2014 Cadillac Xts Base on 2040-cars

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GM reworking mandatory OnStar plans for some 2024 models

For the 2023 model year, GM added its OnStar and Connected Services plan as standard equipment to a large number of Buick, GMC, and Chevrolet vehicles. Folding the $1,500 retail price into the MSRPs of models like the GMC Acadia and Buick Encore plumped up prices beyond the usual year-on-year bumps. Looks like there's a reversal in play for 2024, GM Authority reporting that many of the models fitted with OnStar and Connected Services — now called OnStar Premium — will step down to three years of OnStar Remote Access standard.   OnStar Remote Access comes with these features: Remote key fob, vehicle locate, and remote personalization through mobile and in-vehicle apps. Three additional features can be added to the plan: OnStar Guardian, in-vehicle hotspot, and Super Cruise. Owners can also upgrade to OnStar Premium if they choose.  Higher trims like Buick's Avenir and GMC's Denali, plus the GMC Hummer and the Cadillac Escalade will retain OnStar Premium as standard equipment. That suite starts with Remote Access and adds: Automatic crash response, stolen vehicle assistance and recovery, OnStar Guardian, in-vehicle app access, unlimited streaming, three years of Super Cruise on vehicles with the hardware, and six months of SiriusXM radio. The Escalade puts a cherry on top with three years Sirius XM instead of six months. The Remote Access plan normally charges $14.99 per month. We're not sure yet if GM will subtract the cost of OnStar Premium from the MSRP and add the $540 for OnStar Remote Access, or if the trial period comes free of charge. Even if that's what happens, the change could take nearly $1,000 off the MSRP of a car like the GMC Acadia before any 2024 increases. We'll know more as the 2024MY models roll out and prices are announced. Related Video 2022 Buick Enclave Avenir revealed

GM cutting vehicle trim options to save money for electrification

Information continues to filter out about GM's plans based on comments the automaker made during its Capital Markets Day event in February. GM President Mark Reuss said the company's push to save money by rationalizing the number of build combinations will continue in 2020, carrying on the work done in 2019. As GM Authority covers, last year, the carmaker cut 3,500 components across model lines, a 12% drop in the number of parts it needed to stock in its plants. Reuss used the next-generation Chevolet Equinox and GMC Terrain as examples for more cost efficiencies, saying build possibilities — which include international markets and their options — will be cut by more than 50%, and use more shared parts. "We will reduce total trim levels on Equinox and Terrain from eight to six," Reuss said, "reduce engine variants from 11 to 5, reduce build combinations from more than 200 to less than 100 per program, and see significant cost savings of an already paid-for architecture that took the mass out, helping us self-fund electrification programs." GM will plow a large amount of the money it saves into its ambitious EV program. In 2017, the automaker said it intends to have 20 electric vehicles on the market by the end of 2023, some of which could be shared between brands. An automotive analyst at Seeking Alpha and a piece in Automobile attempted to put specifics to what we should expect. As Automobile points out, the first two EVs in the 20-car program are already on sale, being the Ariv Meld and Ariv Merge eBikes available in Belgium and The Netherlands. We've seen the Cruise Origin autonomous rideshare taxi, although we don't know when it will hit the road. The next three, which we should see in the metal shortly, are two Cadillac EVs and the GMC Hummer EV pickup. The Cadillac pair are expected to be sized like the XT4 and XT5, and along with the Hummer, should hit the market starting in late 2021.

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.