G. David Felt

This is EXCITEMENT! It also tells me to hold off as I will see a decent change in MPG with the 8 spd Transmission in the SUV's and trucks. Sooner rather than later would be good as would the Diesel motor for the product line of trucks and SUV's

FAILURE, That is my initial response to seeing this car. They blanded it up on the design front and so nothing to catch my eye and say wow that stands out compared to Camry. Inside might have nicer materials, but WOW, BLAND UGLY! Again, the inside and outside both screamed Camry Bland. I have to say that with the engine changes and this blandness to blend in this car will sell to the Hyundia repeat customer, but they have failed for conquest customers. Nice write up, informed me enough and showed why this car will not surpass the ugly bland Camry.

My thoughts exactly, Muslims are in their crusade mode much like the christians were during their great crusade period. We have spent trillions over the last 40 years trying to bring peace to the middle east especially isreal / palastine. Total waste of money and failure. The bigger problem is the Defense military companies who want to keep conflict going to continue to drive their profits. Stop the flow of weapons and you greatly reduce the conflict if not stop many of them. Let them kill each other dead and leave the plant for those of us that want to enjoy it and live in peace. We CANNOT AFFORD to be the world police.

I agree the New Denali's are sexy compared to the dog they replaced.

So do the Opel Dealers not have to have a single cadillac on their lot, only made to order sales? I would think GM would require anyone who sells cadillac to have them in stock.

Very interesting to read this. This information is what the news needs to be sharing about the problems in the culture of the company and how bean counters and lawyers tend to affect and play games with peoples life all over a few cents. Did they ever look at their own stupidty for over paying assembly line labor, over paying executives and the wasteful bonuses plus not having cleaned up their own product lines. It was hard on this country but the near death was a good thing I think in forcing the company to clean up its act. Hopefully this will force them to continue to do the right thing and get better.

WOW, with all the technology in the world we have today and we still do stupid things like this. This smells of a poor process of making pilots aware of airspace they should avoid. It also tells me that someone is using far higher tech missles than was expected by both side to use.

Agreed, such a sad loss of life and could have been avoided by making Ukrain airspace a war zone as it is.

About time Delphi was grilled on this and NO I do not buy it was just GM's fault. Delphi knew this was not good and should have built the part to the original spec not a lower spec. Also my gut tells me Delphi probably came back to GM and said you could build it at this lower spec and it would save X amount per part equaling millions that can go to executive bonuses for saving money.

Here is a follow up on this story with GM presenting the corvette back to the original owner. Very cool story and great pics. http://fastlane.gm.com/2014/07/01/sort-homecoming-mark-reuss/

While looking around GMs FastLane web site, I came across this awesome story covering GMs military concepts that have been created to meet the needs of our armed forces. Some of them I could see being wanted by the public such at GMs Silverado Duramax Diesel Hybrid system where the Diesel motor can also serve as a 30kW generator. This could so be useful during storms when the power goes out to your home. Check out the cool pictures and info here.

G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com Can Cadillac ATS, CTS and SRX European Roadshow Win over the Public GMs Cadillac division has gone on a European Roadshow. The tour will be visiting 3 countries, 12 cities, and 22 different locations with the goal of connecting with 10,000 existing and potential customers as well as European Media. The idea is to get these people behind the wheel and check out the 21st century versions of Cadillac and to change the perception that Cadillac is a Land barge V8 powered float machine. To quote FastLane's own write up; "Above all, luxury car buyers on both sides of the pond have one thing in common: they demand superior quality in all aspects of their new potential vehicle, including design, interior, performance, refinement, safety, comfort and service." With a line up of Turbo powered 4 cylinder and V6 powered auto's, Cadillac is out to show they are competitive Driving machines. We here have had lively debates on the current round of Cadillac auto's and for the most part have found Cadillac to be very competitive and in many cases to surpass what the German brands offer in the same auto class such as BMW 3 series or MB c-class versus ATS or the BMW 5 series or MB E series versus the CTS. I believe if you have not spent any time behind a wheel in today's current Cadillacs you need to get out and test drive them. You just might discover how nice a driving machine Cadillac has become. Clearly a step in the right direction back to achieving the Standard of the World. What are your thoughts on Cadillac and Europe? What will it take to bring Cadillac to the Masses in Europe?

