1996 Cadillac Eldorado Etc Coupe 2-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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Luxury car brands scrambling to avoid a blue Christmas

DETROIT — When financial markets surge to new records, sales of luxury cars usually rise, too. Instead, October U.S. auto sales reports on Wednesday showed that a collapse in sales of luxury sedans is accelerating. Consumers have gradually shifted over to luxury sport utility vehicles from sedans in the past decade, but the trend — which has occurred in both the non-luxury and luxury sedan segments of the auto market — was particularly pronounced in October. Sales of Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz S-Class, long a global benchmark for large, premium sedans, plunged 49 percent in October, and are down 24.8 percent for the year to date. General Motors' Cadillac brand said it sold just 779 of its CTS sedans in October. Demand for that car, designed to compete with German luxury sedans, is down nearly 33 percent for the year. "There's still a significant portion of the market that wants a car, but I'm sure there were people who preferred a horse to a car at one point." Cadillac's best-selling model this year is the XT5 compact SUV, which has more than doubled sales from a year ago. The shift within the luxury vehicle market away from sedans toward SUVs of all sizes is forcing some of the most prestigious brands to scramble to add SUV models to their lineups or boost SUV production to meet demand. "In the short term, there will be pressure to add (consumer) incentives, cut production or both," said Cox Automotive analyst Michelle Krebs. "And we just don't see an end in sight to this trend." The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading at all-time highs, usually a good sign for luxury sedans, but as major automakers reported new U.S. vehicle sales for October on Wednesday, sales for passenger cars continued their slide while luxury SUV and crossover sales rose again. According to Kelley Blue Book data, in 2007 luxury sedans made up 7.6 percent of U.S. new vehicle sales, while luxury SUVs made up 4.2 percent. Through September this year, luxury SUVs made up just over 7 percent of the market, compared with 4.9 percent for luxury sedans. In the short term, luxury brands could use holiday season sales promotions to clear slow-selling sedans off dealer lots, analysts said. Toyota's Lexus brand said on Wednesday it will launch its "December to Remember" year-end sales promotion for the 18th straight year.

Why Cadillac needs a real truck in its lineup

Premium brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Cadillac sell vehicles that cover the spectrum from car to crossover to SUV. But trucks? They remain the last frontier when it comes to luxury brands. These days Chevy, GMC, Ford, and Ram sell cheap, bare-bones work trucks alongside loaded models that top $75,000. There is a reverse elitism that comes with this sales tactic. A brand gets to reflect a rugged working class lifestyle with the emblem up front, while what's behind it costs as much as a small house in middle America. But Americans who spend big money on cars and SUVs have always gradually tailed towards luxury nameplates over time. Everyone knows what an Escalade is, and thanks in large part to that image the Escalade is now the best-selling fullsize luxury SUV in the USA. Cadillac's flagship model, along with its midsize luxury crossover, the SRX, routinely outsell the competition from Audi, Mercedes, and BMW, not to mention Ford's Lincoln brand and most of the Japanese rivals. With trucks already dominating overall sales and headed into the pricing stratosphere, I believe it's time for Cadillac to consider a fullsize truck. And no, not a lipstick version that merely takes a Chevrolet Silverado pickup and throws in a few leather seats and some slight interior touches. That experiment already failed both for Cadillac (the Escalade EXT) and for Ford's Lincoln brand (Blackwood, Mark LT). Cadillac is an American brand that currently focuses a ridiculous amount of energy and resources trying to compete with European car offerings. The brand needs to create the Cadillac of trucks. Head honcho Johan de Nysschen has been blunt in his desire to "restore Cadillac to the pinnacle of global premium brands, not in sales but in aspirational brand character." This sounds well and wonderful. But the present problem in achieving this goal is that, on a global basis, Cadillac is a failed brand. Look at Europe, where Cadillac has sold so poorly in recent years that former Soviet manufacturer Lada managed more new registrations in 2014 by a factor of more than four to one. Cadillac is an American brand that currently focuses a ridiculous amount of energy and resources trying to compete with European car offerings. After more than 20 years of Cadillac models selling themselves as import killers, the only one with sustained success has been the CTS, and even that has been a marketplace loser for the last several years. The CTS-V?

Cadillac CT5-V comes in under $50,000

Cadillac CT5-V pricing is out, giving us a fuller picture of the CT5 lineup from a pricing perspective. We still haven’t driven CadillacÂ’s new sedan, but we now know that a CT5-V with rear-wheel drive will set you back $48,690, including the $995 destination charge. If you want all-wheel drive, thatÂ’ll be $51,290, a $2,600 upcharge. ThereÂ’s a small tidbit of powertrain news available today, as well. When Cadillac first announced the CT5-V, it said the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 would make 355 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. Since then, Cadillac has upped the final figures to 360 horsepower and 405 pound-feet of torque. The difference is only 5 horsepower and 5 pound-feet of torque, but still worth noting. We also got pricing information on the CT5 with the lower-spec 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6. This engine is only available on the Premium Luxury trim and it starts at $45,190 with rear-wheel drive. The all-wheel drive version costs $48,280. Cadillac opened up the CT5Â’s configurator with all the different variants on it today, too. We built a CT5-V with all the option boxes checked and saw the price balloon to more than $67,000. This sedan can get expensive if you let it. Compared to the BMW M340i or Audi S4, the Cadillac's base price is still cheaper. If you want to keep it in the Cadillac family, the smaller CT4-V starts at $45,490, coming in $3,200 less than the CT5-V. Cadillac says the CT5 will begin shipping to dealers in the first quarter and the CT4 will arrive in the second quarter.