1996 Cadillac Superior Hearse - White With Lt1 Engine And 38k Miles on 2040-cars

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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.

2021 Cadillac Escalade Onyx package adds monochrome logos

The 2016 Cadillac Escala concept showed off a number of features never seen on a Cadillac, one of them being a redesigned, entirely silver, untextured logo. Cadillac had been putting all-silver versions of its crest on the fenders of some of its vehicles, but those bore patterned silver inserts where the yellow, black, red, and blue would have appeared on the standard mark. The Escala logo, on top of being squatter and wider, displayed silver blanks where the colors went. Cadillac Society has found out a similar treatment is on the way for the 2021 Escalade as part of a new Onyx package. This time, instead of being brightwork, a Cadillac spokesperson told CS the logos are "more grey versus [the] silver/chrome [on the fenders]." And for the first time on a Cadillac on the showroom floor, these monochrome badges will appear on the grille and tailgate. Buyers can add a Sport Edition package to the current Escalade, dressing almost all the brightwork grille in gloss black and bolting on a set of 22-inch Midnight Silver wheels. The Cadillac logos, however, stay in color, and the Escalade lettering stays in chrome. That changes with the Onyx package, those gray monochrome crests joined by Escalade lettering in gloss black, plus 22-inch, 12-spoke wheels in high gloss black, and a similar blackout of all the other brightwork as found on the Sport Edition package. The Sport Edition is only available on three of the eight possible colors; a limited color selection could hold true for the Onyx package as well. Branding could get even more interesting when the crest's animated illumination shows up on the Lyriq electric crossover.  The 2021 Escalade will move to the new forked trim strategy, Premium Luxury on one side, Sport on the other, the Onyx package only available on the Sport side. For shoppers who want to go the other way, we're sure the new Escalade will offer something equivalent to the current Radiant Package that makes any Escalade even more impossible to miss on a sunny day. Related Video:    

Dealers mobilize to protect their margins from automaker subscription services

Six individual auto brands — Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo — have established or are trialing a vehicle subscription service in the U.S. Three third-party companies — Flexdrive, Clutch and Carma — run brand-agnostic subscription services. And three automakers — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and General Motors — have also launched short-term rental services. Dealers, afraid of how these trends might affect their margins, are building political and lawmaking campaigns to protect their revenue streams. So far, three states are investigating automaker subscriptions, and Indiana has banned any such service until next year. It's certain that those three states are the first fronts in a long political and legal battle. Powerful dealer franchise laws mandate the existence of dealers and restrict how automakers are allowed to interact with customers to sell a vehicle. On top of that, Bob Reisner, CEO of Nassau Business Funding & Services, said, "Dealers and their associations are among the strongest political operators in many states. They as a group are difficult for state politicians to vote against." In California earlier this year, the state Assembly debated a bill with wide-ranging provisions to protect against what the California New Car Dealers Association called "inappropriate treatment of dealers by manufacturers." One of those provisions stipulated that subscription services need to go through dealers, but that item got stripped out when dealers and manufacturers agreed to discuss the matter further. In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a moratorium on all subscription programs by dealers or manufacturers until May 1, 2019, to give legislators more time to investigate. Dealers in New Jersey have taken their campaign to the state capitol, asking that the cars in subscription programs get a different classification for registration purposes. Automakers run the current subscription services and own the vehicles. Sign-ups and financial transactions happen online or through apps, leaving dealers to do little more than act as fulfillment centers to various degrees, with little legal recourse as to compensation amounts when they're called on to deliver or service a car. That's a bad base to build on for business owners who've sunk millions of dollars into their operations.