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2016 Cadillac CT6 First Drive [w/video]

Cadillac moved to New York, renamed its cars and crossovers, and made cutting-edge technology one of its pillars. It's fighting hard to attract new customers and kill its outdated reputation as an old-man car brand in the United States. Change happens slowly, and then sometimes, all at once. Enter the 2016 Cadillac CT6. This is Cadillac's range-topping sedan. It's almost as long as the Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Series, yet in some configurations, it's lighter than their smaller siblings, the E-Class and 5 Series. The CT6 is a rolling showcase of General Motors' latest and best technologies, with potential breakthrough features like Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving waiting in the wings. It comes in a wide variety of flavors. The CT6 starts as low as $54,490 with a four-cylinder engine and rear-wheel drive, which is the car that Cadillac hopes will be cross-shopped with the mid-tier Germans. The top-end CT6 Platinum with all-wheel drive and the 404-horsepower V6 begins at $84,460, and it could make S-Class and 7 Series buyers rethink American luxury. Put simply, the CT6 means everything to Cadillac, but it will mean different things to its customers. It can be the executive chauffeur with all the backseat accouterments. Or it can be the massive yet somehow kinda sporty and nimble rear-wheel-drive sedan that weighs only 3,657 pounds. We tried both versions and came away impressed with both the strategy and the execution. It's a little strange to think that Cadillac doesn't offer a V8 in its biggest sedan. Taking the wheel on a sunny, cool day in rural San Diego County, we wonder if a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine has what it takes to really move this giant. Our concerns quickly dissipate – this engine is also under the hood of the Chevy Camaro, and its 265 hp and 295 pound-feet of torque are more than up for the task. The big sedan handles curvy mountain roads adeptly. There's not a lot of roll for a car this size, even when we're aggressively whipping through tight turns. This poise comes from the CT6's rigid, lightweight aluminum and steel structure called Omega. We switch through the driving modes but settle on sport for the dash to the lunch spot. The steering is surprisingly tight and the brakes have strong response with little pedal travel. After a quick bite in an old mining town called Julian, we take off in the spotlight CT6, the Platinum trim, powered by the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6. It's an enjoyable car to stretch out on the highway.

GM sees 'strong year' in 2018, then gold in Chevy Silverado for 2019

DETROIT — General Motors said on Tuesday it expects earnings in 2018 to be largely flat compared with 2017, but that profits should pick up pace in 2019 as its revamped line of high-margin pickup trucks hits the U.S. market. The 2018 earnings outlook was above market expectations, sending GM shares up more than 3 percent in premarket trading. "GM had a very good 2017 as we continued to transform our company to be more focused, resilient and profitable," GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said in a statement. "We are positioned for another strong year in 2018 and an even better one in 2019." GM and its Detroit rivals, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, are bringing on new trucks at a time when overall U.S. new vehicle sales have been falling, but truck sales continue to grow as consumers abandon passenger cars in favor of pickups, SUVs and crossovers. GM on Saturday fired a new round in the battle for profits from one of the U.S. auto industry's most lucrative segments when it showed a new generation of its Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck at the Detroit auto show. The new Silverado, a highlight of the event, is the successor to GM's best-selling vehicle in North America. Sales of the current Silverado rose nearly 2 percent to 585,000 vehicles in 2017. In the coming months, the company will also reveal a revamped GMC Sierra pickup truck. U.S. new vehicle sales fell 2 percent in 2017 after hitting a record high in 2016, and are expected to drop further in 2018 as interest rates rise and more late-model used cars return to dealer lots to compete with new ones. GM said on Tuesday that while it retools a factory in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to make the new pickup trucks, it will shift some production to an Oshawa, Ontario, plant in order to avoid missing sales in a hot market for the vehicles. The No. 1 U.S. automaker said it will record a $7 billion non-cash charge for its fourth-quarter 2017 earnings related to deferred tax assets. GM said it expects capital expenditure in 2018 of around $8.5 billion, about $1 billion of which will go toward funding self-driving car technology. Last week, the company said it is seeking U.S. government approval for a fully autonomous car — one without a steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator pedal — to enter the automaker's first commercial ride-sharing fleet in 2019. GM said it expects 2017 earnings per share at the high end of its previously forecast range of $6 to $6.50.

Weekly Recap: Car-pedestrian crashes remained elevated in 2014

The death of American Horror Story: Freak Show star Ben Woolf served as a reminder this week that car crashes involving pedestrians remain a problem, and a new study issued on Thursday reinforced that the situation isn't really getting better. The Governors Highway Safety Association found a slight decline, 2.8 percent, in the number of pedestrian deaths in the first six months of 2014. Fatalities dropped from 2,141 to 2,125 compared with the same period in 2013, though the association says it's a statistical wash when factoring in undercounting. Deaths are still 15-percent higher than in 2009. "The number of deaths remains relatively high and is cause for concern," wrote Allan Williams, who compiled the report and is the former chief scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. This is the first look at data from last year, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will issue its full-year results later. The GHSA found some progress on the roadways, as 24 states and the District of Columbia reported drops in pedestrian deaths. In some states, the problem isn't even a problem at all: Nebraska and Wyoming reported one fatality apiece, though large population centers in urban areas are where most accidents occur. "This is a clearly a good news, bad news scenario," Jonathan Adkins, GHSA executive director, said in a statement. "While we're encouraged that pedestrian fatalities haven't increased over the past two years, progress has been slow." Other News & Notes Cadillac previews CT6 during Oscars Cadillac previewed its upcoming flagship sedan, the CT6, in commercials that aired Sunday during the Oscars. As expected, the creased sedan carries on Cadillac's recent design language, and the car in the commercial looks like a larger version of the CTS and ATS sedans. The CT6 will be revealed this spring at the New York Auto Show and launch late this year. It will be assembled at General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck factory on a rear-wheel-drive chassis, and the CT6 is the first car to use Cadillac's revised alpha-numeric naming scheme. The commercials also kicked off Cadillac's "Dare Greatly" campaign, which is the first with its new advertising agency, Publicis Worldwide. Honda unexpectedly changes CEOs Honda unexpectedly announced this week that it will change CEOs. Current chief Takanobu Ito will step down in June and be replaced by company veteran Takahiro Hachigo.