1976 Cadillac Brougham D Elegante on 2040-cars

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President Trump might get to start his administration in a new Cadillac limo [UPDATE]

(UPDATE: Jalopnik is reporting an unidentified source claimed the new limo would not be featured in today's inauguration ceremony. The source did say however that the limo would join the presidential fleet later this year.) A rumor is going around that President-Elect Donald Trump will have a brand new set of wheels the day he takes office. The Cadillac Presidential Limousine, nicknamed "The Beast," was last refreshed in 2009 and led President Barack Obama's second inauguration-day parade. Cadillac could not confirm any timeline for the new presidential limo, nor could it confirm any specifics about the car nicknamed Beast 2.0. That's as expected, because details on the presidential limo are closely guarded and considered matters of national security. The outgoing original "Beast" limo marked a switch to a custom-built vehicle based on a General Motors truck frame. Previous limos were based on the actual cars they looked like. As we've seen in spy shots, The Beast 2.0 limo looks more like an Escalade SUV or CT6 sedan but is reported to be roughly the same size and shape as the old Beast, which is built on a Chevrolet Kodiak/GMC TopKick medium-duty truck chassis. AutoWeek is reporting that the new limo is set to debut for Trump's inauguration, however those reports could not be confirmed for the reasons mentioned above. The new Presidential car is expected to accommodate seven passengers in conference-style seating in the back like the current version. The Beast isn't meant for road trips, as it is mostly used to ferry the President to and from Air Force One when traveling, or on short trips around Washington D.C. That's good, considering the current limo only gets 3.7 miles per gallon. Along with multiple screens for video conferencing, The next Beast will also definitely include advanced armoring and weaponry. For security reasons, it's impossible to know the extent of those systems, but any vehicle transporting the most powerful man in the world around has to be tough. The entire process of designing and building the Presidential limo is top secret, as the Secret Service figures the less everyone knows about the Presidential Limo, the better. The new Beast, we can safely assume, is likely the safest vehicle in the world. The Secret Service began taking bids on building a replacement in 2014 because integrating all of the required armor is technically challenging.

Autoblog Podcast #318

Toyota back on top, Barrett Jackson, Crowdsourcing your Dodge Dart payments, Nissan and Toyota double down on pickups
Episode #318 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Zach Bowman and Michael Harley talk about Toyota regaining the No. 1 sales crown, getting your friends and family to buy you a Dodge Dart, Barrett-Jackson, and Toyota and Nissan remaining committed to their pickup trucs. We wrap with your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Keep reading for our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #318:

Cadillac ATS was almost front-wheel drive

"We were going to do a front-wheel drive Cadillac compact off of Delta because it was going to be less expensive," Doug Parks, General Motors' vice president of global product programs, told the Automotive News during the Detroit Auto Show in January of this year. That sentence, referring to early ATS discussions more than five years ago - a period when the automaker, and the industry, was struggling - reveals that Cadillac's highly acclaimed rear-wheel drive compact sedan almost never happened.
Parks revealed that that automaker actually built a 2.0-liter test mule, on GM's Delta platform (shared with the Chevrolet Cruze and Buick Verano) and tested it in Europe. While the prototype was "pretty darn good," according to Parks, the team realized that in order to compete against Mercedes-Benz and BMW it would have to invest in a new rear-wheel drive platform.
The resulting all-new Alpha platform would eventually underpin the Cadillac ATS, and many would argue that its balanced rear-wheel drive chassis is its single most important attribute. Thankfully, the Alpha's goodness won't stop with the ATS. The upcoming 2014 Cadillac CTS and the future Camaro will also share its architecture, meaning the Cimarron will remain a distant memory.