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Cool car technology is cool until it breaks

Ah, technology – the beautiful date that impresses all your friends but costs you a fortune to keep happy, up-to-date, and working. Automotive News puts some numbers to the economic toll we're paying to jockey this technological Trojan horse, an analysis it sums up with "Technology is great - until you have to replace it." Back in 2000, for instance, you could replace a Cadillac Escalade taillight lens for $56.08, or replace the entire unit for $220.49. Crack the rear lens on your 2015 Escalade and you have to buy a new unit for $795 - there's no such thing as just replacing a lens anymore. What about headlights? It was $210 for an Escalade headlight in 2000, it's $1,650 for the current unit (pictured). This is nothing we didn't know, these are just hard numbers to demonstrate it. Edmunds recently provided the same with its sledgehammer-bashing of the 2015 Ford F-150, Tesla Model S buyers have been shrieking about repair costs to their electric sedan's all-aluminum bodywork, and used-car sites are full of articles about which expensive-to-repair features to steer clear of if you want to avoid big repair bills. Those expensive bits increase the price of a car - Kelley Blue Book says the average price of a car is now more than $33,000 - and that raises rates for repairs and insurance. This comes in spite of some carmakers that have been collaborating with insurance companies and repair shops at the design stage in order to engineer parts that are easier and less expensive to replace. But the tech can have its cost-saving benefits: a 2011 study by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that Volvos fitted with that company's City Safety feature "filed 27 percent fewer property-damage liability claims" than luxury SUVs without it, and just last month the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety called adaptive headlights one of the top four crash-preventing technologies on cars today (after coming out against them in 2006). So yes, the technology costs a mint when it needs to be fixed - but being able to avoid an accident in the first place might make it worth it. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Copyright 2015 AOL Cadillac Car Buying Used Car Buying Auto Repair Insurance Maintenance Safety Technology Luxury replacement parts

First Cadillac ELR rolls off the line

Gearing up for the Belle Isle Grand Prix this weekend, General Motors invited some of the Chevrolet and Cadillac racecar drivers out to its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. While there, the racers - including IndyCar Driver and Chevrolet Volt owner, Simona De Silvestro - witnessed the very first 2014 Cadillac ELR to roll off the assembly line.
These vehicles are not destined for customers, however, but instead pre-production units will be used by engineers for testing purposes. Actual production of ELR consumer models is expected to commence closer to the end of this year. As a refresher, this range-extended electric Cadillac shares much of its powertrain with the Volt but will have a sportier coupe design inspired by the Converj Concept. De Silvestro manged to snap a few images of here own, which you can see in the gallery below.

Cadillac XT5 platform to underpin three-row crossover

Cadillac just launched the XT5 crossover to replace the SRX. But that's only the start. Speaking with Automotive News, Caddy president Johan de Nysschen confirmed that a new three-row crossover is also on the way. The seven-seater is based on a stretched version of the flexible platform underpinning the XT5, which we just drove recently. Taking that approach will give the luxury brand a larger crossover to pit against the likes of the Infiniti QX60, Audi Q7, and Volvo XC90 without having to develop one from scratch. It will also give buyers a more car-like alternative to the larger, truck-based Escalade. "It's one of the benefits of having this very flexible architecture. We can expand it, make it longer and wider. That gives us the ability to develop the car very quickly, as opposed to starting from scratch," de Nysschen told AN. "It's not running yet. It is a program request that we initiated with the engineers only last year. They are working at remarkable, record-breaking speed to get us the car." The new model would likely be called the XT7 and offer similar levels of equipment to the existing, smaller XT5. The existing mid-size model packs a 3.6-liter V6 mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission and comes in four trim levels. Related Video: