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Meet the other Cadillac wagon. It's as American as ABBA

The Cadillac CTS Wagon became a cult classic the second it went on sale. We all knew that it was never going to sell in anything approaching significant numbers, and if that "we" didn't include those actually working at GM, one would have to wonder what they were smoking. Cadillac was still having a hard enough time trying to convince people that it was now a BMW-fighting sport luxury brand rather than the purveyor of Grandpa-piloted land yachts. To many, a sport sedan like the CTS seemed like a stretch. But a CTS sport wagon? It sure seemed like GM was just doing things for funzies, an impression only enhanced by the CTS-V Wagon. Forget cult classic. That thing was an instant legend.  And yet, the CTS wasn't the only Cadillac of that era offered as a wagon. It wasn't even the first. Before GM said "to hell with it, let's have some fun" on this side of the pond, over in Europe, it had already taken a page from its old badge-engineering playbook to create the 2006 Cadillac BLS Wagon. It was available as a sedan, too, but its awkward majesty is best enjoyed as the long-roof model.  There's just something off about the whole thing, right? That's probably because it also looks vaguely familiar, as if you've seen it before. So where the hell does this thing come from? Sweden! Behind that Cadillac Art and Science face is a Saab 9-3, and in the case of the BLS Wagon, the Saab 9-3 Sport Combi wagon. The roofline is the dead giveaway, as no other wagon has ever looked like that. In fact, the roof and windows were the only exterior elements to copy directly over from 9-3 to BLS. No kidding. With the Cadillac front end, doesn't the Saab-funky-boxiness make it look like a miniature hearse? The answer is yes. GM's design team, led by Ed Welburn, was quite pleased with his work. Perhaps it even egged him on to create a real Cadillac sport wagon? "The whole team was very excited to apply Cadillac's design language to a wagon for the first time," said Welburn in a press release from the time. "The V-shaped chrome-plated grille, a Cadillac hallmark, is picked up again by the shape of the rear window, and the body side character lines make it unmistakably a Cadillac." The interior is surprisingly different from the 9-3, including the ignition switch migrating from the center console up to the steering column. It also wasn't exactly in keeping with the Cadillac norm of the time.

Artist imagines eerie world where cars have no wheels

The wheel ranks right up there with the telescope and four-slice toaster in the pantheon of inventions that have moved humankind forward. But what if a circle in three dimensions had never occurred to anyone, and we all had just moved on without it? Perhaps we'd be driving around in Lucas Motors Landspeeders with anti-gravity engines. Or maybe we'd have the same cars we do today, just without wheels.
That's the thought experiment that seems to have led French photographer Renaud Marion to create his six-image series called Air Drive. The shots depict cars throughout many eras of motoring that look normal except for one thing: they have no wheels. The models used include a Jaguar XK120, Cadillac DeVille (shown above), Chevrolet El Camino and Camaro, and Mercedes-Benz SL and 300 roadsters.
Perhaps one day when our future becomes our past, you'll be able to walk the street and see with your own eyes the rust and patina of age on our nation's fleet of floating cars. Until then, Monsieur Marion's photographs will have to do.

Cadillac confident attitude will attract the elite to ELR plug-in hybrid [w/video]

Cadillac is not going to pull any punches when it comes to promoting its plug-in hybrid ELR. In the real world, the company is showing off the Wreath And Crest's coupe with Chevy Volt technology at exclusive events with "groups whose members are affluent, green-minded and have an appreciation for design and innovation," says Automotive News. That evidently means young Hollywood celebrities and other well-to-do demographics. As Cadillac global chief Bob Ferguson recently told the industry publication, "If you live on the West Coast and you're an architect and you've given to environmental causes, you're probably going to hear about the ELR. We have sliced and diced who is likely to buy this vehicle." "We have sliced and diced who is likely to buy this vehicle" - Cadillac's Bob Ferguson In the realm of advertising, Cadillac evidently thinks a fast-talking, USA-USA-USA! Type-A personality is just the kind of guy who will convince those celebrities and architects to buy one. For proof, look no further than the star of this new ELR ad called Poolside that Cadillac is airing during the Olympics. There are almost no details about the ELR in this ad, just a whole lot of attitude mixed with humor (the "We got bored" line is funny). In fact, there's almost no indication that the ELR is an extended-range hybrid at all. Short of a brief moment where our hero, actor Neil McDonough, unplugs his car from its charging station, you'd probably never know it's got an EV mode at all. That's undoubtedly a calculated bet by Cadillac, whose ad execs have undoubtedly noted that most electric cars are not selling well with an eco-first message, so they appear to be going with style and swagger instead. Scroll below to see what we mean. The ELR has a starting MSRP of $75,000, and at that price, it's already out of reach for most Americans. Automotive News suggests that annual ELR production is likely to be just shy of 5,000 units, so Cadillac could be on stable ground trying to appeal to such a limited number of buyers. What type of buyers? Well, that remains to be seen. Related Gallery 2015 Cadillac ELR: First Drive View 25 Photos News Source: Cadillac, Automotive News - sub. req. via YouTubeImage Credit: Gallery images copyright 2014 Michael Harley / AOL Green Cadillac Electric Hybrid PHEV cadillac elr elr poolside