2014 Cadillac Ats 2.0l Turbo Premium on 2040-cars

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Lansing builds its millionth Cadillac

Cadillacs are built at plants across North America. The Escalade is assembled in Texas, the SRX in Mexico and the XTS in Ontario. But the bulk of Cadillac's lineup - or the smaller members of the family, at least - are built in Michigan. And while the upcoming ELR will be built alongside the Chevy Volt at the Detroit/Hamtramck facility (which incidentally opened with the Cadillac Eldorado back in '86), the majority of those Cadillacs built in Michigan are handled by the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant.
In fact, Lansing Grand River just celebrated its millionth Cadillac built. The landmark millionth vehicle is a new 2014 CTS sedan in Red Obsession Tintcoat. The facility opened in 2001 and has built Cadillacs almost exclusively since then, assembling the CTS and ATS model lines, though in a couple of years it will also handle production of the Chevy Camaro.

Weekly Recap: GM scales back as Russian auto market teeters

General Motors' extensive plans to scale back its Russian operations are the latest sign the automotive market in the former superpower is collapsing – and there are few signs of recovery. GM said Wednesday it will stop selling mainstream Chevrolets and shutter the entire Opel brand in Russia. The moves leave GM with a luxury-focused presence consisting of Cadillac and Chevrolet's Corvette, Camaro and Tahoe. The cutbacks will be completed by the end of the year. The automaker will also idle its factory in St. Petersburg and end a contract-assembly agreement with Russian manufacturer GAZ. "We had to take decisive action in Russia to protect our business," Opel Group CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann said in a statement. "We confirm our outlook to return the European business to profitability in 2016 and stick to our long-term goals." GM is the latest automaker to scale back in Russia as the economic conditions, volatile currency and uncertainty over the conflict in the Ukraine all have sandbagged new car sales. Last month, vehicle sales collapsed 38 percent in Russia to 128,298 units, according to the Association of European Business, which records sales. Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the AEB automobile manufacturers committee, didn't even feign optimism in a statement announcing the figures. "The market is entering a very difficult phase now, and February is only the beginning," he said. "Industry sentiment is the next few months will be extremely difficult and the market bottom has yet to be found." The dovetails with industry experts, who predict the Russian auto sector will remain in the doldrums. IHS said earlier this year it expects Russia's sales to slip to just 1.8 million units in 2015, which is a 40-percent drop from 2012. Other News & Notes Chief leads Jeep's Easter Safari stable Jeep is bringing seven attention-getting concepts to Moab for its annual Easter Safari off-roading celebration in Utah, but the Chief is perhaps the standout of the group. It salutes the 1970s Cherokee with a throwback appearance and surfer styling cues. The Chief has a custom modified razor grille made famous by the Wagoneer, and it rolls on 17-inch slotted mag wheels. The surf theme comes in with ocean blue paint, floral cloth and leather seats and a tiki-style shifter handle. Based on the Jeep Wrangler, the Chief has removable sides, a 3.6-liter V6 engine and a six-speed manual gearbox.

Cadillac CT6 loses the entry-level 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder

General Motors continues its engine rationalization among product lines. A few days after Chevrolet dropped the old-generation LTG 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from the Traverse, Cadillac has jettisoned the new-gen LSY 2.0-liter turbo four from the CT6 range. Given a look at the dealer ordering system, Cadillac Society said the 2.0-liter option shows "built out" or "no longer available," and the online configurator at the Cadillac site confirms the omission. The retired engine can be had in the XT4 crossover, rated at the same 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. This means a couple of things for the big sedan. The CT6 entry price was $50,495 before destination, but fitted with the now-base 3.6-liter six-cylinder, the entry price has gone up to $55,495. The other change is that rear-wheel drive is no longer available; the three remaining engine choices come with all-wheel drive. Those engines are the NA 3.6-liter V6 with 335 hp and 284 lb-ft of torque, a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 with 404 hp and 400 lb-ft, and coming in a few months, the detuned 4.2-liter Blackwing twin-turbo V8 with 500 hp and 574 lb-ft, down from 550 hp and 627 lb-ft. Cadillac Society thinks one of the possibilities for making the move could be that GM is having a hard time meeting demand for the 2.0-liter. That might be, but we think no matter the reason, the result puts more logical pricing between the midsize CTS/CT5 and the full-size luxury flagship. We don't know how Cadillac will price the coming CT5, but there's now an $8,005 difference between the CTS and the CT6, instead of the $4,000 gap when the 2.0-liter was a CT6 option. Mercedes-Benz, for instance, puts a $12,000 gap between the C-Class and the E-Class, a $38,000 gulf between the E-Class and the S-Class. There's a $19,000 difference between an Audi A4 and A6, a $25,000 difference between an A6 and an A8. It isn't clear if this will affect every other market where the CT6 is sold. The Canadian, Mexican, and French Cadillac site configurators don't list the 2.0-liter turbo, but the Chinese Cadillac site does.