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Saw a new '19 GMC Sierra Denali for the first time today. Was backed into a parking space, next to a previous generation Sierra Denali. The new one looks taller and bigger...the giant chromey grille looks gianter and chromeier. Everything about it shouts 'moar' 'moar' moar'!

Quite frankly I’ve seen some bonehead moves in the auto industry over the last 35 years.. but this one might just take the cake. I’m not gonna speak on crazy comebacks that didn’t get enough attention and they crashed and burned like the Oldsmobile debacle.. and how GM was gonna rename the company Aurora.. put out class leading cars like the Aurora, Intrigue and Alero.. then killed the division. We won’t talk about the super cool Trofeo Toronada.. or the bend to tree-huggers with killing Hummer instead of simply merging it with GMC. Naaaah.. I’m not gonna bring up the fact that they killed the unanimously voted best sports sedan Chevy SS.. but instead of saying “hey We have this great new platform for mid and fullsize vehicle in Alpha and Omega.. we could merge the almost as great Impala with this vehicle.. give it AWD options and engines from 4-8 cyclinders and absolutely STAB the market.” Hell they could have even went the opposite way and simply given the Impala all the options of the XTS from start, and detuned the engine for argument sake. I won’t even whisper about the fact that they had all of us luxury shoppers wishing and waiting for a full size RWD/AWD Cadillac that absolutely made us proud.. gave us one.. then turned around and gave it a super V8 engine as we had begged them for.. and hen they killed it!!! OH Wait.. That’s exactly what I’m gonna talk about. This morning I took my 2016 CTS-V to the dealership for a simple Recall procedure. No parts were exchanged, just a reprogram I’m told. The recall was for the steering module. All in all I dropped it off at 9am and they called me at 12p to let me know that it was complete. Of course I wasn’t able, nor willing to go back there to pick up my beautiful Rose. I had meeting all day, not to mention they loaned me a pristine, well equipped Black Raven 2018 CT6 Premium Luxury with Super-Cruise and a 3.6L V6. The Drive: I have driven the CT6 before, but not once had I ever driven a 3.6L for anything other than a quick test drive. The engine I’m most familiar with is the 3.0lTT, which was not on the menu today. I do have to say that if I were in charge of Cadillac’s engine choices, the 3.6L would not be in any of their cars. I say this for superficial reasons only. As a way of differentiation... I believe that Cadillac should only have forced induction offering. What that means is that in a CT6, a car coming in with a 122.4 inch Wheelbase, 204 inches long and curb weight varying from 3700-4400lbs, a 3.0LTTV6 (404HP) would be the base, and the upcoming two iterations of the 4.2L TTV8 would be its mid (500HP) and top (550HP) engine choices. All that being said.. the 3.6L actually moves this vehicle around quite well with a mere 335HP. I mean really well. That’s coming from a guy who dropped off a 650HP mid-sizer before hopping in this humongous automobile. And speaking of which. Driving the CT6 even with just 335HP, and all that length, I never felt as though I were driving a big car. Take a drive in an LS460, S-Class, 7series, or fat ass Audi A8.. U actually feel like U are driving a big car. No the case with the CT6. I almost felt like I was still maneuvering my CTS, a car that is almost 8 inches shorter. Super-Cruise: Wow. Check out my video. This is something else. I will say that GM lawyers were definitely consulted on this, but even with their certain input, the tech really works.

That (the HD) is NOT attractive. I don't even know WHAT it is. However, that side bed step is genius!

Its interesting, but perhaps premature, to see journalistic sources continue to zip tie electrics and autonomous vehicles together, when 1. they really don't have anything to do with each other technologically, and 2. at least EVs are real and finding a few buyers. The autonomous thing is still a pipe dream WRT building a whole different type of car from a manufacturing standpoint. True AD vehicles are going to trail EVs by decades. There's plenty of time.

I probably can't even see over the bedrail on that HD; I already know I can barely touch the bedfloor on the 1500 4WD.

Hail Canada, a Land we export weed too!

They did a better job w/ the 4500 HD front end. It looks like a regular Chevy truck front, scaled up without the new weirdness..

The other problem with the lack of affordable small cars is that this part of the market is owned by Toyota, Honda and Hyundai/KIA. Should GM and Ford do better? Yes, but those sales are not what they were five or ten years ago. A Volt CUV would be fantastic though.

