1984 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible 2-door 4.1l Crate Motor, One Owner on 2040-cars

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Cadillac ATS failing to command BMW 3 Series-like pricing as hoped

The BMW 3 Series has long been the benchmark for small and sporty luxury vehicles, but the Cadillac ATS has come on strong in its short time on the market as a true rival in this segment. As impressive as Cadillac's new compact sedan is, however, Automotive News is reporting that the car is still lagging behind the 3 Series when it comes to actual transaction pricing.
According to the article, the average transaction price for the ATS is $39,459 while the 3 Series is at a much larger $44,764, but, just as importantly, Cadillac has about $500 more in incentives on the ATS compared to BMW. Transaction prices are much closer to cars like the Mercedes C-Class and Audi A4. Of course, this is all with the ATS trying to take on its small,sport sedan rivals with a single bodystyle and limited powertrain options compared to the numerous options available from the German automakers in this class.
This uneven battle won't last long, though, as recent spy shots have revealed that Cadillac is hard at work on a high-performance ATS-V and an ATS Coupe. No official word as to when either of these models will be unveiled, but with auto show season set to kick off, we're expecting sooner rather than later. The best news for the ATS is that the Automotive News says sales of the ATS are on target and that 74 percent of ATS buyers are new to Cadillac - two important factors for the brand as it tries to break into this tough segment.

Bosch builds an infotainment system that just might not suck

As far as we've come with in-car infotainment and interfaces over the past decade or so, we still have a long way to go — as most current systems show. Whether it's high-end brands like Mercedes-Benz with its kludgy COMAND system, which we hope will be replaced with the MBUX platform revealed at CES, or more mainstream vehicles like Hondas (with their frustrating, knobless Display Audio interface), getting the kind of content and ease of use in the car that we're used to having on other connected devices is far too complex and sometimes costly. While Apple and Google have tried to ride to the rescue with CarPlay and Android Auto, respectively, they're limited solutions. No automaker or tech supplier has been able to deliver an easy, economical, flexible and non-distracting infotainment solution. But Bosch could be closing in on this elusive goal, given the digital cockpit concept demo I recently received at CES. Displayed in a Cadillac Escalade, the concept featured five interconnected color screens: one in the instrument cluster, two in the center console, and two more in the front-seat headrest for second-row passengers. The digital cockpit concept demo had cool features such as haptic-feedback touch-screen controls that created an edge-like feeling similar to a physical button, facial recognition to confirm driver credentials, and the intelligence to know the location of a phone in the car to lock it out to keep the driver from texting. The most significant aspect of the Bosch digital cockpit concept wasn't visible — but shows the company's vision for a future of seamless, convenient, cost-effective and safe in-car infotainment. It's powered by a single electronic control unit (ECU) that can simultaneously run multiple operating systems and also separates vehicle and infotainment controls for critical safety and cybersecurity reasons. Most modern cars can have as many as 100 separate ECUs, Philip Ventimiglia, product manager for Bosch Car Multimedia North America, explained at CES, and several just for infotainment functions. "The goal is to reduce that to about 10 so that we can save cost throughout the vehicle and enable new technologies," he added. "OEMs want to put more technology into cars, but it costs money," Ventimiglia said.

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Cadillac Cimarron

Ah, the Cadillac Cimarron. Conceived during a time when oil prices were zooming upward and smallish luxury imports such as the Datsun 810 and BMW 320i were stealing Detroit's customers, the idea of a fuel-efficient compact Cadillac made sense. Unfortunately for GM, the Cimarron was an image-tarnishing disaster. Here's a fairly well-preserved '83 that I spotted in a Phoenix self-service wrecking yard. In the words of Pulitzer-winning Dan Neil in his 50 Worst Cars of All Time: "Everything that was wrong, venal, lazy and mendacious about GM in the 1980s was crystallized in this flagrant insult to the good name and fine customers of Cadillac." The Cimarron was a Chevrolet Cavalier with a bit of added bling and a fatter price tag. The Chevrolet Nova-based Cadillac Seville had sold pretty well during the late 1970s, so there was precedent for a small, Chevy-based Cadillac. The hood latch mechanism was broken (of course), so I couldn't shoot any photos of this car's 2.0-liter pushrod four-cylinder engine, rated at 86 horsepower. Here's a GM-produced documentary touting the futuristic design of the '83 Cimarron. The Cimarron Dream. Featured Gallery Junked 1983 Cadillac Cimarron View 12 Photos Auto News Cadillac Economy Cars Classics Sedan