Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz on 2040-cars

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Cadillac sprinkles changes around its 2022 lineup

Cadillac is doing its best to keep the model-year-update train running, making incremental changes to the CT4, CT5, XT4, XT5, and XT6 for 2022. We'll start with the change coming to the entire Cadillac range, that being the addition of the automaker's Smart System package of nine driver assistance aids. The nine features are: Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Alert, Front Pedestrian Braking, Safety Alert Seat, Rear Park Assist, Rear Vision Camera, vehicle diagnostics, Teen Driver, and Rear Seat Reminder. After that, the CT4 and CT5 will gain the option of Super Cruise 1 and Super Cruise 2 on Sport and Premium Luxury trims. Super Cruise availability on the XT6 to follow at some point during the model year, but since the XT6 is built on GM's previous electrical architecture, its version of Super Cruise will lack some features such as Automated Lane Change. Also inside the vehicles, it's been reported that Inteluxe will be the new name for leatherette seating across the lineup.  Taking each model starting with the CT4, GM Authority says the compact sedan will lose its Dark Blue Moon Metallic, Evergreen Metallic, and Velocity Red exterior colors. They'll be replaced by Blaze Orange Metallic (pictured), which is reserved for the Sport, CT4-V, and CT4-V Blackwing, and Electric Blue and Dark Emerald Frost, which can only be optioned on the CT4-V and CT4-V Blackwing, and the latter color will have limited availability. The CT5 gets one of those new premium exterior hues, Blaze Orange Metallic. It will be available on the CT5 Sport alone. The base 350T models powered by the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder also had their fuel economy figures updated recently. The rear-driver gains another mile per gallon in the city and combined, the all-wheel driver gains one mpg in the city and loses one mpg on the highway, according to the EPA. The XT4 drops the premium exterior colors Shadow Metallic, Garnet Metallic, and Autumn Metallic. They are replaced by Galactic Gray Metallic, Latte Metallic, and Rosewood Metallic, all of which will add $625 to the MSRP and be available throughout the model lineup. Cadillac Society reports that NFC capability falls away next year, the tech deemed outdated. The refreshed XT4 that had been expected next year is now thought to arrive for the 2023 model year.

Cadillac CT6 ushers in new naming convention

Johan de Nysschen has been at his new post as president of Cadillac for not even three months , but he's already seen two of his most notable accomplishments from his two-year tenure as president of Infiniti matched by Cadillac. The brand has announced that it is relocating its headquarters, and is now officially changing its nomenclature.
The brand's new flagship model will abandon the familiar three-letter designation enjoyed by every other model in the range (aside from the Escalade), and adopt an alpha-numeric title. So, rather than the expected title of LTS, Cadillac's top-end car will be called the CT6.
Of course, this won't be limited to just one model. According to Cadillac's press release, "familiar lettering like 'CT' would be used for car models, with the number indicating the relative size and position of the cars in the hierarchy of Cadillac models." And yes, that means what you think it means - Cadillac will use the exact same naming formula, albeit with different letters, as Infiniti.

Junkyard Gem: 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible

Convertibles rode high well in 1960s America, with Detroit selling more than 500,000 ragtops in 1965, but sales collapsed by the early 1970s and tightening federal crash-safety regulations made it seem less worthwhile to even bother producing new ones. Chrysler halted convertible production after 1971, with Ford following suit by 1973. By the 1976 model year, the Cadillac Eldorado was the last new American car you could buy with a convertible top from the factory, and it appeared that none would ever be built again. I've found one of those "last convertible" Eldorados in rough-but-identifiable condition in a Denver junkyard. As it turned out, the convertible never really died in America. Car shoppers could still buy new European-made convertibles after 1976, coachbuilders modified new Detroit cars with factory-grade drop-tops, and then Chrysler began selling K-Car convertibles starting with the 1982 model year. Because the '76 Eldorado appeared to be the absolute end of the convertible line, however, buyers thought they were investing in a sure-fire collector car that would be worth vast sums in the not-very-distant future (this belief led to lawsuits against GM later on, when the Cadillac Division resumed production of the Eldorado convertible for 1984). While a one-of-200-made Bicentennial Edition Eldorado with red-white-and-blue trim really is worth plenty these days, an ordinary 1976 Eldorado in beat-up condition doesn't seem worth restoring. This car appears to have sat outside in Colorado with the top down for decades, filling with snow each winter and enduring high-elevation solar irradiation each summer. A 1960s GTO or Camaro might be worth fixing up after falling into this state of disrepair, but not one of 14,000 "last convertible" Eldorados made in 1976. GM's Unified Powerplant Package front-wheel-drive system, which used battleship-strength chains to transmit power to the drive wheels, proved to be extremely reliable on the street, joining the small-block Chevrolet engine and Hydra-Matic transmission in the pantheon of The General's Greatest Engineering Hits. Even gigantic motorhomes used this system. In 1976, the Eldorado got the last of the 500-cubic-inch (8.2 liter, or litre as GM's marketers spelled it) V8s, rated at a disappointing 190 horsepower and an impressive 360 lb-ft of torque.