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2021 Cadillac Escalade vs. 2020 Lincoln Navigator | How they compare on paper

The 2021 Cadillac Escalade arrived late last night, and we all know what that means: It’s comparison time. Specifically, weÂ’re pitting the new Escalade versus the 2020 Lincoln Navigator. The sales gap between the long-time competitors has grown dangerously close for Cadillac ever since the revolutionary new Navigator came out for the 2018 model year. In 2019, the Navigator was only about 4,000 units down from the Escalade. Cadillac intends to widen that gap back up with a new truck, and now itÂ’s time to see if itÂ’s brought the right goods to the party. With the redesigned model that now features an independent rear suspension, these two are more alike than theyÂ’ve been in a long time. The Escalade was stuck with the less space-efficient solid rear end up until now, as GM hadnÂ’t yet made the switch to IRS that Ford long-ago did. Now that it has, these two are super similar from a dimensions perspective. Cadillac was playing catch-up in this fight, so it knew exactly where it needed to aim to come out victorious in a specs battle such as this one. A quick note on the chart below. Both of these models have a “regular” and “long” version. The EscaladeÂ’s long variant is still named ESV, and the NavigatorÂ’s long version is simply named L. In the dimensions section, we distinguish between the two with a “/” — the “regular” length version is on the left, and the “long” version is on the right side of the slash. The numbers are below: Powertrain The Lincoln Navigator still reigns supreme when it comes to power, as the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 is high on both horsepower and torque. GMÂ’s small-block V8 comes close, but ultimately falls short by 30 horsepower and 50 pound-feet of torque to the twin-turbo V6. Cadillac does have an ace up its sleeve, though. It comes in the form of the 3.0-liter turbo-diesel inline-six engine. Lincoln hasnÂ’t dropped the PowerStroke diesel into the Navigator (and we'd be shocked if it does), so Cadillac has a unique offering in this segment now. The diesel will be optional on the Escalade, but it has less horsepower and the same amount of torque as the V8. We expect the big advantage for the diesel will come in fuel economy, an area where the Silverado Duramax diesel currently outpaces the full-size truck competition. Both of these big SUVs come standard with 10-speed automatic transmissions. Intriguingly, itÂ’s the 10-speed automatic that was co-developed between Ford and GM.

Ford defends plan to shareholders: ‘We're simply reinventing the American car’

Ford's top executives took heat from shareholders over their plan to do away with sedans as we know them in Ford's North American lineup, as the company held its annual meeting Thursday. Critics said the plan to shelve the Fiesta, Focus and Taurus, reduce the Focus to one crossover model, and concentrate on high-margin trucks and SUVs was a shortsighted abandonment of entire market segments of affordable vehicles. "This doesn't mean we intend to lose those customers," Ford CEO Jim Hackett said. "We want to give them what they're telling us they really want. We're simply reinventing the American car." Ford has said SUVs/crossovers and pickups will constitute 90 percent of its North American lineup by 2020. And though only the Mustang and new Focus Active will remain, it plans to add new vehicles going forward that offer better fuel economy and utility, including EVs and hybrids. Hackett characterized the shift not as an abandonment of traditional cars but as a transformation of them. "We don't want anyone to think we're leaving anything," Hackett said. "We're just moving to a modern version. This is an exciting new generation of vehicles coming from Ford." It was Hackett's first annual meeting as CEO, and for the second year it was conducted online rather than in person. The change to Ford's lineup is part of Hackett's overall plan to cut $25.2 billion in costs by the year 2022. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. blamed the negative reaction to the lineup plan on media coverage. "I wish the coverage had been a little different," he said. "If you got beyond the headline, you'll see we're adding to our product lineup and by 2020 we'll have the freshest showroom in the industry. The headlines look like Ford's retreating. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth." While Ford was clear about its plans for the Blue Oval, it has been less clear about the Lincoln brand. Hackett on Thursday said only that the Lincoln Continental, re-introduced just two years ago, would continue "through its life cycle" — but it has been such a slow seller that rumor has Ford killing the Continental again after that, and Hackett made no mention of a new generation. Presumably the MKZ sedan will go away when its twin the Ford Fusion does, but although Ford has outlined end dates for other models, the Fusion's departure is open-ended. The stock price has been a frustration for investors for years and has fallen 12 percent since the first of the year.

May 2016: FCA wins, Ford and GM stumble on weak car volumes

The May 2016 sales numbers are in, and it looks as though FCA is getting some vindication for boldly cancelling two slow-selling car models. Meanwhile, Ford saw overall sales dip and GM's May volume took a big dive versus the same month in 2015. While Marchionne's decision to axe the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart has drawn criticism as being short-sighted, it's working for FCA so far. Although the Dart and 200 aren't out of production yet and no capacity has been shifted to crossover or trucks, May's numbers show that the emphasis on Jeep and Ram models makes sense right now. FCA's US sales rose 1 percent last month compared to May 2015, putting the year-to-date total at 955,186 vehicles, an increase of 6 percent compared to the same period last year. Standouts included the Jeep Renegade, Compass, and Patriot, and the Fiat 500X. Ram pickup sales were down 3 percent. And your fun fact is that Alfa Romeo sales were up precisely 10 percent, for a total of 44 4Cs sold versus 40 in the same month last year. At FoMoCo, the Ford brand took a hit to the tune of 6.4 percent from May 2015 to 2016, registering 226,190 sales last month. Lincoln showed improvement on its modest numbers, going from 9,174 to 9,807, a 6.9 percent increase. Overall, Ford was down 5.9 percent for the month to 235,997; despite the slump, year-to-date total Ford sales are up 4.2 percent to 1,112,939. Strong sellers included Escape, Expedition, F-Series, and Transit - big stuff. Most small and/or efficient models (Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, C-Max) saw sales slides. Fusion sales were also down, likely due to effects of model changeover to the freshened 2017 model. Ford has promised four new crossovers and SUVs by 2020 and if things keep trending this way the company will be able to sell them, but things could change in the next four years. GM saw the worst of it for domestic brands. Retail and fleet sales were down for each of the four divisions, with the May 2016 total dropping 18 percent to 240,450 vehicles. GM's year-to-date sales are down 5.0 percent in 2016 to 1,183,705. Both the Sierra and Silverado were down significantly, and the majority of Chevy, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac nameplates saw sales decreases, with both small cars and larger utilities included. Not even big stuff could help GM this month, it seems. We'll have more on the rest of the industry's May sales as those figures trickle in.