There is nothing technologically remarkable about the drive part of the Volt's powertrain, it's all in the batteries. A Niro PHEV is $28.2k base and $36k absolutely loaded. It should be the template for a Volt crossover. The Volt would be a bit more expensive than the Niro though as it has more batteries and range.

Volt powertrain and affordable haven't gone hand-in-hand yet. I don't see it coming too soon.

I really hope the CT6 hangs around as the V edition is just drop dead sexy! The interior is just awesome! Love me this Brown interior!

D-Ham actually did pretty good with the Volt. So I doubt it is about the EVs.... It’s simply about one thing-money. GM has had plans to more robots in the plants to build these new cars/trucks. A new Sonata Is built with a quarter of line workers GM uses. Also with EVs, for example, less stuff is assembled as whole pieces or units are brought in from the outside. Simply based on what I have seen from the Volt- you need like half the workers... Father time has finally caught up with the assemby process-even the CHinese can build stuff with way less people.....

The check engine light for the economy just came on. We've had a volitile market this year to be sure but today a bad signal just showed up that makes today's stock market plunge different from the others in 2018. The Treasury yield curve inversion has predicted nearly all of the prior economic recessions. It appeared today. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-funds-doubleline-idUSKBN1O3244

The flip side is that increased stock valuation gives that company more capital to develop excellent out front product. Where would Tesla's products be if the stock was valued all along like it should be, via the fundamentals; below that of Ford?

IF it's bolted in, sure, I can remove it. But I guarantee it'll be spot-welded in place. I need to go into the dealership and see if I can get inside one of these buggies.

Not true. The domestics did build compacts and subcompacts. They just never put the effort into them that Japan Inc and Korea Inc did for one simple reason: in the 1970s small cars are mostly what they built domestically and then they exported small cars to the USA. Corolla and Civic and the Mazda 3 and the Sentra and the small Hyundai/KIA cars ARE their bread and butter. That has not been true of the domestics since the 1920s. The domestics want you to buy large sedans and pickup trucks for the high margins. This is why the domestics MAY have a bleak future: GM and Ford and FCA want margins and not necessarily small car buyers since those buyers do not fill the coffers anywhere nearly as well as BOF trucks and midsize CUVs (and at one time, large sedans). Worse yet, it has not been proven that a Cruze driver buys an Impala or Traverse in 5-7 years. So the domestics say: why bother?

Split grille.. what's not to love.. YES!!! Finally.. someone came out with a truck, that actually looks like its ready to do some fukking work. I've been saying it for a while.. what the deal with these pick-ups looking like they are trying to be something other than trucks. Is is BOLD??? BOLD is an understatement.

They should put the V8 in the CT4-V. No holding back, if you have it, then use it. GM should also make an inline six and kill all these V6's because any over 300 hp vehicle should be sending power to the rear wheels, and any sedan or crossover at Buick or Chevy can use a 4-cylinder/turbo/electric combo powertrain like Volvo does on their line, so no need for a transverse V6. Also XT5 and XT6 should switch to Omega and get the V8. This is the V8's last hurrah before electric takes over, I say V8 all things.

That's one of the features that once you think about it, you wonder why it isn't on full sizers all ready... I do wonder what the 'all-new gasoline engine with direct injection' will be..

I absolutely agree! That's about the only thing that I love about this truck as of now. The gasoline V8 and 10spd for the Duramax are both intriguing though.

Agree on that front.... And rocking like an out of balance washing machine on spin cycle....

How many states have legalized weed and do you live in one of them?

Good thing the Trax is such a looker.

Not really, no. The batteries can be increased or decreased in size as much as cost and space allow. Chevy could drop the price of the Volt by making a LowVolt version with half the battery. It would probably take $5k off the price in exchange for a 25+ mile EV range instead of a 50+ mile one. That would put it pretty much in line with the Pruis Prime in both range and cost.

The CT4 and CT5 are coming. I would expect the 3.0TT to show up in those. Or maybe still the 3.6TT for V-series and V-Sports.

Fully autonomous is still a decade away from the mainstream, but semi-autonomous or "highway only" autonomous? That'll be mainstream a lot faster than you think. Cadillac's SuperCruise is already that fantastic. Of the around 350 miles from my place to a destination in NY, the CT6 drove most of it and I only had to pilot it myself for about 30 of those miles.

