2012 Cadillac Srx Luxury Collection on 2040-cars

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Ford Mustang Bullitt, Cadillac ATS-V and profitable car companies | Autoblog Podcast #559

On this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Associate Editor Joel Stocksdale and Contributing Editor James Riswick. They talk about being behind the wheel of the 2018 Cadillac ATS-V, 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt and 2018 Nissan Kicks. They also discuss the week's news such as Tesla and Ford both having profitable quarters, better than people were expecting. Not only that, but they talk about how the Camaro may be changing in the near future, plus the potential of Jaguar electric cars. The podcast then finishes with a Spend My Money segment in which we Autoblog editors help a reader choose a car to buy.Autoblog Podcast #559 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 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt 2018 Cadillac ATS-V 2018 Nissan Kicks Tesla makes a profit Ford makes a profit Chevy has changes in store for the Camaro Electric Jaguars Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: Podcasts Cadillac Chevrolet Ford Jaguar Tesla Coupe Performance cadillac ats-v ford mustang bullitt

GM might lose 90-year U.S. sales crown over chip shortage

Automotive News editor Nick Bunkley tweeted on October 1 that according to AutoNews data, General Motors "has been the largest seller of vehicles in the U.S. every year since passing Ford in 1931." With automakers having turned in light car and truck sales data for the first three quarters of 2021, GM's 90-year-run might not reach 91. According to AN figures, Toyota was 80,401 vehicles ahead when the October workday started. Worse, GM is so far behind its historic pace that it might only sell enough light vehicles in the U.S. to match its numbers from 1958.  Meanwhile, the New York Times put a few more salient numbers to the pain GM and Toyota are enduring alongside the the rest of the industry. GM sold 33% fewer cars in Q3 2021 than it did in Q3 2019 during the dark days of the pandemic, 446,997 units this year as opposed to 665,192 last year. GM's Q3 2020 was only down 13% on Q3 2019. Over at Toyota, the bottom line showed a 1% gain in Q3 2021 compared to 2020, with 566,005 units moved off dealer lots. The finer numbers show two steps forward and one step back, though; Toyota's September sales were down 22% compared to last year.  GM remains optimistic about what's ahead, GM's president of North American operations telling the NYT, "We look forward to a more stable operating environment through the fall." We'd like to see that happen, but we don't know how it happens. The chip shortage said to have been the inciting incident for the current woes isn't over, and not only can no one agree when it will be over, the automakers, chip producers, and U.S. government still can't get on the same page about who needs what and when. Looking away from that for a second shows articles about "No End In Sight" for supply chain disruptions in early September, before China had to start working through power supply constraints, global supply chain workers started warning of a "system collapse," and roughly 500,000 containers sat waiting to be unloaded at Southern California ports — a record number seemingly broken every week. And back to chips, we're told just a few days ago the chip shortage is "worse than we thought."   For now, the NYT wrote that GM dealer inventory is down 40% from June to roughly 129,000 vehicles, and down 84% from the days when dealers would cumulatively keep about 800,000 light vehicles in stock. However, GM just announced it would have almost all of its U.S. facilities back online next week, although some would run at partial capacity.

Junkyard Gem: 1993 Cadillac Allante

The General's Cadillac Division had lost much of its status as a world-class styling and engineering innovator by the 1980s, while younger rich Americans signed on the line which is dotted for European luxury machines packed full of futuristic technology. Something needed to be done to win back the hearts of those buyers, and that something was the Cadillac Allante two-seater. Here's a final-model-year Allante, complete with one of the very first Northstar V8 engines, found in a Denver yard. The overhead-valve Cadillac V8 engine of 1949 shook up the automotive world, and the double-overhead-cam Northstar V8 of 44 years later had a similar effect. Finally, a high-revving, smooth-running modern V8 to compete with those pesky European and Japanese carmakers! Only the Allante got the Northstar at first, with other Cadillac models following soon after. After the underwhelming power output of the pushrod HT4100 V8s used in the 1987-1992 Allantes, the upgrade from 200 horses to 290 helped boost sales of the '93 to the highest annual figure ever achieved by the model: 4,670 cars. Unfortunately for GM, production costs of the Allante proved to be murderous in the long run. Shortened Eldorado frames were loaded onto specially-fitted 747s in Detroit and flown to Pininfarina's new Allante factory in Italy. After Pininfarina built the bodies, they got loaded onto the 747s, flown back to Detroit, trucked to the Hamtramck assembly plant, and given running gear there. GM called this system the "Allante Air Bridge" and it cost plenty. The cars looked both futuristic and Italian, which they were, but the Allante's price tag stood at heights far above those of the rest of the Cadillac line: $59,975 in 1993, or about $108,500 in 2020 dollars. You could buy a rear-wheel-drive BMW 850Ci with a 282-horse V8 and manual transmission for a mere 10 grand over the Allante's cost that year, or a Jaguar XJS convertible for just $56,750. The Allante had front-wheel-drive and a not-so-modern four-speed automatic transmission, which hurt sales among the enthusiast types who flocked to Cadillac showrooms for the CTS-V a decade or so later. No European machine of 1993 could top the Mars Base appearance of these vertically-arranged, all-pushbutton HVAC/audio controls, though.