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Cool car technology is cool until it breaks

Ah, technology – the beautiful date that impresses all your friends but costs you a fortune to keep happy, up-to-date, and working. Automotive News puts some numbers to the economic toll we're paying to jockey this technological Trojan horse, an analysis it sums up with "Technology is great - until you have to replace it." Back in 2000, for instance, you could replace a Cadillac Escalade taillight lens for $56.08, or replace the entire unit for $220.49. Crack the rear lens on your 2015 Escalade and you have to buy a new unit for $795 - there's no such thing as just replacing a lens anymore. What about headlights? It was $210 for an Escalade headlight in 2000, it's $1,650 for the current unit (pictured). This is nothing we didn't know, these are just hard numbers to demonstrate it. Edmunds recently provided the same with its sledgehammer-bashing of the 2015 Ford F-150, Tesla Model S buyers have been shrieking about repair costs to their electric sedan's all-aluminum bodywork, and used-car sites are full of articles about which expensive-to-repair features to steer clear of if you want to avoid big repair bills. Those expensive bits increase the price of a car - Kelley Blue Book says the average price of a car is now more than $33,000 - and that raises rates for repairs and insurance. This comes in spite of some carmakers that have been collaborating with insurance companies and repair shops at the design stage in order to engineer parts that are easier and less expensive to replace. But the tech can have its cost-saving benefits: a 2011 study by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that Volvos fitted with that company's City Safety feature "filed 27 percent fewer property-damage liability claims" than luxury SUVs without it, and just last month the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety called adaptive headlights one of the top four crash-preventing technologies on cars today (after coming out against them in 2006). So yes, the technology costs a mint when it needs to be fixed - but being able to avoid an accident in the first place might make it worth it. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Copyright 2015 AOL Cadillac Car Buying Used Car Buying Auto Repair Insurance Maintenance Safety Technology Luxury replacement parts

Cadillac CTS Vsport laps the N"urburgring in 8:14.10 [w/video]

You don't have to be German to test your car at the Nürburging. You just have to be serious about beating the Germans on their own home turf. That's why Nissan tests its GT-R at the Nordschleife to challenge the Porsche 911, and why Cadillac - which is no less serious about putting up a fight to German performance sedans - has returned to the 'Ring once again with its latest.
This time it's the turn of the new CTS Vsport, the sportier version of Cadillac's new mid-range sedan that aims to bridge the gap until the arrival of the next CTS-V. So how'd it fare? At the end of what we're sure was an exhaustive test session, the new CTS Vsport clocked a time of 8:14.10.
To put that into context, General Motors points out that the time places the new sedan six seconds ahead of the first-gen CTS-V, whose 400-horsepower V8 engine was actually less potent than the Vsport's new 410hp 3.6-liter twin-turbo V6. That's still a good fifteen seconds slower than the outgoing CTS-V that clocked a 7:59 in 2009 with its 556hp supercharged V8, but only a second behind the E60-generation BMW M5 with its high-revving 500hp V10.

Meet the next president's new Beast, a giant bomb-proof limo

We don't know who will be our president in 2017, but now we have a better idea of how that person will be transported on land. The next presidential limo, officially referred to as the presidential state car, will be another Cadillac. And a big one. You're looking at a lone spy photo of a car that will be of high interest to actual spies – not to mention Secret Service agents and lots of law-enforcement types. President Obama has been riding around in a Cadillac nicknamed The Beast for a while now. (It recently made an appearance on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.) Over the Secret Service radios, it goes by Cadillac One and Limo One. While the current car looks like a stretched Cadillac DTS sedan, it's actually kind of huge and built on a Chevrolet Kodiak medium-duty truck chassis. The same is likely to be true again, but this one will look a lot more like the latest Cadillac models. Through the camo we can see a front end reminiscent of the new CT6 large sedan. Imagine one of those scaled to about 5/3 of the production car and you've got the right idea. Fun fact: It will be the first presidential limo to feature Caddy's new wreathless crest logo on its grille. View 6 Photos As for features, we're in the dark and will remain so even after the new president-mover goes into service. The details are a legitimate matter of national security, but you can bet it's bulletproof, can withstand small bombs, and has some kind of onboard secondary air supply in case of a chemical or biomedical warfare attack. Oh, and it has that big red phone in back in the event things get really bad. The new one will no doubt carry the latest communications and safety technology. The new presidential limousine has been in the works for some time. The government sent out a request for proposals in 2013, and this model is expected to go into service sometime in 2017. Chances are it will make its debut at the inauguration of [INSERT CONTROVERSIAL NAME HERE] in about a year's time. Related Video: