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2020 Cadillac XT6 fuel economy announced

Thanks to the EPA's fuel economy website, we finally know how frugal the 2020 Cadillac XT6, the brand's first three-row crossover, is with gasoline. The most efficient is the front-wheel-drive version, getting 18 mpg in the city, 25 on the highway and 20 in combined driving. The all-wheel-drive XT6 is just barely behind it with 17 mpg in town, 24 on the highway, and 20 combined. Both versions share the same 3.6-liter V6 with 310 horsepower and 271 pound-feet of torque and the same nine-speed automatic transmission. These numbers put the Cadillac XT6 very much on par with the competition. Both the four-cylinder and V6 versions of the Audi Q7 get 21 mpg combined, just beating the XT6, and both feature standard all-wheel drive. The Q7 with an inline-four makes less power at 255 horses while matching the XT6's torque at 273 pound-feet. The V6's 329 horsepower and 325 pound-feet beat the Caddy, though. Both Audi and Cadillac have almost the same starting price at about $53,000. Every version of the Acura MDX tops the XT6, including the least-efficient MDX A-Spec, which manages 21 mpg in combined driving. The non-A-Spec all-wheel-drive model gets 22 mpg combined, and the front-drive MDX hits 23 mpg. But the best is the Sport Hybrid that delivers 27 mpg combined. All of the non-hybrid MDXs are less powerful and less torquey than the Cadillac, though, at 290 horsepower and 267 pound-feet of torque. The Sport Hybrid is a bit more powerful and torquey than the Cadillac with 321 horsepower and 289 pound-feet of torque. The Acura does start at a lower price of just over $45,000. The XT6 does beat one of its three-row crossover rivals, though. Its 20 mpg combined rating is comfortably ahead of the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class's most efficient V6 version at just 18 mpg. But the Mercedes also delivers 362 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, and there are even more powerful, but less efficient, V8s on offer. The Mercedes is much more expensive than the Cadillac with a base price of over $70,000.

Ecto-1 is the barn find of a lifetime in 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife'

Following the women-led "Ghostbusters" reboot in 2016, a completely new chapter in the franchise will be born in 2020. "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" will feature a fresh cast, a modern story and cutting-edge cinematics. Yet, one thing will remain the same: the famous Ecto-1. The first trailer for the upcoming film shows the classic movie car — a highly modified 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Futura Duplex — still has a little gas in the tank, even after sitting in a barn for more than 30 years. "Afterlife" follows a character played by Finn Wolfhard (Mike from "Stranger Things") as he, his sister and his mom are evicted and move to an inherited farmhouse in Summerville, Oklahoma. The property, previously owned by the kids' grandfather, turns out to be a secret storage facility for all of the old Ghostbusters gear. Grandpa was Dr. Egon Spengler. The research, the uniforms, the ghost traps and the Ecto-1 are all tucked away and out of sight. Trevor, Wolfhard's character, finds the automotive relic and is able to start the old box of bolts. He and his sister Phoebe are then seen careening the Ecto-1 through a field and testing out the car's gunner seat in town.  Paul Rudd enters the picture as Mr. Grooberson, a teacher at the kids' school who shows an interest in Phoebe's ghost trap. As somebody who remembers the Manhattan Crossrip well, Grooberson schools the kids on the past and, with them, explores their connection to it all.  The trailer closes with a Bill Murray quote from the original film: "Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma ... I believe that everything happens for a reason." He, along with Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver, are expected to have some sort of involvement in the new movie, though it's unclear what that will be. We'll find out more next year when "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" opens summer 2020. P.S. How about that Ford Ranchero GT?

Cadillac dealers get $5,000 incentive for ELR test drives

The 530 Cadillac dealers - out of 940 total dealers - that signed on to sell the brand's ELR for $75,000 or lease it for $699 per month have managed to move 247 of them in the last five months. That's a little less than two cars for each dealer more than two dealers for each car if you need help with the math. With inventories of the luxury plug-in hybrid building up - Automotive News reports a 725-day supply - General Motors has created the Demonstrator Allowance Program to billow the sails on that slow moving ship, giving dealers $5,000 to promote ELR test drives.
A dealer with one ELR in its test fleet that racks up 750 test driven miles between May 1 and June 2 earns the fifty Benjamins, a dealer with two ELRs in the test fleet will get one hundred Benjamins. That will be added to summer incentives for dealers that pay $2,000 for units sold in July and $1,000 for units sold in August, while on the customer side, Cadillac has put "customer discount certificates" worth $3,000 on the hood for buyers and lessees.
Cadillac suggests this is about raising awareness of the ELR, but the question is how much dealers will be able to do for a car that observers - and buyers, apparently - still consider highly overpriced.