2000 Cadillac Eldorado Esc 58,000 Miles on 2040-cars

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How Indy 500's JR Hildebrand made an emergency pitstop in Goodland, Kansas

INDIANAPOLIS, In. – Race driver JR Hildebrand is an Indianapolis 500 celebrity, but last week on his way to Indy he was just another repair job at AlexÂ’s Radiator and Auto Repair in Goodland, Kansas. Well, not just any repair job. Hildebrand, a true car guy whoÂ’s just as comfortable driving his bagged 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville as he is a 230-mile-per-hour Dallara IndyCar, decided to pull the grand old ride out of storage in Boulder, Colorado, and cruise 1,100 miles to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At 33, Hildebrand loves the classics, especially cruising in a ride nearly twice his age. It helps him separate from the pull of Twitter, Instagram and text messages before two weeks of foot-to-the-floor stress. Interstate 70 would be his perfect world. Except Â…           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by JR Hildebrand (@jrhildebrand) “It was highly eventful for the first 300 miles,” said Hildebrand, who is practicing this week for his 11th start in the 500 on May 30.  The Caddy, a 390-powered pink beauty he calls Rosie, “had been sitting for a year, but it fired right up” and cruised just fine early in the trip. But as it approached the Colorado-Kansas state line, the suspension's airbag controller started flickering, the windows were slow to roll up, the gas gauge didnÂ’t work and the engine started to stumble. “IÂ’m thinking maybe IÂ’m only getting seven miles per gallon and IÂ’m out of gas,” Hildebrand said. “So I peeled off, ran a light and got to a gas station. It only took 12 1/2 gallons and was dead. ItÂ’s pretty unlikely that the collector in the fuel tank was leaving six gallons in this thing. I took a jump, and once I got it fired up, I got it back on the road and it ran fine for another 40 or 50 miles, and then the same thing started to happen. I pulled in and got another jump." (His wife Kristin was following behind in their Subaru, along with their dog). He stopped in Goodland and bought a new battery, “figuring the battery was toast at that point, whether that was the problem or not,” he said. “They did their diagnostics thing at the parts store, and it wasnÂ’t totally clear what was wrong.” Assuming the problem was somewhere in the charging system, he headed toward a nearby NAPA only to find it was closed. Along the way, though, he noticed AlexÂ’s Radiator and Auto Repair.

Why Cadillac thinks it needs to succeed in Europe to sell cars elsewhere

Ward's Auto has taken an interesting look at the renewed focus General Motors is showing towards Cadillac in Europe. Susan Docherty, president and managing director of Chevrolet and Cadillac in Europe (pictured), says in order for the luxury brand to thrive in China, it first needs to succeed in the old country. The reason? Chinese buyers look to Europe for cues as to what's deemed worthy of the term "luxury." There are hurdles to the plan, however. In addition to the fact that the EU is flooded with high-end nameplates, GM doesn't necessarily have the distribution network in place to put buyers behind the wheel.
Combine that with persistent economic woes and Cadillac's checkered past marred by a lack of diesel engine options and a bankrupt distributor, and the road ahead for the brand looks like less of an uphill climb and more like a straight-up cliff face. But Docherty is optimistic and says she has a plan for the brand. We recommend heading over to Ward's for a closer look at the full read.

Super Cruise will feature in 22 GM nameplates by 2023

Super Cruise, the semi-autonomous hands-free driving technology that first appeared on the 2018 Cadillac CT6, was always intended to broaden out to more GM models, especially now that CT6 production has ended, but now we have specific numbers. Automotive News reports that GM will have it on 22 nameplates by 2023. GM President Mark Reuss spilled the beans to investors at the company’s Capital Markets Day presentation, saying that Super Cruise will start appearing in brands beyond Cadillac in 2021. GM just last week announced the first big update for its driver-assist technology late last month, saying it would be coming to the 2021 CT5, CT4 and Escalade full-size SUV, all of which should debut later this year. Next year weÂ’ll see it offered as an option on seven more nameplates, then a dozen more in 2022 and 2023, Reuss said. The next generation of the technology will come with a new feature called “Lane Change on Demand,” which will allow the driver to activate or tap the turn signal and the car to do a hands-free lane change if itÂ’s safe to do so, and so long as the driver monitor system can tell the driver is paying attention. ItÂ’s also said to feature improved performance and hands-free dynamics, a better user interface and software tweaks, among other upgrades. Super Cruise uses a camera and infrared light to detect whether the driver is paying attention, plus radar, cameras and lidar mapping to center the vehicle in a highway lane and drive in hands-free mode in optimal scenarios. ThereÂ’s no immediate word on whether the upcoming next-generation version will also come with an expanded network of compatible highways beyond the 200,000 miles where the technology is currently capable of being deployed. Autoblog named Super Cruise the 2019 Technology of the Year winner. Related Video:     Cadillac GM Emerging Technologies