2005 Cadillac Deville Limited , 54k Actual Miles , Simply Perfection on 2040-cars

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2014 Cadillac ELR leases for $699 a month

Most Autoblog readers thought the $75,000 price tag on the 2014 Cadillac ELR was too high. If you can't swing the MSRP all in one go, how does a lease price of $699 a month sound? That's the amount that Cadillac is offering on the official ELR website, with some caveats, of course. First off, it appears that this lease price is for just for "current owners and lessees of all 1999 or newer GM vehicles." They will also have to pony up $4,999 at signing (all others will need $5,999). Second, the $699-a-month price is for a 39-month lease. Then, of course, "tax, title, license, dealer fees and optional equipment [are] extra" and "each dealer sets own price." Also, it appears that this lease deal is only good until the end of January. Cadillac started shipping the ELR plug-in hybrid coupe to dealers last month. There are two things to note in the fine print. The most surprising is that the payments are based on "a 2014 Cadillac ELR with an MSRP of $76,000." That's $1,000 more than the official MSRP announced in October. Then we get to the real kicker: The lease limits you to a mere 32,500 miles, which is just 833.3 miles a month. Well, 'limit' isn't the exact word, since you can certainly drive more. All you have to do is pay 25 cents per mile for each mile over 32,500. Drive the national average of 13,476 miles in a year? That comes to 43,797 miles over 39 months, which is 11,297 extra miles and an extra $2,824.25.

Ford C-Max spot aimed squarely at Cadillac ELR 'Poolside' hubris [UPDATE]

If we had tried to predict the first video response to the controversial Poolside video for the Cadillac ELR, we would not have thought it would center on compost. But, hey, it's always nice to be reminded that the real world is sometimes better than fiction. Instead of the chic swagger of 'Poolside,' 'Anything Is Possible' is all about getting dirty. The new short in question is called Upside: Anything Is Possible and it promotes two things: Detroit Dirt and the Ford C-Max Energi. As in the ELR ad, Ford's plug-in C-Max only makes an appearance at the tail end of the spot, but instead of the chic swagger of Poolside, Anything Is Possible is all about getting dirty. The ad stars Pashon Murray, co-founder of Detroit Dirt, which takes natural waste from around Detroit, composts it into soil and then spreads that around "forgotten parcels" of Detroit to create urban farms. Detroit Dirt gets its bio-waste from a lot of sources, including the Detroit Zoological Society (all that herbivore manure has to go somewhere), Ford and General Motors, but this particular ad was the idea of Ford's PR agency, Team Detroit. It was a frenetic shoot, filmed with an LA-based director right after a big winter storm blew through Detroit, and Murray couldn't be happier with the result. "This was Ford Motor Company pushing my story, letting me tell the story that I believe in," Murray tells AutoblogGreen. "I get to help push this car and I get to tell my story." She says that the Team Detroit and Ford had to agree on the message, "from my understanding, [YouTube] is where they wanted to start, not where they wanted to finish." The ad is already getting a positive response on Twitter, so we won't be surprised if it shows up in more places soon. "It's not saying Ford is better than GM. It's telling the story of a black woman who's working hard in Detroit." As Detroit Dirt has off-screen support from both GM and Ford, it's unsurprising to hear Murray say that the video "is not a rivalry thing." She notes that the ad agency Team Detroit came to her and offered to tell the Detroit Dirt story using the framework of the GM ad. "It's a parody on this commercial, but it's not saying Ford is better than GM," she said. "It's telling the story of a black woman who's working hard in Detroit." What is that story? It's about urban farming, recovery and recycling. Murray tells us that for the last seven or eight years, she's been dedicated to sustainability.

2020 Cadillac XT5 spied undisguised with infotainment from CT5

The reveal of the 2020 Cadillac XT5 crossover must be seriously near, because one of our spy photographers caught the new one completely undisguised. Seriously, there aren't any vinyl coverings anywhere, and the interior was completely bare, too. The update is minimal for the most part, but the interior reveals a big infotainment change. Before we get inside, we'll do a quick overview of the exterior. The front grille has a new mesh insert, and the lower air dam has a wider, thinner metallic accent. At the back, the colors for the faux skid plate or diffuser motif have been swapped. And that's it for the exterior. See? Told you it would be quick. The interior is nearly unchanged, too, except for the aforementioned infotainment system. Instead of the current model's touchscreen-only interface, the new XT5 adopts the control knob featured in the XT4, XT6 and CT5. It fits quite naturally behind the electronic shift lever. If it's like the system in other Cadillacs, fans of the touchscreen shouldn't worry, because you'll still be able to use the touch functions if you wish. Odds are we're months away from the new XT5 hitting dealers, since this is clearly a finished prototype. It will most certainly offer the same 3.6-liter, 310-horsepower V6 and 8-speed automatic of the current model. It's possible Cadillac will introduce a slightly more affordable 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 as an option, possibly even a turbo inline-4 hybrid powertrain, since both powertrains are available on the current Chinese-market XT5.