1978 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe 2-door 7.0l on 2040-cars

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GM announces six new recalls, covering 3.5 million vehicles

General Motors has just initiated another crushingly large recall, this time affecting some 3.36 million vehicles built between 2000 and 2014 and sold in the US, Canada and Mexico. Once again, the issue surrounds the cars' ignition switches, which can be kicked out of the run position if they're carrying extra weight or if they experience a "jarring" event. In this particular case, though, GM will modify the keys, rather than the ignition itself.
A four-by-six-millimeter hole will be drilled into the key, which will more safely accommodate the weight of the key ring. As is usually the case, the work will be done free of charge. The recalled vehicles include the 2000 to 2005 Cadillac Deville, 2004 to 2005 Buick Regal LS and GS, 2004 to 2011 Cadillac DTS, 2005 to 2009 Buick Lacrosse, 2006 to 2008 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, 2006 to 2011 Buick Lucerne and 2006 to 2014 Chevrolet Impala. Only the Impala is still in production, and even then, it's only sold to fleet companies.
According to an official statement from GM, there have been eight crashes and six injuries due to this latest issue. As if this isn't a dire enough blow for GM, the company has announced five smaller recalls, covering 165,000 vehicles.

2020 Cadillac CT5-V, CT4-V to be revealed next week

Even though the ATS-V and CTS-V are on the way out, the future is looking bright for Cadillac's high-performance sub-brand. Why is that? Well we're going to see not one, but two all-new V models on May 30. The company revealed its plans to show the 2020 Cadillac CT5-V and the CT4-V in an announcement about 15 years of the V brand. Not much is known about either car, but both should be wickedly quick based on their predecessors. We're particularly curious as to what engines will be used. With the CT5-V, a return of a supercharged pushrod V8 seems possible considering the CT5 is based on the Alpha platform that also underpins the Camaro. But Cadillac may want to push its more unique powertrains such as the twin-turbo, double-overhead-cam 4.2-liter V8 in the CT6-V. In the CT6-V, it makes 550 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque. Cadillac's former CEO said that other cars getting the engine will have it 500 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. We think the company could get away with the full power in the CT5-V, though, since each car's mission and character is different. There's also a slim chance we could see a return of the manual transmission for the midsize sports sedan, based on what a Cadillac engineer said. As for the CT4-V, there are more questions, simply because we haven't even seen the regular version yet except in spy shots. Since the CT5 is built off the Alpha platform, it seems reasonable to think the CT4 will do the same, especially since the ATS also used the platform. And to leave space between the CT5-V and itself, using a hot version of the twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 seems like the most likely choice. The hot V6 in the ATS-V made 464 horsepower and 445 pound-feet of torque, so we would expect the same. Hopefully Cadillac will offer a manual with it again. One final note from the Cadillac V announcement also got our attention. It said that these two cars are "just the beginning." That seems a pretty obvious sign there are other V models in the works. Since the CT4 and CT5 will round out the company's car line, the logical next choice would probably be crossovers. It will be interesting to see what an XT4-V or XT5-V will be like, especially since they use front-drive platforms. But in the meantime, we'll look forward to Cadillac's hot sedans.

Book by Cadillac subscription service returns next year

Cadillac rolled out its subscription service Book by Cadillac at the beginning of 2017. On December 1, 2018, the automaker put the service on hiatus after having made a few revisions and learned a lot of lessons. Just a month later, brand president Steve Carlisle told GM Authority at this year's Detroit Auto Show that Book was definitely returning. A week after that, GM chief financial officer Deborah Wahl said Book 2.0 could be ready as soon as Q2 this year. It's taken a touch longer than expected to sort out the kinks, but Automotive News reports Wahl told an audience at the J.D. Power/NADA AutoConference L.A. that the real return happens in the first quarter of 2020.  When Book went on hiatus last year, the service charged $1,800 per month for insurance, maintenance, unlimited miles, the ability to swap into any Cadillac at will, and concierge-like vehicle delivery to your location with amenities like bottled water, umbrellas, and detailing. Good things came of it for the brand, such as the 70% of subscribers who'd never owned a Cadillac. Yet the drawbacks were too much. At one point, the carmaker said Book's halt was due to technical issues like "snags with the back-end technology used to support the service" that hampered customer service and increased costs. Cadillac managed the Book's fleet, as opposed to the dealers, and consumer choice — or a lack of it — played a role in the hiatus. In Carlisle's comments to GMA, he said that subscribers didn't swap out vehicles nearly as much as expected. Even though everything up to the full-fat V-Series models was in the catalogue, Carlisle said of the customers, "They wanted an XT5." The devotion to that one product changed the economics. "Are [subscribers] going to stay in that service if thatÂ’s what they realize they want?" he asked. "It is inherent in that model that we maintain more than one car per customer. And you got to think through the economic implications of that. Particularly if utilization is a lot lower than we thought because people are switching less than we thought." Wahl didn't offer any specifics on how Book 2.0 will differ from Book 1.0, only saying that there will be more "convenience, flexibility and value for potential subscribers." There will be less focus on swapping cars, and Cadillac will "base it off the dealer network." Since the brand's 900 U.S. dealers have the inventory, anyway, that should help both parties.