2014 Cadillac Cts-4 Performance Package. Gm Company Car. $63,740.00 Msrp. Loaded on 2040-cars

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Next Cadillac Escalade's interior spied for the first time

Update: Now that new spy photos of another large GM SUV have surfaced, we believe these shots show us a GMC Yukon interior, not a Cadillac Escalade. You can see the new spy shots here that depict a much more upscale vehicle interior compared to the fuzzy center stack shown in the shots of the Yukon. The new Cadillac Escalade has a lot of work to do in order to properly compete with Lincoln's wonderfully luxurious Navigator. These interior spy photos are our first look at what Cadillac is working with on the inside of its new luxury truck. We won't make final judgements, as this vehicle is still a prototype and subject to change. However, a few key bits are noticeable from the fuzzy photos. As expected, Cadillac's CUE infotainment and center stack is nowhere to be seen. Replacing it is a new interior design language, with a tablet-like screen that seems to rise out of the sloped stack on top. Below the screen is a strip of stitched leather and a couple prominently placed air vents. To the left of this area is what appears to be a push-button gear shifting system, replacing the column-mounted shifter currently in use. Below all that on a lower level of the center stack are all the climate controls, along with what look like physical buttons for what could be audio-related controls. Does it look as luxurious as the Lincoln? Not with all the coverings and shrouding it doesn't, which means we'll have to wait until we get the full picture. One thing that's clear is that the interior design is definitely going to be wildly different than the current Escalade. That center stack flows downward as one sloping piece into the high and bulky center console area. This design looks like it brings the center console further downward, and also uses a multi-tiered look. It's tough to read what's on the screen, but the software looks like the same stuff we got a preview of on the new Cadillac CT5 and CT4 sedans. As for the exterior shots, there's almost nothing that we haven't already gotten a taste of in previous spy photos. The independent rear suspension is a go, as are what appear to be massive headlight and LED DRL fixtures. If you look through the wrapping, you can make out how far up and down the lighting fixtures stretch ... or perhaps they're separate units altogether. It's tough to tell at this point.

GM plans to sell the Chevy Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade in China

General Motors Co plans to sell full-size sport-utility vehicle (SUV) models in China for the first time, and will import a range of models to beef up its product lineup into the world's biggest car market, its China chief told Reuters. The plan would mark a change of tack for GM, which currently produces all of the vehicles it sells in China within the country, which is set to be the only major economy to grow this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. GM, China's second-biggest foreign automaker, is aiming to offer four models as it looks to improve its brand image and support a sales recovery: Chevrolet's Tahoe and Suburban, Cadillac's Escalade and the GMC Yukon Denali. The Detroit-based company is showcasing those models at the China International Import Expo, or CIIE, an annual import show in Shanghai which started on Wednesday and runs into next week. "Our intention is to get customer reaction and find a way to sell these cars in China," said GM's China chief Julian Blissett. The automaker sees opportunities for such vehicles, partly because Chinese families are expanding, he added. "We are looking into a variety of market sales plans for these vehicles, including online sales, leasing and others," he said, declining to give a detailed timeframe for the plan. GM's Buick and Cadillac mid-size SUVs helped the group's Chinese sales grow 12% in the third quarter this year, the first quarterly growth in the past two years. But it does not have full-size SUV models, which usually have a third row of seats and has room for six or seven people. BATTLEGROUND China, where over 25 million vehicles were sold last year, is a crucial battleground for global automakers including Volkswagen AG, the biggest foreign player by sales volumes, GM and Toyota, as well as local leaders Geely and Great Wall. The country has seen auto sales pick up in recent months following a COVID-19-induced slump, and authorities say they have largely brought the epidemic under control following its emergence in the central city of Wuhan at the end of last year. The expansion plan would also mark GM's first official sales in China of GMC vehicles, a premium brand in the group. Previously GMC vehicles were only sold in the country via unofficial grey importers. The imports will, however, not change GM's basic production strategy in China. It will still mostly sell vehicles made in China - for now, at least. "Depending on however we go we might make other decisions," Blissett said.

Cadillac's Blackwing V8 was the best engine at the worst time

It should be clear that GM knows how to innovate and engineer excellent products when it wants to. Cadillac's 4.2-liter twin-turbo Blackwing V8 is recent proof of that. Yet, as related in an extensive Road & Track piece, the Blackwing became victim to some of The General's bugbears, like the reticence to — for whatever reasons — unleash its excellence everywhere, fund that excellence, and be consistent with that excellence over the long term beyond the Corvette and full-sized pickups and SUVs. The R/T story relates tales told by "several people deeply involved with the Blackwing project" about how an engine 18 years in the making was deprived of its reasons for being in less than three. Starting around 2000, GM spent a dozen years building Cadillac up to the point where the American luxury brand could rationally flip to the chapter called, "Taking the Fight to the Germans, but for Real this Time." The first steps in the plan meant an exclusive platform and an exclusive engine. The platform was called Omega. You know the engine's name. They were going to be the aluminum-blocked fist and velvet glove enabling Cadillac to break on through to the other side of luxury — proper luxury to global standards, that is — with a range of beautiful and dynamic crossovers and sedans. An engineer involved in the project estimates GM poured $16 million into the Blackwing's clean-sheet development. Many more seven-figure sums went into creating the first sedan on the Omega platform, the CT6. The automaker dropped millions again poaching ex-Audi and Infiniti chief Johan de Nysschen, and moving Cadillac's headquarters to New York City in 2014. Further pallets of cash funded the development and debut of the Escala concept at Pebble Beach in 2016. In 2018, GM revealed its dramatically named DOHC twin-turbo V8. Considering what came before, the Blackwing clearly wasn't designed for cars. It was designed for world domination. However, against the backdrop of plummeting sedan sales, the CT6 didn't sell like GM had hoped. The automaker hesitated to marshal another fleet of Brinks trucks to fund entries into a cratering bodystyle. Removing sedans from the world domination equation created more difficult math for the crossovers and the Escala.