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Cadillac Offering $100 For Test Drives

The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Cadillac is hoping to jumpstart sluggish sales with a generous offer to customers to get them into dealerships and perhaps behind the wheel of their very own Caddy. Cadillac is giving a $100 gift card to any insured car owners age 21 or older who drive non-GM vehicles built after 2004, WDIV reported. If you buy a Cadillac, the automaker is offering an additional $1,500 plus other incentives. Such sales promotions have worked well in the past, analysts told The Detroit News. Cadillac had strong sales last year, but sales are down 7.3 percent this quarter compared to the first quarter last year. Cadillac will run the promotion until the end of the month. Related Gallery AOL Autos Test Drive: 2014 Cadillac ELR Cadillac Car Buying Car Dealers

Cadillac is bringing a new concept to Pebble Beach

Cadillac will debut a new concept Thursday in Monterey. The company also released teaser video, but it only shows us a few glimpses of interior parts and a concept drawing that seems to show a very minimalistic dashboard. The big draw appears to be the large screen filling in for instruments and infotainment. According to Cadillac, the screens are curved OLED panels co-developed with LG, and the technology behind them will appear in a future Cadillac. Bringing a new concept to the famous Monterey Car Week is a return to form for Cadillac. In past years the company brought beautiful concepts like the full-size, four-door Ciel convertible, and the taught, athletic Elmiraj coupe. The latter of these showcased designed cues that trickled into production Cadillacs. No word (or pictures) on the exterior yet. We'll be sure to have complete coverage of the concept later this week. Related Video: Image Credit: Cadillac Cadillac Concept Cars Videos Pebble Beach

Luxury car brands scrambling to avoid a blue Christmas

DETROIT — When financial markets surge to new records, sales of luxury cars usually rise, too. Instead, October U.S. auto sales reports on Wednesday showed that a collapse in sales of luxury sedans is accelerating. Consumers have gradually shifted over to luxury sport utility vehicles from sedans in the past decade, but the trend — which has occurred in both the non-luxury and luxury sedan segments of the auto market — was particularly pronounced in October. Sales of Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz S-Class, long a global benchmark for large, premium sedans, plunged 49 percent in October, and are down 24.8 percent for the year to date. General Motors' Cadillac brand said it sold just 779 of its CTS sedans in October. Demand for that car, designed to compete with German luxury sedans, is down nearly 33 percent for the year. "There's still a significant portion of the market that wants a car, but I'm sure there were people who preferred a horse to a car at one point." Cadillac's best-selling model this year is the XT5 compact SUV, which has more than doubled sales from a year ago. The shift within the luxury vehicle market away from sedans toward SUVs of all sizes is forcing some of the most prestigious brands to scramble to add SUV models to their lineups or boost SUV production to meet demand. "In the short term, there will be pressure to add (consumer) incentives, cut production or both," said Cox Automotive analyst Michelle Krebs. "And we just don't see an end in sight to this trend." The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading at all-time highs, usually a good sign for luxury sedans, but as major automakers reported new U.S. vehicle sales for October on Wednesday, sales for passenger cars continued their slide while luxury SUV and crossover sales rose again. According to Kelley Blue Book data, in 2007 luxury sedans made up 7.6 percent of U.S. new vehicle sales, while luxury SUVs made up 4.2 percent. Through September this year, luxury SUVs made up just over 7 percent of the market, compared with 4.9 percent for luxury sedans. In the short term, luxury brands could use holiday season sales promotions to clear slow-selling sedans off dealer lots, analysts said. Toyota's Lexus brand said on Wednesday it will launch its "December to Remember" year-end sales promotion for the 18th straight year.