G. David Felt

Had no Idea International Loadstar made single person cab trucks still today. Old Barn Find of a Chevy Pipe Truck

I honestly see no reason to have more than 10-12 models at most. OEMs can easily go with base, sport and performance models, 3 trim lines on a single model and you can tweak the options. MB and BMW went crazy at each other with building models for roles that did not exist nor really I think made business sense. Flush with money makes marketing peeps go crazy.

We'll could not find my name list but will take another stab here: Cars, I would drop the coupe look, go back to having a trunk and make magnetic ride standard on all models with luxury float, sport and V mode for driving and having the suspension deliver what the owner / driver wanted. Power trains would be standard on a V6 with V8 option and Blackwood TTV8 as the top engine choice along with EV versions. Names I would take Cadillac back to them: SUV/Truck Names: Escalade Escalade ESV Escalade EXT - This needs to come back. XT7 = Fleetwood XT6 = Palisade XT5 = Eminence XT4 = End of life, leave this category size to Buick. Car Names: CT6 = Escala CT6 Coupe = Eldorado CT5 = Ciel CT5 Coupe = Calais No need for the CT4, this is a luxury line and compacts belong to Buick and below. All models would have Sport and V editions. That is 10 models with 3 trim levels per auto, all options can be bought at any trim level. Improving the CT6 as with all auto's in my lineup above would have real leather as base or a luxury cloth option on top of additional tiers of leather quality, real wood and the glossy black plastic trim would be a thing of the past. Carbon fiber would only be available as an option on V Sport and standard on V editions. Through out would be LED piping to highlight the feet area and beyond so that you could always find things. Massage chairs, recliners in the back of the car, minimum of 24" of leg room so one could stretch out. So much more Cadillac could do if only they would dream again to be the Standard of the World!

Lovely auto, Cadillac needs to get back to their roots. I loved reading about this 1950 concept: Cadillac exhibited the luxurious Debutante convertible at the 1950 auto show, which was the first Chicago show since 1940. General Motors stated at the time that the $35,000 Debutante was “the most luxurious car ever built by Cadillac.” The exotic interior was upholstered in leopard skins that covered the floor, seats, and portions of the door panels -all highlighted by 24-karat gold plated instrument panels and fittings.

“General Motors has developed an all-new digital vehicle platform necessary for its next-generation of vehicles, EVs, active safety, infotainment and connectivity features, and the evolution of the Super Cruise driver assistance feature.” To quote their press release. GM-2020-ElectricPlatform.mp4 We have heard that GM has their next EV platform that will cover multiple new auto’s and that GM has their global ICE auto platform. The one thing that no one has talked about is the nervous system that is underneath these new autos. Tesla has proven that technology can sell and that the younger generation is wanting an auto to stay current much like their smartphone and yet not be a challenge to upgrade such as some OEMs have done with requiring you to come in and get them to flash the Powertrain with a USB thumb drive or the NAV system with a new expensive DVD update. GM has their mission and vision for a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. To achieve this in both auto’s meant GM needed a new electronic platform. The 2020 Cadillac CT5 will be the start of the Generals 3 year roll out to have all GM built global autos on a single new powerful electric platform. This new platform is not a thing that dealerships will be selling as most people will not care about the fact that starting with the CT5 this car will be capable of processing 4.5 Terabytes of data per hour, a five-fold increase over GM’s current electrical architecture. Depending on the system in the auto, every auto will have 100Mbs, 1Gbps and 10Gbps ethernet connections both internally and externally. With this new electric platform, GM has also built in an encrypted Cybersecurity as a key pillar of this new architecture. The Cybersecurity has multiple protective features at both hardware and software levels reflecting GM’s push for safe and secure autos. GM is among the first automakers with a dedicated and integrated Product Cybersecurity organization. This group is focused on insuring that every new auto GM puts out will be protected against unauthorized access to the vehicle and customer data. GM is also chairing the Auto-ISAC (Automotive Information Sharing & Analysis Center), a public and private-sector of partners that share and analyzes intelligence about emerging cybersecurity risks for the auto industry. GM like the Smartphone industry will make standard all software updates for their auto’s over the air enabling adoption of functionality upgrades throughout the lifespan of the vehicle with no need to come to the dealership to get them. GM autos will have a new Nervous system, a new electric system that for some would could cause concern that things would get overly complicated. This is where GM empowered the new engineering team to think outside the box and clean sheet what it would take to for the long future road of auto tech. According to the magazine Wired, after GM press announcement on their new electric platform, GM’s director of electrical components and subsystems Al Adams talked with Wired. Mr. Adams says this is the little-appreciated, tucked-away guts of an auto that is not noticed till it does not work. This new electrical system will roll out over the next 36 months to standardize GM’s 56 models across four brands Mr. Adams says this is equal to having an original iPhone and trading it in for an iPhone 7 in terms of the power it will add to the autos. This will allow a standardization of Super Cruise and other safety features to be rolled out throughout the whole global product lines. The biggest benefit that Mr. Adams says this will do is to simplify the auto’s which today have 30 to 40 separate computers controlling a wide range of feature / functions. This is double what it was only 10 years ago. This new electronic platform will bring it back to a single enterprise multi-core computer running the whole auto. This new platform ended up reducing the amount of multiple wire strands being run reducing a noticeable amount of weight in the autos. 300 electrical engineers and computer scientist filed more than 100 patents and benchmarked the new auto cybersecurity system against defense and aviation systems with a focus on message authentication. This allows the cruise control system to know that the radar is really talking to it when it says the road is clear ahead and not some external source. Millions of miles of testing have gone into this new robust platform to ensure that the auto’s being built will last for decades through any type of weather. To quote Mr. Adams, “Software is the Next Battleground!” in the auto war. View full article

I actually had a complete naming convention posted in another thread on that very same question of how I would change Cadillac and it got zero response. Let me see if I can find it again. Search engine sucks for looking for ones earlier posts.

