2005 Cadillac Escalade Esv on 2040-cars

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Cadillac to vie for Secret Service armored car contract, new Beast?

President Obama has used the same armored limo since his inauguration in 2008. Known by many as The Beast, the Presidential Limo was provided by Cadillac and earned its nickname in large part because of its massive size, which isn't surprising considering that its Caddy-shaped bodywork is said to sit atop a heavy-duty truck chassis.
It seems the Secret Service may be in the market for a Beast replacement, having issued a request for proposals for a new armored limo. According to Motor Trend, Obama's backup limo is a leftover from the Bush Administration, so it will be interesting to see if this new machine will serve as a replacement for The Beast or for its backup. The contract is to be awarded by September 29, 2013.
The boys from MT contacted Cadillac, Lincoln and Chrysler, and Chrysler is the only one that would confirm that it is not pursuing the contract. Cadillac may have the inside track, as it has provided Presidential limos since 1993, but Lincoln also has a long and storied history of chauffeuring the President.

Mercedes leads in US luxury car thefts

Mercedes-Benz makes some fine automobiles. The Silver Arrow'd cars are so good, apparently, that thieves can't help but try to steal them. The German brand is at the top of the charts for luxury car thefts in the US, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, with New York City leading the way. (And those New Yorkers complain about Detroit being bad!)
The C-Class was the most stolen model, with 485 ganked between 2009 and 2012 in NYC alone, while the E-Class and S-Class (which also boasted the worst recovery rate, at 59 percent) both finished in the top ten. Following the C-Class was the BMW 3 Series and Infiniti G. Not surprisingly, each of these were the most common models in their respective lineups. Los Angeles and Miami are also prime hotspots for luxury car thefts, according to the Detroit News report.
While getting your car stolen is pretty awful, there was one inspiring statistic compiled by the NICB - the average recovery rate across the board was 84 percent, with the Cadillac CTS getting recovered 91 percent of the time.

GM pauses 3.0-liter turbodiesel production due to a supplier shortage

General Motors confirmed it has temporarily stopped taking orders for trucks and SUVs equipped with the 3.0-liter Duramax turbodiesel six-cylinder engine. It blamed the last-minute pause on a supplier-related shortage. Website TFL Truck first reported the news, and a representative from General Motors quickly confirmed it. The spokesperson explained the issue is due to a "temporary part shortage" and added that production will resume "as soon as possible," meaning the Duramax engine (which is called LM2 internally) is not going away permanently. Additional details are not available, so we don't know if the issue is related to the ongoing chip shortage. Rather than delay deliveries and create a backlog, General Motors is reportedly asking its dealers to encourage buyers who want a turbodiesel engine to instead select either the 5.3-liter V8 or the 6.2-liter V8, depending on the model selected. Both are gasoline-powered units. There's no word yet on when Duramax production will resume. The shortage affects several models, including Chevrolet's Tahoe, Suburban, and Silverado 1500 and GMC's variants of these trucks. Cadillac's Escalade is temporarily diesel-less as well. Heavy Duty variants of the Silverado and the Sierra are not affected because they're powered by a different Duramax engine with eight cylinders. Motorists seeking a full-size SUV powered by an efficient turbodiesel engine are temporarily out of options because the Tahoe/Yukon and the Suburban/Yukon XL had the segment to themselves. The Duramax was surprisingly popular, too: in May 2021, GM Authority reported that the turbodiesel straight-six represented 8% of Suburban sales and 6% of Tahoe sales. Installed in a rear-wheel-drive Tahoe, the engine returns 21 mpg in the city, 28 mpg on the highway, and 24 mpg in a combined cycle, figures that make the body-on-frame behemoth more efficient than the unibody, front-wheel-drive Chevrolet Blazer that's 20 inches shorter and approximately 1,700 pounds lighter. Related video: 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe 3.0L Duramax engine