1994 Cadillac Deville Base Sedan 4-door 4.9l on 2040-cars

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Looking back on our favorite cars of Mad Men

The second half of the seventh and final season of Mad Men debuted this week, set to cap a run of public and critical acclaim. A decade's worth of interesting cars also made for good television, if you were paying attention. Vehicles didn't often steal the spotlight from Don, Betty, Roger, Joan and the gang, but they added meaningfully to the tone and beauty of the series. We sorted through the wheeled extras from Mad Men's archives, and choose some of our favorites to highlight. The list consists of cars that had at least a small impact on the plot of an episode, though certainly there are worthy gems hiding in just about every street and driving scene. Check out our subjective top five, and then let us know which of the Mad Men cars would be on your list. 1962 Cadillac Coupe DeVille – Season 2 Don Draper's Cadillac Coupe DeVille, all 500 feet of it, shows up in a few seasons of the show, but it's the first appearance that sets the tone. A Cadillac salesman, cut from the same cloth as Draper, asks what Don drives right now. "A Dodge," Don admits. "Those are wonderful if you want to get somewhere," allows the salesman, "this is for when you've already arrived." For a man on the move up corporate and social ladders that's a powerful message, and a pitch-perfect car. 1961 Lincoln Continental – Season 3 The most stylish Lincoln Continental ever is perfect set dressing for the mod show, of course. Though it's interesting that the car isn't cast as dapper Draper's ride, but rather his father-in-law's. Grandpa Gene does what all great grandfathers are bound to: lets his granddaughter Sally drive the big Lincoln while he works the pedals. Generational bond secured, in fine fashion. When you go back through the first three seasons of the show, you'll notice that Continentals show up more than once, too. There's nothing quite like them to evoke the best of the early '60s. 1963 John Deere 110 – Season 3 The only non-standard passenger vehicle on the list, no self-respecting gearhead/Mad Men fan should quibble with the inclusion of the John Deere 110 riding mower. For starters, the Deere is lovely to look at; a miniature version of the American Heartland icon in its green and yellow duds. The 110 appears as if milled from a solid block of steel, just the opposite of today's sleek, plasticky lawn minders (we're scouring Craigslist for one to bring home). The John Deere also has dear ramifications to the plot, too.

Cadillac says it made CUE infotainment a lot better

We've never been huge fans of CUE, the Cadillac User Experience infotainment interface. It's been around a few years now, and the best thing we can say for it is that it now supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, making it easy enough to replace most of the interface with a familiar smartphone-based system. Now Cadillac has made some big upgrades to the system that should address at least some of our concerns. First and foremost, the system is claimed to be more intuitive, with a more logical interface design. Cadillac has added a Summary View that gives an overview of the climate, media, navigation, and phone all at the same time. The system will also be able to receive over-the-air updates, allowing Cadillac to make improvements more often and push them out to owners' cars, mush like Tesla and other automakers already do. The 4G LTE connection will also be used to connect the car with the cloud, where drivers can store and modify their own personalized set of settings. This My Driver Preferences profile will include things like contacts, navigation preferences, and recent destinations, and will also follow them from one car equipped with the system to another. That should come in handy for anyone subscribing to the $1,500-a-month Book by Cadillac vehicle subscription service, which allows participants to swap between cars when they choose. The cloud connection will also carry over to a new available navigation function, which Cadillac claims has a more intuitive, smartphone-like interface. It uses its data connection to provide current destination info and is supposed to learn a driver's habits, such as their preferred routes and frequent destinations, which the system will then attempt to offer up predictively – so the car should be able to know that you're heading home at 5:00. Additional apps for the system will be available through Cadillac's new Collection app store. And it's still compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. One sore spot that appears to have been improved is the digital gauge package, although Cadillac hasn't offered details on that extension of the system. The current iteration's ability to over-customize the interface (our personal favorite is the option to display a total of four speedometers between the head-up display and the gauge screen; see video below) and unintuitive controls make it difficult to use and learn, while the simulated gauges don't look particularly realistic.

Cadillac prices new ATS-V from $61,460*

It's official, Art & Science students: Cadillac has opened the order books for the new ATS-V, and while it was at it, has told us how much we should expect to shell out for the privilege. Pricing starts at $61,460 for the 2016 Cadillac ATS-V sedan (*plus tax, title, license, dealer fees and any optional equipment). Go for the sleeker (but less practical) ATS-V coupe and you'll be looking at $63,660 (with the same conditions). For all that scratch, you'll be looking at a 3.6-liter twin-turbo V6 driving 455 horsepower and 445 pound-feet of torque through a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmission, for a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 189 miles per hour. The ATS-V also features Brembo brakes, magnetorheological dampers, launch control and rev-matching with no-lift shifting. Cadillac has still yet to tell us how much gas its new performance model will guzzle, but it's got time before production gears up in the spring and the online configuration tool launches in April. Cadillac Opens Ordering for 2016 ATS-V Dual-purpose performance luxury compact designed for the track, touring 2015-02-10 DETROIT – Cadillac dealers have begun accepting orders for the 2016 ATS-V – the brand's inaugural luxury compact performance car starting production this spring. Available in sedan and coupe forms, the twin-turbocharged ATS-V offers a dual-purpose luxury performance experience: a car with true track capability straight from the factory with sophisticated road manners. Powered by the segment's highest-output six-cylinder engine – the Cadillac Twin Turbo rated at 455 horsepower (339 kW) and 445 lb-ft of torque (603 Nm) – the ATS-V achieves 0-60 performance in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 189 mph. The Cadillac Twin Turbo engine is backed by a six-speed manual – with Active Rev Match, no-lift shifting and launch control – or a paddle-shift eight-speed automatic transmission featuring launch control and Performance Algorithm Shift. "The V-Series is the ultimate expression of Cadillac's re-ignited product substance and the passion at the core of our brand," said Johan de Nysschen, Cadillac president. "The ATS-V expands the V-Series lineup, bringing a new kind of performance character to Cadillac. Lightweight, agile and potent, the ATS-V will make an ideal pairing with the larger and even more powerful all-new 2016 CTS-V midsize sedan, which arrives later this summer," he said.