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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.

Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra could get independent rear suspension

The Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra could reportedly receive a variant of the four-link independent rear suspension found under the new Tahoe and Suburban. While that's not a surprise, a recent report suggests electrification, not comfort, convinced General Motors to make the change. Replacing the time-tested solid rear axle with an independent suspension will improve comfort, handling and off-road prowess, while adding weight, and likely making the trucks a little bit more expensive. It's a fair trade-off, but GM Authority learned the real reason for the swap is that at least one of the pickups will spawn an electric model, and it's more difficult to package a bulky battery pack around a solid rear axle. The independent rear suspension takes up far less space, even if it has more moving parts. General Motors will build its first regular-production electric pickup on an evolution of the Silverado's T1 platform named BT1, according to the same source. The b stands for -- you guessed it -- batteries. The firm reportedly doesn't want to make two suspensions for cost reasons, so the independent setup will come standard regardless of whether the truck runs on gasoline, diesel, or electricity. As a bonus, Chevrolet and GMC could choose to offer their T1-based trucks with Magnetic Ride Control or an air suspension, options available on the 2021 Suburban and Tahoe. The independent rear suspension will also find its way to the next-generation GMC Yukon due to be revealed January 14, and to the 2021 Cadillac Escalade scheduled to make its debut February 4. The long-rumored, born-again Hummer will get it, too, because it will arrive as an electric model built on the BT1 platform. It's worth noting none of this is official, and General Motors has remained quiet about what's next for its new suspension design, and what will be under its electric truck's sheet metal. If the GM Authority report is accurate, the Silverado (pictured) and the Sierra could ditch their solid rear axle for the 2021 model year. The change will likely be accompanied by other tweaks inside and out. Featured Gallery 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 View 16 Photos Chevrolet GMC Truck

Nissan Leaf has 2nd-best sales month ever, Chevy Volt does a 2013 repeat [UPDATE]

UPDATE: The official press release says that "Volt [sales were] up 7 percent," but Randy Fox let AutoblogGreen know that this is simply due to a change in the fleet/retail mix between March 2013 and 2014. The actual number sold was exactly the same in the two months. A month ago, Nissan's director of EV sales and marketing, Toby Perry, said he expected to see the Leaf's sales momentum continue into March. It wasn't a big leap, since January and February were slow sales months in 2013 (around 640 each) before a big climb to 2,200 in March. In 2014, the first two months of the year were better (around 1,300 each) but Nissan can still be happy that the Leaf just had the best March ever and its second-highest sales month ever, with 2,507 sold. That's a 12.1 percent increase from 2013 and Perry said in a statement to AutoblogGreen that one reason is all of the buyers who are becoming evangelists for the vehicle. "We've also seen an increase in showroom traffic as we enhanced our marketing presence in March," he said. Nissan pointed to cities like Washington, DC, Raleigh-Durham, NC and urban areas in Texas as strong Leaf markets last month. On the Chevy Volt front, January and February were also slow months in 2014, down roughly half from the 2,000-ish the plug-in hybrid was selling at the end of 2013. For 2014, sales were up slightly from the first two months of the year and Chevy spokesman Randy Fox told AutoblogGreen that the March number was "pretty flat, year-over-year." Even with that warning, we were surprised to see the total come in at 1,478. Why's that? Because the total for March 2013 was ... 1,478. So, yeah, that's pretty steady even if there were 26 selling days in March period this year compared to 27 last year. As always, our more complete report of last month's green car sales will be coming soon. News Source: General Motors, Nissan Green Chevrolet GM Nissan Electric Hybrid PHEV ev sales