3.0l Luxury Awd-bose-heated Seats-back Up Camera-company Car!!!! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GM struggles to sell small cars, plans to lay off 2,084 employees at two plants

Due to low demand for some of its vehicles, General Motors plans to cut 2,084 jobs at its assembly plants in Lordstown, OH and Lansing, MI. At the same time, the automaker also announced plans to invest approximately $900 million in three of its facilities – the Toledo Transmission Operations in Ohio, Bedford Casting Operations in Indiana, and Lansing Grand River in Michigan - for future products. GM will discontinue the third shift at both the Lansing Grand River plant and the Lordstown, OH plant. The Cadillac ATS, Cadillac CTS, and Chevrolet Camaro are made at the automaker's plant in Michigan, which currently has 2,700 employees. The move to eliminate the third shift affects 810 hourly workers, as well as 29 salaried employees, starting on January 16th. The plant in Lordstown, OH currently has 4,500 employees and makes the Chevrolet Cruze sedan. The plan to discontinue the third shift will affect 43 salaried workers and 1,202 hourly employees and will start on January 23rd. As Fortune points out, sales of the Cruze are down 20 percent through October, while sales of the Cadillac ATS and CTS were down 17 percent through the same period of time. In addition to cutting the third shift at both assembly plants, the automaker plans to invest a total of $900 million between three of its facilities for unnamed future products. GM's Toledo Transmission Operations will receive $667.6 million, the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant will receive $211 million, and the automaker's Bedford Casting Operations will get $37 million. Last year, GM cut roughly 500 jobs from its Orion Township factory due to slow sales of the Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano, with surging crossover and SUV sales as the most likely culprit. With GM posting much healthier sales figures for the Chevrolet Equinox and Cadillac XT5 compared to the ATS, CTS, and Cruze, it looks like compact SUVs are to blame for this year's layoffs as well. Related Video: News Source: Fortune, General MotorsImage Credit: REUTERS / Rebecca Cook Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Plants/Manufacturing Cadillac Chevrolet GM Coupe Sedan Lordstown Ohio

2021 Cadillac Escalade price increases take starting price to $77,490

Update: This story has been updated with official pricing from Cadillac that includes the destination charge and pricing for the long wheelbase ESV model. The modified story continues below. As the 2021 Cadillac Escalade prepares behind-the-scenes for duty in front of real-life red carpets, more information on the brand new fifth-generation SUV bubbles to the surface. GM Authority got its hands on some MSRP figures the other day, but we have the official pricing from Cadillac now. GM kept pricing of the other full-sized SUV family — the Tahoe, Suburban, and Yukon — unchanged or close to the outgoing models. Escalade intenders will be happy to know the same goes here, the 2021 example priced at $77,490 after a $1,295 destination charge is added in, only $1,000 more that the soon-to-be retired 2020 Escalade for a fancier cabin and lots of new tech inside and out. Cadillac reworked the trim walk for 2021 to its Y-trim configuration, splitting into Luxury and Sport models above the base trim. There were four options in 2020, not including all-wheel-drive versions: Base, Luxury, Premium Luxury, and Platinum. There are five for the new year: Luxury, Premium Luxury, Sport, Premium Luxury Platinum, and Sport Platinum. The switcheroo makes it hard to compare all but the bottom and top trims, but the price walk for rear-wheel-drive versions goes: Luxury: $77,490 Premium Luxury: $84,290 Sport: $86,890 Premium Luxury Platinum: $101,290 Sport Luxury Platinum: $101,290  Add $3,000 to any of those trim prices, and you'll have the corresponding long wheelbase ESV price. Four wheel drive is a similar $3,000 charge on any trim. That means the base price on the top trim Escalade ESV with four-wheel drive is $107,290. The 2021 Platinum models are $7,700 more than the 2020 Escalade Platinum. The standard engine is the 6.2-liter V8, shifting through a 10-speed transmission. And the 3.0-liter Duramax diesel is a no-cost option, so take your pick. Customers could end up waiting for the Escalade as well, depending on when every kind of manufacturing can restart in earnest to serve the Arlington, Texas, plant all the parts it needs to build the new SUV. Related Video:      

Autoblog's ultimate holiday rides

Over the hills and through the woods, it's the time of year when many of us visit family and friends for the holidays. But getting there can be a chore. It's cold and snowy across much of the United States, and even if the climate is favorable, the drive to grandmother's house often is not. Think back to holiday road trips of yore: They probably included crying babies, antsy children, hungover adults and frequent bathrooms stops all around. Now, we're all at different life stages here at Autoblog, and the perfect car for one staffer might be as useful as a team of Budweiser Clydesdales to another. Some of us bounce from family event to family event with children and a labrador in tow, while others prefer a quieter, simpler holiday. But whatever the endeavor, we all need wheels. With that in mind, here is the unofficial Autoblog list of the ultimate cars in which to tackle the holiday season. 2015 Ferrari FF To borrow a chestnut from Top Gear presenter James May, "As you'd expect, I've done this properly." That oddly voluptuous ruby bolide in the photo above? It's a 2015 Ferrari FF – all 652 all-wheel-driven horsepower of it. What makes a Ferrari the ideal for holiday time in PaukertLand? My Midwestern winter breaks are wonderful, but they're typically frenetic and slushy, involving a lot of schlepping from house to house and even city to city, not to mention inevitable last-minute runs for forgotten presents and dinner ingredients. Needless to say, a powerful V12 is a welcome ally for such duties. And this one isn't just a friend when the road is clear. The FF has been gifted Ferrari's novel 4RM AWD system, and despite sitting lower to the ground than, say, an SUV, it's a pretty effective tool for real winter driving, especially when outfitted with a set of snow tires. Unlike other Ferraris, it's also a rather practical thing, with legitimate seating for four adults and 15.9 cubic feet of cargo space – that's precisely as much room as a Mercedes E-Class – and you can fold the rear chairs and cram 28.2 cubes-worth of holiday cheer in the back. Okay, so it's far from cheap and fuel economy isn't that great, but who cares? Just drop a paddle-shifted gear or two, bury the throttle and Repeat The Sounding Joy. Ain't the holidays grand? – Chris Paukert Executive Editor 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe My Mom gives out more presents than any other human being I've ever encountered.