2023 Cadillac Ct5-v Blackwing on 2040-cars

Auto blog

How the demise of Lincoln's Town Car has kick-started a limo revolution

The deaths of the Ford Crown Victoria and the Lincoln Town Car have meant overhauls of three high-profile American fleets: police, taxi and livery car. Just as police fleets are more open to considering other options and a Nissan van is the new face of the NYC taxi, livery car companies are looking at replacements for the Town Car beyond The Blue Oval. Ford, via Lincoln, has made an MKT Town Car (pictured), but an article in the Detroit News claims "it has failed to win over most of the big limousine companies." The upstarts trying to move in include livery and limo editions of the Cadillac XTS, and livery specifications of the Toyota Avalon and Chrysler 300.
Each of those challengers, however, faces challenges. The Town Car was a workhorse, American, rear-wheel-drive sedan with plenty of rear legroom. Cadillac has been in the livery space before but with decontented models that were about selling the brand, not its luxury. It is taking the opposite approach with the XTS, pointing out that its livery edition is "contented in the upper half of the XTS range." Still, the CEO of Michigan's largest livery company says "it's quite a bit smaller than what we're used to," and he also prefers rear-wheel drive.
The Chrysler 300 is rear-wheel drive, and American, which matters to some companies, but Chrysler hasn't yet revealed the livery package for it. The livery Avalon marks Toyota's first time getting into that business in the US, a natural step after having done so well with taxi clients and with the Town Car out of the way. Still, the livery client is a different to taxi buyers, so the Avalon could face other soft-touch hurdles.

Cars with the most reckless drivers are full of surprises

Insurify is a site for comparing auto insurance quotes. Because insurance shoppers need to submit information like the vehicles they're driving and the infractions they've compiled while driving those vehicles, Insurify has quite the database of correlations tying certain models to a habit of breaking certain laws. When the site's data analysts decided to compile a list of the top ten models for reckless driving citations in the decade from 2010 to 2019, the ranking contained a few wild entries. The Dodge Challenger making the countdown will surprise precisely zero people. But the Saturn L200? First, a definition: USLegal.com defines reckless driving as "driving with a willful or wanton disregard for safety. It is the operation of an automobile under such circumstances and in such a manner as to show a willful or reckless disregard of consequences." So this list is a caution about particular drivers more than the cars. For a baseline, according to Insurify data, for any random model, 15 out of 10,000 people who drive that model have picked up one citation for reckless driving. Back to that Challenger, then. No shocker for being here, but it's actually number 10, with 44 out of 10,000 Challenger drivers nabbed for a willful disregard of consequences on the road. That's better than the first surprise entry, the Saturn L200, a sedan only on sale for six years, with the least horsepower on the list, and out of production since 2005. The data set put drivers of GM's extraterrestrial sedan at 45 reckless pilots per 10,000 drivers. There are two pickups on the list, the only modern one being the Ram 1500 at eighth, with a rate of 46 in 10,000. Somehow, drivers of the third-best-selling pickup in the U.S. outrun the overwhelming numerical superiority of the best-selling vehicle in the States, the Ford F-150. The other pickup is the Chevrolet K1500 at number five, with a rate of 56 in 10,000. This is not only the oldest vehicle on the list, it went out of production in 2002, before any other vehicle on the list. Between the trucks, the Volkswagen CC slotted in at seven with 47 in 10,000 reckless driving chits, the Cadillac ATS slipped into sixth with 48 in 10,000.  The top four is a bag of unexpected. The Nissan 370Z is the first hardcore sports car on the list at number four, with 61 in 10,000 Z drivers flaunting their Fairladys in the face of Johnny Law.

2021 Cadillac CT5 adorned with Diamond Sky Special Edition Package

Among the changes due to appear on the 2021 Cadillac CT5 will be an exclusive Diamond Sky Special Edition Package. We don't have photos of the design theme yet, but Cadillac Society reports that the heaven-hued composition will only be available on the Premium Luxury trim. It starts with Diamond Sky Metallic paint that could provide perfect contrast for the Dark Sky Metallic offered on the GMC Sierra 1500. The CT5 goes all-in with the exterior color, dressing the rocker moldings and rear diffuser in Diamond Sky Metallic, and sitting on 19-inch wheels with a Diamond Cut/Midnight Silver finish. Tucked behind the wheels, buyers will find blue Brembo V Performance brake calipers. And having decided that standard taillamps will detract from the effect, for the first time on a non-V and non-V Sport Cadillac, the special edition CT5 will get clear taillights with a gray-tinted outer lens. The interior fabric comes in Sky Cool Gray with a Diamond Fall seat perforation pattern, offset with Jet Black accents, Galaxy Wood trim, and alloy pedals.  In typical Cadillac fashion, getting the Diamond Sky Special Edition Package will necessitate ordering another package when ordering opens next year. The required Climate Package bundles heated and ventilated driver and front passenger seats and an automatic heated steering wheel, and costs $1,090 in 2020. Elsewhere for the CT5 and the CT4, the next model year delivers a 12-inch customizable digital gauge cluster, plus the option of Super Cruise. Some of the changes already outlined for the 2021 CT5-V are likely headed to the CT5, so in the case of Super Cruise, for instance, checking that option could get real pricey, requiring the $1,300 Driver Awareness Plus Package as well as either the $8,330 Platinum Package or $1,950 Driver Assist Package.  Related Video: