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Don Draper's 1965 Cadillac Coupe de Ville up for auction

Few have ever nor ever will embody the sheer confidence and style of Don Draper, the main character on the hit AMC drama Mad Men. But if you can't quite match his style, at least you can drive his car. Now that the series has now concluded its eight-year run, the studio behind it is selling off a whole mess of artifacts from the show through ScreenBid, a specialist Hollywood memorabilia auctioneer. There's a good 1,300 lots up for grabs, from props to costumes. But the lot that's caught our attention is this 1965 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Don picked this car up in the fifth season and drove it until the penultimate episode. These are the wheels he (spoiler alert!) drove across the country, got repaired in Oklahoma, and ultimately gave to a kid working at the motel before making his way by bus to the Bonneville Salt Flats in the final episode. At the time of writing, bidding had reached $25,000 with four days still to go. Cadillac first used the de Ville as a trim level on the Series 62 before spinning it off into its own model line. 1965 was the first year of the third-generation de Ville, stretching a massive 224 inches (over 18 and a half feet!) long. Powering over 4,600 pounds of personal American luxury was an equally massive 7.0-liter V8 that drove 340 horsepower through a three-speed automatic transmission. The name wasn't retired until 2005 when the final DeVille (as it was styled by then) was replaced by the DTS, which itself was shorthand for DeVille Touring Sedan. Cadillac produced the last DTS in 2011, finally putting to rest a name that had, in one form or another, been used since 1949. Few cars had the kind of presence that the third-gen Coupe de Ville did, though, and Draper knew it. Or at least the show's producers did.

Cadillac previews upcoming new XT5 crossover [UPDATE]

UPDATE: Cadillac has released another three images, which we've added to the gallery above. Cadillac is gearing up to unveil its new XT5 crossover at the Dubai Motor Show in November. We've already seen what it'll look like - from a couple of angles, anyway - but the all-American luxury automaker has given us another taste of what's to come with a quartet of images released on its official Facebook page. Set to replace the SRX that's now six years old, the all-new XT5 adopts the new design language we've seen on newer Cadillacs of late. That's most particularly emphasized with those vertically integrated LED headlights. The sharply creased styling is also signature Cadillac, as is the egg-crate grille capped by the brand's wreath-less new emblem. The dark brown paint job also looks like it has a deep metallic flake to it, offset by satin brightwork where you might have once expected to see glinting chrome. (Then again, it could just be reflecting a uniform backdrop.) The XT5 is expected to be the first of several new Caddy crossovers to wear the letters XT. A smaller model (likely to be dubbed XT3) is tipped to slot in below, with a larger XT7 to slot in above – but still below the defiantly truck-based Escalade that's not about to go anywhere anytime soon. Sedans will continue to start their nameplates with the letters CT. But after a dozen years, the letters SRX will be retired from the Cadillac lexicon. Related Video:

2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe

Cadillac has become a very, very different company since the dawn of the new millenium. Its turn-of-the-century lineup, consisting of staid offerings like the Seville, DeVille and Eldorado, represented the Old Cadillac. These cars were plagued with Old GM quality issues and catered to a more elderly audience. Since the company's Art and Science design language arrived, though, we've seen Cadillac flesh out its lineup in a big way, introducing notable and (so far) enduring products, like the the CTS, SRX and most recently, the ATS.
With the CTS tackling the 5 Series segment and the SRX duking it out with the Lexus RX and its classmates, the ATS has been left with the tough task of battling the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, among others. Critically, at least, it has excelled in this role, but it's still working on finding its feet sales-wise. On paper, broadening the model range by adding a two-door personal luxury coupe could help.
After a week with the ATS Coupe, though, we've found a car that, while retaining the standard model's excellent driving character, doesn't quite offer enough visual excitement to stand up to other cars in its segment.