Cadillac to Replace DTS With XTS Model in 2012
Cadillac’s replacement for the top-level DTS sedan is to be called the XTS and will be built alongside several other GM products at the company’s Oshawa, Canada plant. Production is expected to begin in December of 2011, making the DTS a 2012 model.
The XTS will be based on the company’s Epsilon platform, which will also [...] more
Camaro Out-Sells Mustang For First Time Since 1993
Ford has had it easy in the Pony car segment ever since 2002 when Chevrolet stopped selling the Camaro, but the iconic Chevy is back and making its presence felt. For the fist time since 1993 the Camaro out-sold the Mustang for a whole month.
The numbers weren’t even close as the new Camaro sold [...] more
Filed under: Sedans/Saloons, Plants/Manufacturing, Cadillac
The days of Cadillac's big DTS sedan are numbered as the plant that builds it will soon be shut down and re-tooled. The Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant that builds the DTS and Buick Lucerne will switch over to building the Chevy Volt in 2010 and the current products are both long in the tooth.
The National Post is reporting that the new Cadillac flagship will be dubbed XTS and will be produced at the Oshawa assembly plant. It will be built alongside an updated Chevrolet Impala, the new Camaro and the Buick Regal. The DTS is a front-wheel drive car, but the XTS is expected to the share the Epsilon II platform with the Regal and the new Impala. As such, it will likely get all-wheel-drive at least as an option. For its part, the Regal will likely be a re-badged version of the Opel Insignia. The report goes on to say that Oshawa will produce a hybrid version of one of those offerings - a gas-electric Regal model is a reasonable bet.
Earlier reports had pegged the next Cadillac sedan as a model that would supplant both the DTS and the slow-selling STS, and although the NatPost article does not speak to this, it is reasonable to assume that the new XTS will result in the phase-out of both model lines. The new model line was reportedly put on hold back in August of last year, but it apparently has once again been given the go-ahead.
The XTS is scheduled to be launched in December 2011, with the new Impala coming in early 2013. Thanks to Ben for the tip!
[Source: The National Post]
Tailfin Attitude Takes on Near-Perfection
June 25, 2007
By Todd Lassa
Lexus is the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S., and the RX crossover is Lexus’ best-selling model. It’s the vehicle for everyone with money — the practical people-mover for people with a multi-car garage full of exotics; the entry-luxury model for the upper-middle-class leasing slightly beyond their means; the wheels of choice for those who were lucky enough to get a second mortgage on their McMansions before the credit market imploded. This Lexus is for old money, too, its anonymous, transportation pod styling whispering, “We’re too cool for a minivan.” Read more…
We often discuss the Toyota Prius here though the car strictly shouldn’t be compared to the Volt which is truly in another category altogether. The Prius is worth mentioning primarily because comparisons are inevitable and more more so because GM product czar Bob Lutz has openly admitted the Volt program was begun in an effort to leap-frog the Prius after it garnered significant sales and good will for Toyota.
Toyota has been working hard to ensure the Prius is not only successful, but that it cannot be copied. The company has filed for over 2000 patents on the vehicle’s technology, over half of which are found in the current third generation car.
It appears to be Toyota’s intention to make the car’s technology so compelling, insulated, and so copy-protected that other automakers have no choice but to license the technology from them rather than “grow their own” through the legal minefield of Prius patents.
“Our system is the best technology for hybrids to get the best carbon dioxide emissions and best fuel economy. [Rivals] will not be able to compete,” said Gouichiro Kuriyama, a manager in Toyota’s product planning division.
Indeed the mild Honda Insight does not compete with the Prius’ engineering design, and Ford though designing its hybrids 100% in-house has agreed to cross license certain elements with Toyota for legal protection.
Enter the Volt.
The Chevy Volt is based on an entirely different engineering architecture, operating purely on electric drive and at least 80% on electricity from the grid. There is little doubt to this writer that the many benefits of electricity as fuel and electric drive as propulsion will quickly antiquate the Prius’ hybrid system.
You can bet GM is working to protect its future in this regard as well.
“GM has been aggressive in protecting what we believe to be competitive technology of the Voltec platform as it relates to battery, engineering, and powertrain.” says GM spokesperson Rob Peterson. “The Volt’s a game changer. We’re taking all the steps necessary to protect our intellectual property rights.” He notes that not all Voltec patents GM has filed for are finalized yet, and there may be more, but like the car remain a work in progress.
So if Voltec takes off and HSD fades away GM just might find itself with the competitive advantage after all, and Lutz would have rectified a seemingly insurmountable disadvantage. We shall see.
