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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:

Chip Foose is bringing life to a Cadillac sketch from 1935

General Motors, automotive home of Harley Earl, was a pioneer in the early days of car design. But for as many wild concept cars and even production cars as the company's studio created, there were still many that never got off the paper. Chip Foose is working to change the fate of one of those designs. According to Foose Design, Chip Foose's latest project is based on a sketch from 1935. Car dealer Wes Rydell and his wife Vivian commissioned a custom Cadillac coupe that was sketched out by GM designer Art Ross. It would take an existing Cadillac sedan, shorten it, lower it and give it a removable hardtop. The drawing is as far as the project got. Now Chip Foose is working on realizing the design in real life using a 1939 Cadillac Series 60 Sedan. He plans to follow the initial design brief, but with his own unique touches. He has also named the project "Madam X" in honor of what Harley Earl would call client projects. It is scheduled to be finished and ready for unveiling at the end of the summer. Foose is a well-known designer who has won some of America's most prestigious custom car awards such as the Ridler Award and designed vehicles for the TV show Overhaulin'. The final product should be quite a striking machine. You can see how it's coming along, as well as Foose's sketch of what the car will finally look like, in the gallery above. Related Video: Featured Gallery 1939 Cadillac Series 60 by Chip Foose View 13 Photos Image Credit: Foose Design, Inc. Auto News Celebrities Design/Style Cadillac Classics chip foose overhaulin

Cadillac CT6 gets a plug in Shanghai, will come to US

Don't call it the third coming of the Chevy Volt. The unsurprising debut of the Cadillac CT6 PHEV in Shanghai today has a powertrain that sounds an awful lot like the one that can be found in the Volt and the Cadillac ELR. The plug-in CT6 – identical to the CT6 that debuted in New York earlier this month – has an 18.4-kWh lithium-ion battery (just like the 2016 Volt) and offers an all-electric range of around 37 miles. It also copies the "Regen on Demand" feature from the new Volt and the battery cells "use the latest generation cell chemistry found in other GM plug-in vehicles." But Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen doesn't see the two powertrains as similar in at least one important way. General Motors calls the Volt and the ELR "extended range electric vehicles" (EREV) but in a statement, de Nysschen says that the plug-in hybrid CT6 is, "an ideal platform for Cadillac to offer its first plug-in hybrid." That GM is using the PHEV terminology rather than EREV is going to be important to some, even if the practical difference is only semantic. And yes, we all understand the irony of de Nysschen – the same guy who has a history of speaking ill of plug-in cars – hyping them now. Back when he worked for Audi, he said the original Volt was too expensive for what it offered and was thus, a car for "idiots." Speaking in Shanghai today, de Nysschen said the new CT6 PHEV was, "an EV without any of the disadvantages or range constraints," according to Automotive News. If the batteries are similar to GM's other EREV/PHEV cars, the CT6 powertrain is at least different. The ELR uses a 1.4-liter engine, while the new Volt has a 1.5-liter four-cylinder mill. The CT6, on the other hand, has a 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine with direct injection. There is also an "all-new rear wheel electric variable transmission (EVT) with exclusively designed motors," that will give the CT6 PHEV, "smooth, spirited acceleration." The EVT is a two-motor-unit that uses three planetary gears. Maximum overall system output is 335 horsepower and 432 pound-feet of torque. Perhaps most interesting for American audiences is the fact that GM's press release, available below, makes multiple references to US-market sales of the PHEV. Official details on the EV range and fuel economy will be made available closer to the car's US launch.