1997 Cadillac Seville Sls Sedan 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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U.S. new-vehicle sales in 2018 rise slightly to 17.27 million [UPDATE]

DETROIT — Sales of new vehicles in the U.S. rose slightly in 2018, defying predictions and highlighting a strong economy. Automakers reported an increase of 0.3 percent over a year ago to 17.27 million vehicles. The increase came despite rising interest rates, a volatile stock market, and rising car and truck prices that pushed some buyers out of the new-vehicle market. Industry analysts and automakers said strong economic fundamentals pushed up sales and should keep them near historic highs in 2019. "Economic conditions in the U.S. are favorable and should continue to be supportive of vehicle sales at or around their current run rate," Ford Chief Economist Emily Kolinski Morris said after the company and other automakers announced their sales numbers Thursday. That auto sales remain near the 2016 record of 17.55 million is a testimonial to the strength of the economy, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. The job market, he said, has created new employment, and wage growth has accelerated. "That's fundamental to selling anything," he said. "If there are lots of jobs and people are getting bigger paychecks, they will buy more." The unemployment rate is 3.7 percent, a 49-year low. The economy is thought to have grown close to 3 percent last year, its best performance in more than a decade. Consumers, the main driver of the economy, are spending freely. The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate four times in 2018 but is only expected to raise it twice this year. Auto sales also were helped by low gasoline prices and rising home values, Zandi said. It all means that people are likely to keep buying new vehicles this year even as they grow more expensive. The Edmunds.com auto-pricing site estimates that the average new vehicle price hit a record $35,957 in December, about 2 percent higher than the previous year. It will be harder for automakers to keep the sales pace above 17 million because they have been enticing buyers for several years now with low-interest financing and other incentives, Zandi said. He predicts more deals in the coming year as job growth slows and credit tightens for higher-risk buyers. Edmunds, which provides content, including automotive tips and reviews, for distribution by The Associated Press, predicts that sales will drop this year to 16.9 million.

Cadillac Celestiq electric sedan could top $200,000

General Motors teased a slew of new electric vehicles last week at a media event where cameras weren’t allowed, and now thereÂ’s more news about the Celestiq, one of the two EVs in the pipeline for Cadillac. Reports suggest it wonÂ’t come cheap and will retail for at least $200,000. Wall Street Journal auto writer Mike Colias dished that detail, along with word of a mid-2020 launch, on Twitter, attributing it directly to Cadillac President Steve Carlisle. Cadillac has made no official mention of starting price for either the Celestiq luxury sedan or the Lyriq, an EV SUV that it has previously teased. A spokesman told Autoblog the brand wouldnÂ’t comment on future product speculation. Leftover scraps from Cadillac flagship ‘CelestiqÂ’ news: ItÂ’ll be hand-built in the hundreds per year, Caddy chief Steve Carlisle said. Price? Six figures Â… “and it wonÂ’t have a 1 in front of it.” Due mid-2022. — Mike Colias (@MikeColias) March 5, 2020 If true, the six-figure MSRP would make the Celestiq the most expensive Caddy ever assembled, at least outside of one-off coach builds and the presidential limo, vaunting it into the same class as brands like Bentley, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce. By way of comparison, the limited-edition ultra-luxury 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham four-door debuted with a $13,074 price tag, the most expensive car of its day and the equivalent of around $120,000 in todayÂ’s dollars. So what do we know about the Celestiq? For starters, itÂ’ll be a halo flagship hand-built in limited quantities somewhere in the Detroit area. Our reporters who saw the white four-seater describe it as having a long, fastback roofline, no side mirrors or visible door handles, with a long wheelbase, short overhangs and a tinted glass roof. A rendering of the interior showed an LED instrument cluster and infotainment display that stretches between both A pillars, with touchscreen interfaces on the rear of the front seats. It also reportedly features a hatch instead of a conventional trunk and styling cues from the Escala concept from 2016, shown above. Cadillac teased it as the “ultimate luxury experience” and said it would be highly customizable. Cadillac also showed off the Lyriq, the name itÂ’s given to its midsize electric crossover that it had previously promised to unveil in April, possibly at the New York Auto Show, if it manages to happen given the coronavirus.

2013 Cadillac XTS [w/video]

The Cadillac Of Stopgaps
As confusing as most alphanumeric car names have gotten in recent years, at least one constant has been that the letter "X" is generally indicative of a crossover. Then why did General Motors use this letter on its new 2013 Cadillac XTS luxury sedan? Well, for that, we'll have to look to the world of mathematics where "X" stands for an unknown variable or a placeholder. Now we're talking. The XTS is just an interim product sitting at the top of Cadillac's four-door food chain until the brand gets a true flagship in place. That sounds like a lot of resources to spend on what will likely be a one-and-done model, but the automaker needed to get something - anything - to replace the DTS.
So here you have the 2013 XTS. A big luxury sedan that was created to bridge the gap between Cadillac's recent past and its pending future. Going into our week with this XTS knowing that it was a stopgap measure proved to be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, we know (or hope) that this car will act as a baseline for future high-end Cadillac models, but at the same time, we couldn't help but be mindful of past stopgap models, albeit in more entry-level segments, like the Cimarron and Catera.