2006 Cadillac Escalade on 2040-cars

Auto blog

BMW reclaims US luxury sales crown from Mercedes

The numbers, they are in: BMW has reclaimed the luxury-sales crown from Mercedes by a margin of 9,347 cars. Mercedes donned the king's headgear in 2013 after a strong final quarter of 2013 when the new CLA and S-Class poured out of dealerships. This year, led by the 3 Series/4 Series and X5, BMW sold 339,738 units – a 9.8-percent increase year-on-year. Mercedes, led by the C-Class and M-Class, saw its sales go up by 5.7 percent to 330,391 units. We'll have to wait a bit to see if there's another registrations-vs-sales challenge as in 2012, when BMW was anointed US luxury ruler. Behind them, a dark horse named Lexus nudged closer to the leading Teutons, selling 311,389 cars. The Japanese luxury automaker also had the biggest gain among the top three, its sales rising by 13.7 percent compared to 2013. Audi had the biggest sales of anyone among the top five, though, with a 15.2-percent gain to 182,011, which moved it a spot ahead of Cadillac; the Wreath-and-Crest brand dropped 6.5 percent to 170,750. Acura (167,843), Infiniti (117,300), and Lincoln (94,474) took the final positions. Speaking of Lincoln, sales at the once-mighty luxury marque stand as the mightiest jump of any on this list, up 15.6 percent. That's the power of Matthew McConaughey... and better cars and a new crossover, sure. So now that we're back to Round One of 2015, in case no one else has said it yet: "Ok, fight!"

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.

SRX-replacing Cadillac XT5 spied for the very first time

Cadillac has got big plans in place to revitalize its lineup, with new sedans, coupes and crossovers. And it all starts with this, the replacement for the SRX.
Expected to be called XT5 in line with the brand's new naming scheme, the crossover will be based on a scalable new platform called C1XX - or Chi, for short. In its shorter form, Chi is anticipated to underpin the XT5 as well as a new Chevy crossover and the next-gen GMC Acadia. In long-wheelbase form, the platform is slated to give us a larger Cadillac crossover as well as a new Buick Enclave and Chevy Traverse.
Power in the XT5 will be provided by a choice of turbo four or atmospheric six, potentially to be transmitted through GM's new nine-speed automatic.