G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com GM Cadillac Dealer Experience PRAISED by Warren Buffett FastLane.GM.Com Story Proving the old adage, you cannot judge a book by its cover, this story proves again that World Class Customer Service begins by treating every person no matter what they look like or who you think they are the same. On just another normal sales day, sales person Madison Willers greeted a potential Cadillac customer and gave what we all have come to expect from our car buying experience, World Class Service. Little did she know that this sale started back in Mid-May with a conversation between CEO Mary Barra and Warren Buffet on how much GM had invested to improve and change Cadillac. Mr. Buffett a long time buyers of Detroit Iron and owner of a 2006 DTS liked what he heard and wanted to think it over. With his own process completed he sent his daughter in to buy him a new cadillac. Once his daughter was on site, Madison did her job in qualifying what the end user was like so that she could suggest the best fit auto. This being the Cadillac XTS. For full story, you can read the FastLane.GM.Com Story and then go here for the Story from Madison's story on this incredible sales experience

While I like the Corvette and Camero, I doubt I will ever own one. The rest of Chevy lineup of Auto's outside of the last generation Tahoe / Suburban that I liked better than the last generation Yukon/Yukon XL does nothing for me. In fact not since the mid 80's when they had their Monte Carlo SS Areo have they produced any Chevy I would want. GMC on the other hand excluding the poor design of the last generation Yukon series has had hit after hit for design styles that I have enjoyed. GM can get away with Chevy and GMC as I do not see the buyers cross shopping the two lines very much if at all. What I do see is people who own GMC come back to buy buicks to add to the family.

In the Real World of off roading, I would take a Rubicon Jeep Wrangler every time over the over loaded Electronic everything Range Rover. The Jeep will outlast it and take more punishment than the modern Range Rover. Plus if something did break be easier to fix on the trail than the Range Rover.

Would be nice! Two Thumbs Up!

WOW, Did they just get uglier or what? Not a fan of these coffins on wheels. I see they want to compete against Fiat 500L but why delay the US, afraid it will not sell at all? Smart had it's day, I see no advantage with these over priced golf carts. There are superior cars in the sub compact market. I see they have not bothered to talk about MPG, right now what they produce was impressive at launch in their day but now pales in comparison to better subcompacts. I do not see these cars improving sales much outside their hard core fan base.

My Bad for spelling, Infiniti QX80 is what I was thinking of.

In the XTS, it was detuned because the engine is turned 90 degrees and there is an exhaust restriction.... it's only 10 HP. The Halex system can send something like 90% of the torque to the rear if need be, so I doubt it has anything to do with torque steer. The CTS V-Sport is RWD only... though in the AWD models with lesser engines, it would be a different transmission and AWD system. Much appreciate the clarification Drew. Thank you

ROYALS - Awesome job on doing this as a Cover!

I thought the AWD system was the same between the CTS and XTS. Anyone know if this is true?

You crack me up, I see plenty of BMW, MB, Acura, Infinity, Lexus and Cadillac CUV/SUV's. Maybe the ski resorts just deny Land Rover access.

G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com BMW Recalls 1.6 Million Auto's to replace Takata built Airbags! BMW has issued a recall affecting all 3-Series produced between May 1999 and August 2006. This recall is regionally requested by U.S. Safety Regulators. This is an extension of their 240,000 auto recall from 2013. The airbags were supplied by Japans Takata corporation and affect over 12 million auto's from word wide manufactures. BMW is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to these airbags. Full story reported here on MSN

ABOUT TIME! They should be doing real world testing on all Auto's period. I bet we see a drastic drop in MPG for everyone as real world driving does not match computer generated perfect situations.

Nice Write up. This makes me wonder if I can get the other coding of the chips so that I can gain back my HP and Torque in this car. That would be a great upgrade. Get the Full power of this via a chip tuner device.