Autoblog by Sam Abuelsamid - The new 2010 Chevy Equinox that was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show has an interesting new bit of technology that aids fuel efficiency even though most people wouldn’t think of it that way. When the engineers were working on the calibrations for the new 2.4-liter direct injected four cylinder engine, they were able to get some significant fuel economy improvements by lowering the idle speed and by lowering the speeds at which the torque converter locks up. Unfortunately, there were some downsides. The new calibrations resulted in some very annoying low frequency (33-100 Hz) noise that would be unacceptable to most customers.
In the past, the engineers might have avoided those kinds of calibrations and just taken the hit on efficiency. This time, however, they got aproval to employ active noise cancellation. A pair of microphones embedded in the headliner listen for those frequencies and then generate an opposite wave sound from the audio system speakers to cancel out the offending noise. By using this technology to offset the negative NVH effects, they were able to get a one mpg improvement in economy for the four cylinder Equinox.
Diesel's near-term prospects in America took a huge hit with the revelation that nine diesel-powered 2010 models are on hold. Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have put the kibosh on rolling out more oil burners due to cost and perception issues.
Toyota's obviously on a hybrid run and doesn't want to expel the effort or expense of investing in diesel for the American market -- and having to overcome America's dirty diesel perceptions. The others, as mass market manufacturers, simply need more justification for the cost and complexity of oilburners in order to make the case for consumers to spend more.
Additionally, diesel's benefits are weighted differently according to EPA or CAFE standards. The EPA mileage numbers present diesels well, but CAFE's differing fuel mileage equation makes gas-hybrids look better than diesels, and CAFE is something all automakers are looking at. However, you'll notice that German brands aren't mentioned -- their price premium and European diesel volumes make a worthwhile case for diesels, so those diesel Jetta Sportwagons won't be going away any time soon.
Downsizing trims the sticker, but there’s another price to pay.
BY JOHN PHILLIPS
As GM wobbled toward bankruptcy, the company’s boosters often cited Cadillac as proof that at least one division knew the secret for success. But stroll through a Cadillac showroom. The DTS isn’t even on your Uncle Marvin’s radar. The pretty but aging STS has been nudged onto the berm by at least five luxo-sports sedans, none from America. The angular XLR, a marketing spinoff from the Corvette shop, has been euthanized. There are a couple of embarrassingly immense Escalades. And then there’s the CTS—in truth, the lone vehicle that carries the division’s reputation on its back. And so it was with huge anticipation that we welcomed this all-new SRX, a crossover we’ve loved since the day it was introduced in, uh,wow, 2004.
In the Detroit Three’s universe, new models usually arrive bigger and heavier. Not this time, Cadillac promised. In fact, the SRX has been yanked from the $50K, V-8 luxo-ute niche, where it was nonetheless strong, finishing second to an Acura MDX in a C/D comparo in 2007. Problem is, the SRX now parachutes into the killer $40K-crossover class, where it faces, among other all-stars, Audi’s stunning Q5 3.2 Quattro (the winner of July’s “New Arrivals for Summer” comparo), not to mention the beyond-dominant sales king in the segment, the Lexus RX350, itself recently refurbished unto the zenith of plushness.
Keep Reading: 2010 Cadillac SRX4 - Road Test
Custom Hummer H1 on eBay Motors - Click above for image gallery
It takes a special talent to infantilize the brute strength of a Hummer H1, but someone's gone and done it with an oddly swoopy redesign. One of only two made (yes, there is another), this unique Hummer features a custom hood and front bumper, as well as a multi-section removable roof should the driver and occupants actually wish to be seen tooling around the neighborhood in this beast.
Inside, it's been all tricked out with a trifecta of television screens, ostrich leather interior, iPod-compatible entertainment system, sat-nav, back-up cameras...the works. Even the turbodiesel V8 has been tweaked and mounted with a polished aluminum snorkel, complimented by a chrome Mack truck bulldog hood ornament. Oh, and it has a $2,000 train horn, just in case someone can't see this behemoth coming from a mile away. All this can be yours for the low price of $89,900 or best offer.
I recently had the chance to tour GM’s newly opened 33,000 square foot advanced battery lab in Warren Michigan. The first video is here. This is where the Volt’s batteries are being lab tested. Other hybrid systems are being tested here as are cells from outside suppliers.
In this video we see a presentation by Dr. Ramona Ying, a GM battery lab staff researcher who has worked there since the EV-1 days.
She is showing off the cell testing side of GM’s new battery lab in Warren Michigan. Among other things displayed are two Volt LG prismatic cells in a thermal chamber.
She noted GM gets solicitations to test new cells all the time often in the wrong shape for automotive use.
GM uses a 4-phase process to evaluate cells. To date GM has evaluated 155 chemistries from 105 suppliers on paper and more than 60 actual cells from 20 suppliers. Ying acknowledges GM also tests supercapacitors.
She says that by testing 24 hours 7 days a week GM can simulate 10 years of testing in 2 years, and that the overall goal of the lab is to reduce costs for battery cars and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Cadillac to Replace DTS With XTS Model in 2012
