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GM puts e-commerce shopping in car dashboards

DETROIT — General Motors on Tuesday said it will equip newer cars with in-dash e-commerce technology, betting it can profit as drivers order food, find fuel or reserve hotel rooms by tapping icons on the dashboard screen, instead of using smartphones while driving. GM's Marketplace technology, developed with IBM, will be uploaded automatically to about 1.9 million model-year 2017 and later vehicles starting immediately, with about 4 million vehicles across the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands equipped with the capability in the United States by the end of 2018, GM said. GM will get an undisclosed amount of revenue from merchants featured on its in-dash Marketplace, Santiago Chamorro, GM vice president for global connected customer experience, said during a briefing for reporters. Customers will not be charged for using the service or the data transmitted to and from the car while making transactions, he said. "This platform is financed by the merchants," Chamorro said. GM will get paid for placing a merchant's application on its screens, and "there's some level of revenue sharing" based on each transaction, he said. It is too soon to say how much revenue GM could realize from the Marketplace system, he said. The GM Marketplace will compete for customer clicks and revenue with hand-held smartphones, which offer a far richer array of applications than the GM system will at the outset. Amazon.com is partnering with other automakers, including Ford, to offer in-car e-commerce capability through Amazon's Alexa personal assistant system. For example, GM will launch Marketplace with just Shell and Exxon Mobil icons in the fuel category. The only restaurant available for in-car table reservations at launch is the chain TGI Fridays, GM said. In addition, there will be apps for parking, and ordering ahead at coffee shops and restaurants such as Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and Applebee's. "We will be adding more vendors," with some coming in the first quarter of 2018, Chamorro said. In addition, he said GM plans to expand integration into its vehicles of music, news and other information services. GM also hopes to use its in-car Marketplace connections to expand purchases of products and services, such as additional access to in-car wifi, from its own replacement parts business and dealer network. Customers can "expect to see more service promotions coming through the platform," Chamorro said. Reporting by Joe WhiteRelated Video:

Cadillac XT4 crossover to be built in Kansas City

Cadillac's upcoming XT4, a crossover we've previously known as the XT3 in a long series of spy shots of heavily camouflaged mules, will be built at General Motors' assembly plant in Kansas City on the same platform as the Chevrolet Malibu, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the plan. That will give Cadillac another entry in the red-hot luxury crossover segment and, GM hopes, help to reverse a sales slump in the U.S. It'll also breath life into the Kansas City plant that makes the slow-selling Malibu, where GM cut a third shift last year, by sharing the assembly line between the crossover and sedan and defraying costs for each vehicle. The XT4 was known most recently as the XT3, with styling cues based on the Escala concept sedan from 2016. It's slightly smaller than the XT5, Cadillac's top-selling vehicle, and will also augment the full-size Escalade in Cadillac's stable of SUVs when it makes its expected debut later this year. Cadillac last week reported its second-highest-ever sales mark with 356,467 vehicles, an increase of 15.5 percent over 2016. But that mark papers over an 8 percent sales decline in the U.S. to 156,440 vehicles. The luxury brand is on a hot streak in China, where sales jumped 50.8 percent last year to 175,489 units.Related Video: Image Credit: Brian Williams Plants/Manufacturing Cadillac Chevrolet GM Crossover sales cadillac xt5 cadillac xt4 cadillac xt3

Cadillac CT5 vs. BMW 3 Series | How they compare on paper

Cadillac just introduced the CT5 sedan at the 2019 New York Auto Show, and it's set to replace both the larger CTS and smaller ATS in the brand's lineup. We have all the details and features for you, in addition to a deep dive with the car's chief engineer, but now it's time to see how it stacks up to the long-time standard bearer in this class: the BMW 3 Series. Now, the car is a bit larger than the completely new 2019 3 Series, but Cadillac says the 3 and the rest of the compact luxury sedan class is its target for this car. We'll dive further into this little conundrum later. This comparison will look at how these vehicles measure up on paper, as we haven't driven the CT5 yet. That will come later, but we're expecting it to be a proper sport sedan competitor with the 3 Series, since Cadillac is building it off GM's dynamically superb Alpha platform. Now let's get on with the comparison. Powertrains and performance Both of these sedans come standard with 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engines. The BMW four-pot is a bit more potent, coming in with 18 more horsepower and 37 pound-feet of torque more than the Cadillac. Here's our driving review of the BMW. The only upgrade engine for both available initially are turbocharged six-cylinders. BMW offers up its revised inline-six, while Cadillac offers a V6. These six-cylinders are both 3.0 liters. Cadillac bests the BMW in brute torque by 31 pound-feet, but BMW takes the horsepower prize, making 47 more ponies. It's hard to say which car will actually be faster to 60 mph — they'll probably end up being about the same once official numbers are out. This segment used to be one guaranteed to offer a manual transmission, but that's not the case anymore. Neither Cadillac nor BMW will offer a manual to start, but expect to see the stick shift return to higher performance models of each car. For now, they both get torque-converter-style automatic transmissions. One dimension that isn't going away from either anytime soon is rear-wheel drive. Both cars offer rear-wheel and all-wheel drive in every spec available. Fuel economy for the 3 Series is impressive at 30 mpg combined with the four-cylinder. We'll have to wait and see if Cadillac can challenge that figure with its less powerful engine. Size and practicality Here's where a lot of the confusion about the Cadillac CT5 sets in. The CT5 is a tad larger than the 3 Series in its exterior dimensions, but the interior specs are nearly identical.