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GM will stop reporting monthly U.S. vehicle sales

DETROIT — General Motors said on Tuesday it will stop reporting monthly U.S. vehicle sales, saying the 30-day snapshot does not accurately reflect the market, and will instead issue quarterly sales. GM will also no longer report monthly sales in China, its largest market, and Brazil. GM will provide monthly data to the U.S. Federal Reserve, industry associations and government agencies across the globe, but that data is not made public. Analysts and investors rely on monthly U.S. vehicle sales not just to track the performance of individual automakers, but as a barometer of the health of the world's second-largest auto market and as an indicator of consumer confidence in the U.S. economy overall. GM and its Detroit rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler have relied heavily on sales of high-margin pickup truck and SUV sales to boost profits. GM's total U.S. sales, its second-largest market, are down 3.2 percent for the first two months of 2018, reflecting a 6.8 percent drop in retail sales to individual customers, the company reported last month. GM executives have expressed frustration that comparisons of monthly U.S. sales results among rival automakers are distorted by short-term discount programs, and by differences in strategy for selling vehicles in bulk to rental car fleets. "Thirty days is not enough time to separate real sales trends from short-term fluctuations in a very dynamic, highly competitive market," Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president for sales operations said in a statement. GM's actions could prompt other automakers to also switch to quarterly U.S. sales reports. Major automakers will report March U.S. new vehicle sales on Tuesday. Until the early 1990s, most U.S. automakers released sales results every 10 days. The former Chrysler Corp. stopped reporting sales on a 10-day basis in 1990, and rivals followed suit over the next three years. GM executives are betting that investors will quickly adapt to receiving U.S. sales data every three months, as investors in other retail sectors already have. Retailers such as Walmart report sales on a quarterly basis. Reporting by Joe WhiteRelated Video: Image Credit: Reuters Earnings/Financials Green Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GM GMC US

2021 Cadillac Escalade Interior Review | Tech-forward fortress

Of all the interiors that are vital to Cadillac’s success, the new 2021 EscaladeÂ’s is arguably the most important. ItÂ’s supposed to be the best GM can muster, and the previous generation was a distant second to the classically elegant Lincoln Navigator. Cadillac didnÂ’t try to copy LincolnÂ’s success with its redesigned full-sizer, instead opting to follow a more generic theme of tech-forward luxury. When we say tech-forward, though, we mean it. The 38 inches of curved OLED screens we covered in our Escalade infotainment review absolutely dominate the dash in a brazen display of opulence. There isnÂ’t much room for anything else to take center stage, but whatÂ’s there is extremely nice. Large swaths of wood trim stretch across the dash and also adorn a substantial part of the center console. ItÂ’s harder to find something that doesnÂ’t feel like soft-touch leather, wood or metal trim than it is to find cost-cutting materials. There are certainly some areas with the usual black plastic for buttons, but every car company that isnÂ’t Rolls-Royce resorts to plastic at some level. The seating position and ergonomics of the Escalade are a big step up from past models. There was a feeling of claustrophobia in previous Escalades with the whole interior being built up around the driver in an unfriendly manner. This Escalade tones that down with lower and flatter surfaces, along with just being bigger in general. That feeling of expansiveness is great for decompressing and relaxing in the available heated, cooled and massaging seats. Riding in the back is almost as lovely. Switching to an independent rear suspension and making the vehicle longer means more passenger and cargo space (10.3 cu-ft more than before with the third row up). The majority of this is realized in the third row (10.4 inches more than before), where even large adults can sit comfortably with a laid-back seating position. Before, if your knees weren't in your face, it's probably because you gave up and hitched a ride with someone else. A BMW X7 or Mercedes-Benz GLS will still outclass it for materials and third-row features, but the Escalade wins on sheer bigness. Getting back there is a breeze with a huge walkway, though putting the seat back into place is borderline annoying, requiring much more physical effort than a powered second row would. As big as the third row is, sitting in the second row is even better thanks to the massive dual screens mounted to the front headrests.

Cadillac introducing V2V communications on 2017 CTS sedans

While Audi has introduced vehicle-to-infrastructure technology in select cars in select cities, Cadillac is focusing on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, and it all starts with the CTS sedan. Starting this month, the company will be adding V2V equipment to 2017 models. The feature will be standard on cars in the US and Canada. These V2V devices will allow these new Cadillacs to communicate with each other up to 980 feet away. The cars will be able to transmit and receive information on speed, direction, and location. An example of how this data can be used is in detecting a car coming up a side street that could pose a possible collision risk. The cars will also be able to transmit data about brake use, hazard lights, and low traction situations for advance warning of hazards. The warnings can be displayed on the instrument panel and heads-up display. Currently, the system only communicates with other CTS sedans equipped with the technology. According to Chris Bonelli at Cadillac part of the reason is that the CTS will be the only car with the equipment on US roads at the moment, but it also isn't currently set to communicate with other cars if they were to be offered right away. However, he said that the company is absolutely willing to work with other companies to make the system compatible if or when other cars are offered with the technology. This V2V system also doesn't send data to any sort of network, instead only communicating with nearby cars. For the time being, this precludes the possibility of receiving road condition information from cars that are farther away. But as Cadillac points out, it should work under any conditions with no delay since it isn't dependent on information from a network. As far as security is concerned, Bonelli told us that the Cadillac system does have firewalls and other security measures to keep it protected from interference. He also said the cars don't store any data they receive. In addition, none of the data could be used to identify a particular person. The cars use a radio frequency set aside by the government for this use. The introduction of this technology also puts Cadillac well ahead of proposed legislation by the Department of Transportation. The organization wants this type of short-range V2V communications equipment to be a standard feature by 2023, believing the technology could prevent many injuries and deaths due to crashes. Related Video: