2012 Cadillac Srx Fwd 4dr Luxury Collection on 2040-cars

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GM slashes prices in China as sales falter

Buying a vehicle from General Motors' stable of brands might be a lot cheaper in the near future – at least for customers in China. The effort comes as GM hopes to keep sales there growing, and the decision alludes to yet another sign that the Asian country no longer has the booming auto market of past years. GM and its Chinese joint venture partner SAIC are slashing prices by as much as the equivalent to $8,700 on 40 models from Buick, Chevrolet, and Cadillac, according to The Detroit News. Across all of automaker's nameplates, the overall sales dipped in China in April by 0.4 percent to 258,484 vehicles. Among the drops, Buick was down 8.5 percent, and Chevy shrunk 5.6 percent. Caddy's numbers increased 4.6 percent for the month, though. Buick remains a popular brand in the minds of Chinese consumers, but according to The Detroit News domestic automakers there are starting to eat into the dominance of foreign companies in the market. The country remains important for GM, though. Late last year, it outlined a future strategy that included China as a major pillar, including a $14 billion investment to build five new factories and boost sales. News Source: The Detroit NewsImage Credit: Alexander F. Yuan / AP Photo Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GM Car Buying Car Dealers saic

2014 Cadillac CTS

Fixated By Europeans, GM Ensures The Third Time Is A Charm
Few things are better for consumers than competition raising the bar. And no campaign seems fiercer than the one currently underway in the midsize sport-sedan segment now that Cadillac has introduced its all-new 2014 CTS to go head-to-head against the benchmark Audi A6, BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
While the CTS has been on the market for slightly more than a decade, up until this third-generation, Cadillac hasn't truly had the proper high-performance rear-wheel-drive architecture to build a genuine world-class fighter, both inside and out. And now that the American automaker has successfully mirrored Audi, BMW and Mercedes in overall vehicle size, engine output and cabin appointments, the first shots have been fired.

How Cadillac improved power output in 2016 ELR by 25 percent

Earlier this year, Cadillac announced that the 2016 ELR would come with a big price drop and a powertrain that packs 25 percent more power output. That's a lot more oomph, but it didn't sound like the Caddy engineers made any major changes to the engine or motors. So, what happened? Let's refresh our memories with the numeric details. The 2016 car is 1.5 seconds quicker to 60 miles per hour than the 2014 model (there was no 2015), down to 6.4 seconds. The 2014 put out 295 pound-feet of torque. For 2016, it will be 373 lb-ft. The specific breakdown of the various components in the powertrain has not been disclosed, but from what we can tell, the two electric motors and the 1.4-liter inline-four engine in the new ELR are not that much different than those in the old one. Sam Abuelsamid, senior research analyst at Navigant Research (and former writer here at Autoblog) said that any of the unspecified upgrades would be difficult to tell on a part-by-part basis, but the overall effect will be noticeable. "The changes to the ELR as I understand them are analogous to getting more performance out of a 1965 Mustang with the entry version of the 289 cubic-inch V8. You can replace the carburetor with a larger version that enables more air and fuel to flow into the engine, thus producing more power. The basic engine hasn't changed, but power capability is being unleashed by feeding it more." "Cadillac has changed components in the power electronics to enable more current flow into the motor and thus produce more torque. When you do this in the Mustang, you probably need to replace the rear axle gears and use a beefier clutch to transmit the power to the wheels. Similarly, the ELR probably has some upgraded clutches, bearings, and gears to withstand the increased total output." Cadillac spokesperson David Caldwell told AutoblogGreen in an email that the new ELR does indeed have more than just new lines of code. "One could not 'reflash' a previous ELR to get the performance of a 2016," Caldwell said. "If one only changed software you would not get the performance upgrade fully, as the 2016 creates higher current, more power. So these have been upgraded physically – hardware.