2007 Cadillac Escalade on 2040-cars

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It's a V8 party! Lexus IS 500, Cadillac Escalade and more | Autoblog Podcast #667

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. It's all V8s all the time this week, starting with the Land Rover Defender V8 unveiling, Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance debut and pricing announcement on the Jeep Wrangler 392. Next, they move on to what they've been driving. Spoiler alert: That means more V8 talk. Zac has been driving the Cadillac Escalade with the 6.2-liter V8 and BMW M550i with its 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8. Greg and Zac take a pause from the V8 theme by discussing their shared time in our long-term Acura TLX. From this, they segue into a "Spend My Money" feature about garage lifts to finish the show. Autoblog Podcast #667 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown News 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 priced at nearly $75,000 2022 Land Rover Defender bulks up with a 518-hp V8 2022 Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance brings back the V8 What we're driving BMW M550i Cadillac Escalade Acura TLX Spend my money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related Video:

Cadillac Rear Camera Mirror | 2017 Autoblog Technology of the Year Finalist

We give Cadillac a lot of credit for being the first to make good on the promise to replace mirrors with cameras and displays. That was good enough to earn the Cadillac Rear Camera Mirror a place on our 2017 Technology of the Year awards shortlist for new features. The idea behind this system is relatively simple; what perhaps took more doing was getting the regulations in place to allow a video feed to replace the government-mandated mirror. The hardware and that rules compliance starts with what looks like a normal rearview mirror – because it defaults to being a mirror until you switch on the display or in the event the system somehow fails. Flip the little toggle at the bottom of the mirror – the one normally used to switch from day to night mode – and the reflection is replaced by a very crisp feed from a camera at the back of the vehicle. This live stream gives you a wide-angle view of what's behind, without obstruction from back-seat passengers, headrests, or any bodywork. The camera is even shielded from weather and has a coating to shed water. What you see doesn't exactly look like a normal reflection, but the quality is good enough and you see more than you would normally with something aimed through today's small rear windows. But because it isn't actually a reflection, you have to make some adjustments. When your eyes are focused down the road, glancing at a mirror gives you a view the same distance away but in the rear. With the rear camera mirror, a glance back requires your eyes to first refocus on the display, which takes a moment. And unlike a normal mirror, which you look through at an angle, this display is angled toward the driver but projecting an image that looks straight back – no matter how you move it, the image doesn't change like a mirror's would. And because it's an image and not a reflection, you can't choose what's in focus and lose your sense of depth perception. It's not clear whether objects in mirror are closer or farther than they appear. And there are other limitations. For instance, while the display balances bright lights and dark surroundings well at night, it is tricked by LED headlights, which flicker at a rate faster than the camera shoots. The result is a distracting strobe effect like you get when you point a smartphone camera at any LED light source. For those with migraine sensitivity, this kind of fast flashing can cause real problems.

Even if GM does close all 5 of those plants, it'll still have too many

DETROIT — General Motors' monumental announcement on Monday that it will close three car assembly plants and two powertrain plants in North America and slash its workforce will only partially close the gap between capacity and demand for the automaker's sedans, according to a Reuters analysis of industry production and capacity data. Sales of traditional passenger cars in North America have been declining for the past six years and are still withering. After GM ends production next year at factories in Michigan, Ohio and Ontario, it will still have four U.S. passenger-car plants — all operating at less than 50 percent of rated capacity, according to figures supplied by LMC Automotive. In comparison, Detroit-based rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will have one car plant each in North America after 2019. The Detroit Three are facing rapidly dwindling demand for traditional passenger cars from U.S. consumers, many of whom have shifted to crossovers and trucks. Passenger cars accounted for 48 percent of retail light-vehicle sales in the United States in 2014, according to market researchers at J.D. Power and Associates. This year, sedans will account for less than a third of light vehicle sales. That shift in turn has left most North American car plants operating far below their rated capacities, while many SUV and truck plants are running on overtime. The collapse in passenger-car demand is a challenge for nearly all automakers in the United States, including Japan's Toyota and Honda, which have the top-selling models in the compact and midsize car segments. Toyota executives said last month they are evaluating the company's U.S. model lineup. But Toyota also plans to build compact Corolla sedans at a new $1.6 billion factory it is building in Alabama with partner Mazda. The obstacles facing GM in its plans to close more auto factories became apparent on Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to block payment of government electric vehicle subsidies to GM. While it is not certain that Trump unilaterally has the power to do that, he made it clear he intends to use his office to pressure the company to keep open a small car plant in Ohio that GM says will stop building vehicles in March.