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Cadillac LTS flagship to bow at NY Auto Show

There is widespread agreement across the industry that Cadillac needs a proper, rear-drive flagship sedan that completes legitimately with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Audi A8 and BMW 7 Series.
Fortunately, the same view is held within the company, and just such a car - possibly dubbed LTS - is under development. According to a high-level source at Cadillac, the new four-door, which is said to incorporate design cues from the marque's celebrated Elmiraj coupe concept, will debut at the New York Auto Show next April.
If the car needs a cheerleader, surely incoming president Johan de Nysschen is just such a person. De Nysschen doesn't arrive at Cadillac until late in the month, but certainly he will want a proper flagship to do battle with his old foes at Mercedes-Benz and BMW and old friends at Audi and Infiniti.

Junkyard Gem: 1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

The Cadillac Eldorado lost a foot of wheelbase and 1,200 pounds when GM's luxury front-drive platform got downsized for 1979, which turned out to be prescient timing considering the massive spike in oil prices in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The General kept the pricey Biarritz option package from the previous generation, adding a stainless-steel roof in the process. Here's one of those cars, found in a chilly Denver boneyard last month. The stainless-steel roof panel, inspired by the one used on the 1957 Eldorado Brougham, identifies a 1979-1985 Eldorado as a genuine Biarritz. This generation of Eldorado Biarritz achieved its greatest renown as the car bomb that detonates when pink-suited Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) cranks the starter in the 1995 film Casino. Naturally, a 24 Hours of Lemons team obtained one of these cars and raced it while the pit crew wore pastel suits and sipped from Tangiers Casino highball glasses. The MSRP on the base '79 Eldorado was $14,240 and the Biarritz package with leather seats tacked on an additional $2,600. That's $64,495 in 2021 dollars, at a time when plenty of car loans had interest rates approaching 20%. The '79 Seville's base price was higher ($15,646), despite being based on the lowly Chevy Nova, but that difference was erased by the cost of the Biarritz package. The Fleetwood limos were the only pricier Cadillacs that year. Yes, you had to be a true high-roller to purchase a '79 Biarritz. Of course, a new Mercedes-Benz 450SLC cost a terrifying $32,858 (about $125,850 today) that year, but the $13,067 Lincoln Mark V (the price went up substantially if you got one of the editions designed by Bill Blass, Givenchy, or Emilio Pucci) was close competition for the Biarritz. The 1979 Eldorado had something the Lincoln didn't, however: electronic fuel injection. Yes, a 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) Oldsmobile V8 engine with a pretty-modern-for-1979 throttle-body fuel-injection system sent 170 horses to the front wheels via GM's impressive Unitized Power Package longitudinal-engine front-wheel-drive system. Look at all those futuristic devices in that faux-wood dash! That stereo cassette deck added $225 ($860 today) to the price. Cruise control cost $137, the rear defogger added $101, and… well, you get the idea. This Cad is a bit tattered and has some rust spots here and there, but wouldn't have been an overwhelmingly difficult restoration.

Cadillac Celestiq previewed as a flagship luxury electric car

Last year, our Autoblog Green editor, John Beltz Snyder, got a sneak peik of GM's upcoming electric car roll out. No photos were given, but he described them in great detail. Now we finally get our own peek at one of those cars, the Cadillac Celestiq flagship sedan. Sadly, we don't get a particularly clear look, since Cadillac is only teasing the car at this point, but it's better than nothing, and better than most teasers. We get a top-down shot that reveals the car will share some key cues with the Lyriq crossover EV. Most obvious is the rear with the boomerang taillights and fastback roof, which is a glass unit separated into four pieces. Each piece can be individually adjusted for transparency, and it appears they can be illuminated as well. The front also appears similar to the Lyriq with a geometric grille covered in a transparent panel. The grille looks significantly larger, though. It also features illumination like the crossover. We also get a look at the interior, which prominently features a full-width screen for instruments and infotainment. There appears to be a screen in the center console/stack that can control functions including the roof panel illumination. According to Snyder, the interior also has extensive wood and metal trim intermingling with nifty ambient lighting. Cadillac didn't say much about the mechanical aspects except the basics. It will use GM's Ultium battery technology that will be shared with other products such as the aforementioned Lyriq and the GMC Hummer EV. It will also feature four-wheel steering as well as all-wheel-drive, undoubtedly courtesy of dual motors, one front and one rear. Cadillac previously confirmed that the Celestiq is headed for production. We also suspect that some of the fancy features such as the screens and multi-panel glass roof could make it to production. This is because it's meant to be a halo product showing off the ultimate in luxury and technology from the brand, and it could have a price tag larger than $200,000. We're expecting Cadillac to fully reveal the Celestiq in a few months, but it could be a while before the production version hits the road. The Lyriq isn't going on sale until late next year, and we would bet the Celestiq wouldn't come ahead of it. Related Video: