1993 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Sedan 4-door 5.7l on 2040-cars

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GM faces possible class action lawsuit over 8-speed transmission

General Motors has been hit with a class-action lawsuit from owners who allege the eight-speed automatic transmission found in several rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC models between the 2015 and 2019 model years has a defect that causes the vehicles to hesitate and jerk when accelerating or slowing down. The lawsuit was posted to ClassAction.org and spotted by GM Authority. Problems with GM's Hydra-Matic 8L90 and 8L45 transmissions have been well-documented on Internet forums and via complaints filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with many reporting damage to their vehicles. The lawsuit was first filed in December in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida but appears to have been transferred recently to New York. Autoblog sought comment from Theodore Leopold, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. "These transmissions have a common defect," the complaint reads. "Drivers attempting to accelerate or decelerate their cars feel a hesitation, followed by a significant shake, shudder, jerk, clunk, or 'hard shift' when the vehicle's automatic transmission changes gears." The problem also occurs when the vehicles accelerate in a single gear, without shifting, the plaintiffs allege. "Drivers have reported that the shift is sometimes so violent, they feel as though they have been hit by another vehicle." The problem is believed to center on the transmission, torque converter or both. The complaint says it causes undue friction, causing hydraulic systems and gears to function improperly and sometimes leaves metal shavings throughout the transmission, leading to costly repairs and replacement of parts or the entire transmission. It says GM has known about the problems since shortly after it introduced the transmissions, and has issued 13 technical service bulletins, none of which have resolved the problem. GM declined to comment on the lawsuit. The plaintiffs say GM should have warned consumers about the issues and covered repairs under each vehicle's three-year/36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. They're seeking statewide classes in at least six states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

2020 Cadillac CT4-V First Drive | The Cadillac of compact Cadillacs

With the launch of the 2020 Cadillac CT4, GM is pushing back into the smallest luxury sedan segment that in recent years has almost exclusively featured entries from Germany. We're pleased to see it return, and importantly, that it definitely came back prepared. The CT4’s key differentiator is its platform. Unlike the bulk of entry-level luxury sedans currently on the market, the Cadillac rides on a rear-wheel-drive platform. All-wheel drive is available throughout the lineup for those who need (or just want) four-season flexibility, but itÂ’s meant to be a convenience feature rather than a performance upgrade — the same is not true of its front-wheel-drive competitors. The CT4 ostensibly replaces the discontinued ATS, but reality is a bit murkier than that. Stop us if youÂ’ve heard this before, but the Cadillac CT4 is not entirely size-appropriate for the class. While the CT4 is aimed at the subcompact luxury sedan segment (and the CT5 at the compact), itÂ’s dimensionally a bit closer to the likes of the Mercedes C-Class than it is the A-Class. This gives Caddy a bit of an advantage, but itÂ’s nothing we havenÂ’t seen from GMÂ’s luxury arm before. Cadillac has chosen instead to target the segment based on price, which is a win for consumers in a way, as you can get a little bit more bang for your buck if theyÂ’re willing to take a chance on the underdog. Cadillac is offering its new small sedan in three states of tune. The base (“Luxury”) model boasts a 2.0-liter engine good for 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. The Premium Luxury and CT4-V models get the 2.7-liter — which is still a four-cylinder — that makes 310 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque in its base tune and 325 hp and 380 lb-ft in the CT4-V. All three variants make use of GMÂ’s active fuel management tech which allows them to run on just two cylinders to conserve fuel while cruising. Yes, you read that correctly. The CT4-V boasts just 325 hp, which may seem like a pittance considering the outrageously powerful V models of CadillacÂ’s past, but GMÂ’s luxury arm has decided to re-jigger its performance hierarchy by eliminating “V-Sport” entirely, shifting “V” down to fill that role, and introducing a series of new range-topping performance models dubbed “Blackwing.” In that context, the CT4-V may seem like an also-ran, but consider the company it keeps.

Cadillac to bolster CT sedans with XT crossovers

Cadillac is moving swiftly to change up its naming scheme. Barely over a week ago we received our first indication that it was considering a different name its the upcoming flagship sedan previously known as LTS. Then Cadillac not only revealed the model would be called CT6, but announced that it would set the stage with a massive overhaul of its model nomenclature. And now we have another piece of the puzzle.
According to Forbes, Cadillac will not only rename its sedans with the letters CT, but will realign its utility vehicles under the banner of XT - both to be followed by a number indicating its place in the lineup. The one exception will be the Escalade, whose nameplate has such a strong following that it would be foolish for Cadillac to cast it aside. That leaves only the SRX (pictured above), but makes room for a new crop of crossovers said to be in the works.
It's a similar approach which Cadillac's new boss Johan de Nysschen took in revising the naming scheme at Infiniti. While it's bound to ruffle some feathers and scratch some heads in the beginning - especially since the company's current flagship sedan is called XTS - it's equally sure to make sense of it all in the long run. All we need to know now is what Nysschen and his marketing chief Uwe Ellinghaus plan to call the coupes.