Rare Last Year Made 1992 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D'elegance on 2040-cars

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Weekly Recap: GM scales back as Russian auto market teeters

General Motors' extensive plans to scale back its Russian operations are the latest sign the automotive market in the former superpower is collapsing – and there are few signs of recovery. GM said Wednesday it will stop selling mainstream Chevrolets and shutter the entire Opel brand in Russia. The moves leave GM with a luxury-focused presence consisting of Cadillac and Chevrolet's Corvette, Camaro and Tahoe. The cutbacks will be completed by the end of the year. The automaker will also idle its factory in St. Petersburg and end a contract-assembly agreement with Russian manufacturer GAZ. "We had to take decisive action in Russia to protect our business," Opel Group CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann said in a statement. "We confirm our outlook to return the European business to profitability in 2016 and stick to our long-term goals." GM is the latest automaker to scale back in Russia as the economic conditions, volatile currency and uncertainty over the conflict in the Ukraine all have sandbagged new car sales. Last month, vehicle sales collapsed 38 percent in Russia to 128,298 units, according to the Association of European Business, which records sales. Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the AEB automobile manufacturers committee, didn't even feign optimism in a statement announcing the figures. "The market is entering a very difficult phase now, and February is only the beginning," he said. "Industry sentiment is the next few months will be extremely difficult and the market bottom has yet to be found." The dovetails with industry experts, who predict the Russian auto sector will remain in the doldrums. IHS said earlier this year it expects Russia's sales to slip to just 1.8 million units in 2015, which is a 40-percent drop from 2012. Other News & Notes Chief leads Jeep's Easter Safari stable Jeep is bringing seven attention-getting concepts to Moab for its annual Easter Safari off-roading celebration in Utah, but the Chief is perhaps the standout of the group. It salutes the 1970s Cherokee with a throwback appearance and surfer styling cues. The Chief has a custom modified razor grille made famous by the Wagoneer, and it rolls on 17-inch slotted mag wheels. The surf theme comes in with ocean blue paint, floral cloth and leather seats and a tiki-style shifter handle. Based on the Jeep Wrangler, the Chief has removable sides, a 3.6-liter V6 engine and a six-speed manual gearbox.

2015 Cadillac Escalade configurator lets you bling it your way

It's Friday, so there must be a new configurator to play with. While last week we showed you how to build your own McLaren 650S, today's ride is a bit more common. It's the 2015 Cadillac Escalade, a vehicle that you've been able to colorize since the end of last year, and which is sure to be an increasingly common sight on US roads in the coming months.
For those that have played with the build-your-Caddy tool, there's not much new here, aside from the vehicle being configured. The Escalade is available in three trims and two wheelbases, with prices spanning from the SWB, two-wheel-drive Standard, which starts at $72,690, on to the all-wheel-drive, long-wheelbase ESV Premium, which kicks off at $86,790. The options list, meanwhile, isn't hugely extensive. A rear-seat entertainment system and power-retractable side-steps (only available on the Premium trim) are the two notable options, while customers will have their choice of six exterior paints and two to three interior schemes, depending on the trim level.
Hop on over to Cadillac's consumer page and take a look.

This 1969 Ford F-100 has a Cadillac CTS-V engine lurking underhood

Something always feels just a little taboo when someone builds a custom and then slots in a powertrain from a rival automaker. That's exactly the case with this modded 1969 Ford F-100 boasting a highly tuned LSA supercharged V8 like from the second-gen Cadillac CTS-V. However, with a claimed 800 horsepower on tap thanks in part to running an estimated 20 pounds of boost, it's easy to get over any bad feelings. Built by Tommy Pike Customs in South Carolina, the truck tries to keep the exterior looking somewhat stock. Although, the jade green and satin gold paint, Quaker State logo, lowered suspension and black wheels immediately suggest something is up. Once the F-100 starts up with its menacing growl, absolutely any doubts of this beast being unaltered are immediately gone. Not so obvious are some tweaks to actually help put all that power down, including disc brakes and independent suspension setups at the front and rear. The video gives some glimpses at a few of Pike's other creations, but the real star here is definitely his mean, green Ford.