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Petrolicious eats up Rita Hayworth's 1953 Cadillac Ghia

The automotive industry has seem some wonderful transoceanic collaborations between America and Italy, from the Ford-powered De Tomasos of the 1960s to the alliance between Fiat and Chrysler today. Of course it's also seen unfortunate experiments in between like the Chrysler TC by Maserati and the Pininfarina-bodied Cadillac Allante. But before any of those, there was a beautiful tradition of rebodying American steel at the hands of Italian carrozzerie. And this could easily be among the most gorgeous of them all. It's a Cadillac Series 62 from 1953 with bodywork by Ghia. It's one of only two made, and has a star-studded history. The car was purchased by Aly Khan, prince of the Nizari Ismaili muslims and Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, for his wife... who just so happened to be the inimitable Rita Hayworth. They split up, but she held on to the car. Today it's part of the permanent collection at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA, so the videographical artisans at Petrolicious went by to check it out. You'll want to as well in the five-minute short above.

J.D. Power study sees new car dependability problems increase for first time since 1998

For the first time since 1998, J.D. Power and Associates says its data shows that the average number of problems per 100 cars has increased. The finding is the result of the firm's much-touted annual Vehicle Dependability Study, which charts incidents of problems in new vehicle purchases over three years from 41,000 respondents.
Looking at first-owner cars from the 2011 model year, the study found an average of 133 problems per 100 cars (PP100, for short), up 6 percent from 126 PP100 in last year's study, which covered 2010 model-year vehicles. Disturbingly, the bulk of the increase is being attributed to engine and transmission problems, with a 6 PP100 boost.
Interestingly, JDP notes that "the decline in quality is particularly acute for vehicles with four-cylinder engines, where problem levels increase by nearly 10 PP100." Its findings also noticed that large diesel engines also tended to be more problematic than most five- and six-cylinder engines.

Cadillac ATS Coupe spy photos show more sedate two-door

Remember when the Cadillac CTS Coupe debuted, and we were all like, "Oh hello there?" Well, don't expect the same thing to happen when the new ATS Coupe is unveiled - these brand new (overexposed) spy shots show a two-door that's decidedly more sedate than the angular yet curvaceous and all-around good-looking CTS Coupe. This isn't to say that the smaller Caddy Coupe won't be attractive - the four-door version is plenty pretty, to be sure - it just likely won't have that extra somethin'-somethin' to truly set it apart from the sedan.
Fine, then. We don't doubt that the two-door ATS will be just as enjoyable to drive as its sedan sibling, with a lot of the mechanical stuff likely carrying over unchanged. That includes the powertrain options, meaning buyers will be able to choose from the naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline-four, turbocharged 2.0-liter four, or larger free-breathing 3.6-liter V6.
Look for the 2014 ATS Coupe to enter production in January of next year, meaning a reveal later this year (LA Auto Show, perhaps?) would be in order.