillac, GM's pinnacle brand, has never been the truly international competitor that Mercedes-Benz or even Toyota and Jaguar have been. Now is perhaps the time for Cadillac to become an international prestige brand, starting with Australia. And, thank goodness, it will not pretend to be a Holden! Indeed, the sooner any car stops pretending to be a Holden (i.e., Australia's Own Car), the better! The Cadillac CT5 would go well here.