A Volt SUV would be $40k base, look at what other SUV’s cost. Most car makers don’t care about the entry level, they want to sell high margin SUV’s only. Then they can cut the workforce that builds the cheap cars and save even more money.

It's called the Kia Niro...

I expect a Volt Powertrain CUV to show up this year and then as they build, expand to other auto's while lower cost. I can honestly say I just do not understand how GM has not had a subcompact and compact plugin hybrid using this powertrain yet. Truly losing sales to Toyota.

I am wondering if we will see new affordable CUVs in the subcompact segment from GM that are VOLT powertrain or EVs. I want to believe that GM is not going to truly abandon people looking for that 15-25K dollar auto.

I mean what the heck...

They know their market and are focused on it. Which is why I am not worried about the Impala, Focus, Fusion and cruze going away. If Subaru had to worry about the company surviving off of the Legacy....they would be a Legacy company....pun intended. Fewer platforms but better vehicles is the way to go IMHO.

China is actually getting much better in some ways with innovation than we are, which is rather frightening. I don't think Sherrod Borwn, D-Ohio Senate, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio Senate, will save Lordstown with there meeting with Ms Barra. To me, public perception of GM still lags the quality of product, which is going to e the over riding Meta issue here.

I wonder if GM hired some former Ford designers? It reminds me of the garbage front ends they had on the E-series vans over the last decade or so...putting the headlight clusters vertically below the parking lights is never a good look.

So if the new Silverado isn't ugly enough, they are trying to one-up themselves with the new Heavy Duty version...one ugly ass mofo.

I also saw a new Sierra a week ago or so, a Denali but it was a kinda icky beige color. Looked great tho. Stopped at my Chevy dealer yesterday- saw they had 2 more '19 SIlverado LTs (still hiding them on the back lot) so I had to fog the windows a bit. Nice dark blue and the Canjun Red, both 5.3L/8-spds. 49K and 55K. Both had the $900 'Safety Package', which I wouldn't want, and the blue job was on 18s... I think these need the 20s to fill the wheelwells better. I occurred to me that it's possible I could move to a double cab/6.5' bed... just not sure yet. Don't know if I would regret a (crew)/5.5-bed- it's so small.

Obviously I feel the same. Thing is that despite its death, the car is slated to have enuff inventory to go into 2020. I would propose that Cadillac kill all the lower models and only have the mid to platinum models. And for all Cadillacs.. Be done with that rubberized steering wheel cover. Go with the one I have in my V, covered in leather.

I have to say while I am not into large cars but CT6 looks awesome. It is a real shame GM is killing it.

This on top of animals crossing the road....

Hello just think of how messy Sleet is, freezing rain, what ever you want to call it. Weather is another game all together.

Stumbled over this building- Brookhaven Miss. How cool, esp that slightly curved 'porch wall' under the overhang. I would love to have a derelict commercial building like this.

China sold 770K EVs in 2017, not "millions". But that market is also 70% comprised of smaller than 1.6 liter cars. It's not comparable to the USDM, where we're struggling to move 200K EVs and have loads of 6 and 8 cylinder vehicles. China is not a template that fits the USDM. Mercedes has pushed numerous hybrid cars that have done poorly among other hybrid cars. I have not seen any evidence their next attempt with EVs is going to do much better, but we'll see. They are playing catch up, and have been showing steady slipping sales; perhaps buyers in those price tiers are growing tired of mercedes.

With their AWD wagon and CUV lineup, they really fit the market today well...

Yup except my appliance at least has a stick shift.

Drove a customer's 2018 Equinox LT AWD 1.5t today, around the block. I am not missing anything.

They make a Navigator for people like you... and an MKC for people like @ocnblu

So Motor Trend is saying the gasoline engine may be a Navistar 6.6 V8 from MD Trucks.

WOW, such small minded narrow thinking, keep things static, socialist, live in the past. That video is so full of crap. Too funny that they talk about how great blah appliances from Honda are and they call consumers dumb, your an idiot, go buy something else. This ignorance shows of these two morons that say nothing has ever changed at GM and they are burning Taxpayers money in continuing to waste on idiot pipe dreams that have no use or place is just amazing. People who clearly have no desire to learn and grow to be better. They sound like seniors that just want to hear themselves and keep things static. Idiots ?