Why should Cadillac be immune!? Try owning a Lincoln Town Car or worse yet, a Continental if you want Gizmos to fail that will leave you stranded! It doesn't always have to be a "complex gizmo" that fails and can't be changed in a pinch. Ford had problems with overheating headlamp switches and they were easy to change, but not in a pinch on the side of the road... How about Ford's ignition switch failures that caused the vehicle to die while driving along? Or those that failed and caused the vehicle to burn?
Cars these days are too complex and just about everything is controlled by a relay or electronic module. Doesn't matter what make you buy! Now, if your Eldorado was losing it's headlights every two weeks, along with thousands of other Eldorados, then it would be okay to gripe...
Things go bad. We can't make mission-critical no-fail lightbulbs, or relays, or control modules and sell the vehicle for a reasonable cost that people could afford. Cadillacs are nice, expensive vehicles, yes, but they are not immune to "once in a lifetime" failures.
Recently my headlights completely went out while driving at dusk.
> Upon inspection at home, I found that the headlights, the four
> individual fuses, and the one master fuse were all good. I further
> noticed that the parking lights and driving lights did not work
> either, but the brake lights did function.
>
> Upon taking the car to a local mechanic, the switch was tested and
> found to be good. He informed me that there is a module somewhere
> within the dash that failed (one of three) and the cost of a
> replacement (with labor) was about $500.
>
> I am totally surprised that Cadillac would design a car in which a
> component as critical as the headlights was controlled by a "hidden"
> device that you can't get to in an emergency. It is unacceptable to
> have total loss of lighting because some gizmo stops working, while
> the lights, wiring, and charging circuits are fine.
>
> Has anyone else run into this situation with this or a similar GM
> product? If so, did the resolution turn out to be this complex and
> expensive? Right now my driving is severely limited to daytime hours
> in good weather only.