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Almost half of US Cadillac dealers say no to ELR plug-in hybrid

If you've got $75,995 (or so) burning a hole in your pocket and a hankering for the new Cadillac ELR, you'd better call your local dealer before you burn up shoe leather and gasoline to head down there. According to a report on Edmunds, only about 56 percent of the brand's 940 dealers have signed up to carry the premium plug-in hybrid. As much as we'd like to see the more affluent among us driving on electricity, we can certainly understand the dealers' apparent lack of enthusiasm. The article cites costs of up to $15,000 for tools and training to sell the ELR. Show floor real estate is another consideration for dealers who aren't enthusiastic about sacrificing space for a for a vehicle with initial sales – just 46 units nationwide in the first two months, but that volume is expected to increase – that are as mediocre as our first drive impressions. Still, for those locations that co-habitate with Chevrolet dealers who already participate in the Volt program, the extra expenditure shouldn't be too onerous. The two vehicles share the same basic electro-mechanical drivetrain, so those dealerships should have most of the needed infrastructure already in place. The bulk of ELR sales, according to Cadillac's global marketing director Jim Vurpillat, are expected to be in along the coasts, in places like California, Miami and New York. Featured Gallery 2015 Cadillac ELR: First Drive View 25 Photos News Source: Edmunds Green Cadillac Electric cadillac elr

Watch Brad Pitt's Chinese Cadillac XTS commercial

Once upon a time, in a land not so far from this one, Brad Pitt was the very face anti-consumerism. You see, when he slipped into the role of the elitist-loathing, food-abusing, violence-embracing Tyler Durden from Fight Club, his visage was inextricably married to images of leveling credit card corporations with nothing more than a little human fat and some determination. Of course, that was before Pitt settled into old age with a passel of children at his feet. Now, it seems, he'll shill for something as long as it doesn't damage his reputation in America.
Need proof? Look no further than this Chinese ad for the Cadillac XTS. In it, Pitt contentedly wafts the big front-wheel drive barge around San Francisco against a mildly euphoric soundtrack. You can check out the scene for yourself below, just make sure you have your last meal squarely situated in your stomach before pressing play. We have to wonder if Pitt wakes up in the middle of the night with Chuck Palahniuk's oddly omniscient words echoing in his ears: "Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."

Ghostbusters' new Ecto-1 is an oddly uninspiring '82 Caddy

The Ghostbusters, or at least the movie franchise, will emerge from Hollywood's cobwebs this summer, but instead of the iconic 1959 Cadillac known as Ecto-1 that delighted big screen audiences in 1984, the new model may leave some scratching their heads. That's because this latest Ghostbusters draws its vehicular inspiration from a decidedly less interesting period in American automobile production: the 1980s. Starring alongside Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones is a 1982 Cadillac DeVille hearse. The studio dressed up this tired Caddy to look the part, but something's amiss. Instead of the flamboyant fins and shiny chrome, the '82 is decidedly pedestrian and uninteresting. Even in 1982, it was kind of a dull choice for luxury car buyers. There's a reason Murilee Martin deemed the '70s and '80s the "malaise era." Built a couple of years before the original, Academy Award-winning Ghostbusters hit cinemas, the '82 DeVille represents one of Cadillac's lowest points bar the Cimarron. Under its hood might be Cadilac's new-for-1982 HT 4100 V8 engine, which featured what the brand referred to as "digital" fuel injection. With 135 horsepower and 190 pound-feet of torque, the DeVille didn't win stoplight races back then. Oddly, the V6 engine that came standard in the '82 Sedan DeVille produced the same horsepower but delivered an extra 15 torques, which made it both faster and more fuel efficient than the V8. These were bad times for General Motors, clearly, but the gas engines paled in comparison to Cadillac's first diesel. The company's LF9 5.7-liter diesel V8 was optional on the DeVille and we pity the unlucky buyers who checked that box. Generally credited as the engine that made "diesel" a haunted word in Detroit for 30 years, the 350-cubic-inch unit might actually be fitting for the Ghostbusters. On the bright side, the '82 is new enough that it may have carried a box or two of Hi-C's stellar, Ghostbusters-inspired Ecto Cooler. Maybe the mortician took his kid to Kroger one time, you never know. Fitting in In the original 1984 Ghostbusters, the '59 Caddy was a forlorn and forgotten piece of machinery waiting for a new lease on life. Character Dr. Ray Stantz picks it up and admits in the film that it needs "some suspension work and shocks ...