Those trucks are for the person with the attitude of loving Me, Myself and I! No We allowed.

Seems the MultiPro tailgate was actually designed in 2009 during the depression and yet they kept it secret to do extreme testing to make it one of the best parts created by GM. https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2019/05/18/gm-multipro-tailgate-pickup-sierra-denali/3669381002/ @balthazar seems one of the two lead engineers built his own English Wheel and built from 1974 to 1978 his own car folding all the steel on the English wheel. His car is now in the North lobby of the Engineering building with 97,000 miles and was used to tow a camping trailer around the country. Great read, worth checking out the story. https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2019/05/18/gm-multipro-tailgate-pickup-sierra-denali/3669381002/

Reposting for clarity: 2019 Q1 figures This is ONLY January to March figures. BMW X7 was only on sale in March, no reported numbers for Jan or Feb. GLS is based on Jan - March sales as are Navigator and Escalade. X7 - 2186 GLS -6017 Navigator - 4469 Escalade - 6819 Q1 2019 King of the SUV Full Size Luxury Sales is Cadillac Escalade. I totally agree with you that all new auto's come out hot from the gate, the fact that the Escalade is still the champ with the oldest luxury SUV out there shows they have hit a consistent quality that people love. As a past and current Cadillac owner, I will say that Cadillac has lost their way on the cars, CUV's always have room to improve but they have nailed that even though I see no need for the CT4 or XT4 as Buick covers that small size niche as a Near luxury provider. Cadillac Escalade has survived due to the way they ride, interior room, for some the Bling affect and a look on top of the feel that is hard to match. Cadillac needs to embrace their history of names and with todays version of Magnetic ride control give customers what they want, the true full size large auto's with roomy interiors that can be driven in either drivers mode, sport, luxury, etc. what ever mode the individual wants allowing them to have their cake and eat it. That is what Cadillac needs to embrace and what they have with the Escalade.

Interesting the comparison of these two half cab trucks. I like Fords window layout better for safer visibility.

Looks like the type of truck used by the steel mills or steel suppliers.

Yup other than for work, I would rather drive myself than use an Uber, Lyft or taxi.

Saw my first Audi E-Tron in the wild. Boy those are sharp EVs. Really need to see the inside and see how I fit. Sharp CUV.

Have not sat in one yet, only going based on pictures and comments from others that have and am interested in hearing what Drew thought of the CUV. Yet, Kia has continued to improve their auto's and moving into the luxury segment of the hot area that folks want an auto in, this should take sales.

I have said many times, Cadillac needs a V edition. Escalade options that Cadillac should be doing: Escalade V Sport Escalade V Escalade Limo Edition. Just think of no 2nd seat, 3rd seat is your prime seating with plenty of leg room. Escalade Custom = Maybach. Yup Money left on the table.

@balthazar @smk4565 OK, Time to correct these figures so based on actual monthly release data from the Manufacture web sites, by the numbers: 2019 Q1 figures This is ONLY January to March figures. BMW X7 was only on sale in March, no reported numbers for Jan or Feb. GLS is based on Jan - March sales as are Navigator and Escalade. X7 - 2186 GLS -6017 Navigator - 4469 Escalade - 6819 Q1 2019 King of the SUV Full Size Luxury Sales is Cadillac Escalade.

Link to January 2019 sales numbers since we do not seem to have them posted here. https://media.mbusa.com/releases/mercedes-benz-usa-january-2019-sales-chart?firstResultIndex=0&sortOrder=PublishedDescending

To date China has set the record for the fastest extremely large mass industrial site being constructed. Now China is breaking the records again with what is considered an overdrive of building. January they broke ground, end of may Tesla is expected to have Phase 1 of the building done.

The web site Teslarati is reporting that Tesla has closed the purchase on Maxwell Technologies. https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-tsla-completes-maxwell-acquisition/ This technology will now allow Tesla to make another jump in battery tech putting further pressure on competing auto OEMs as currently Tesla Model 3 battery pack is a 207 Wh / kg where as Maxwell has that same battery pack at 300 Wh / kg and has a clear path to raise it to 500 Wh / kg along with improving the quick speed charging and performance of their auto's using Maxwell Ultra capacitor technology. Maxwell dry electrode technology is considered to be the safest battery tech in the world as they tend to have almost zero loss of holding a charge over long periods of storage. Tesla has plans to move to the new Maxwell battery tech for 2021 model year, meaning in 2020, Tesla auto's will gain a 45% increase in power density and with the road map set, they are planning to have the 500 Wh / lg battery density be in production by 2023 giving a 142% increase over todays battery density to a pack. How does this work out in real world approach? Two ways to offer the 300 Wh / kg tech: Current 250 mile 1000 lb battery pack will change to a 362.5 mile 1000 lb battery pack. Current 250 mile 1000 lb battery pack will stay at 250 miles and be reduced to 550 lbs. This means we will be looking at the following example when the 500 Wh / kg battery packs go into production. Current 250 mile 1000 lb battery pack will change to a 605 mile 1000 lb battery pack. Current 250 mile 1000 lb battery pack will stay at 250 miles and be reduced to 210 lbs. Yesterday Tesla completed the transfer of $235 million in stock the the Maxwell stock holders. This broke down to 1 share of Maxwell stock for 0.0193 share of Tesla stock and cash in lieu of any fractional shares.

Escalade is 6819 for Q1 sales. Navigator outsold them all.

One reason for the closing down of excess manufacturing capacity is that EVs are simpler to build and use less space than ICE auto's. As companies switch over to EV building, they are gonna have to cut jobs and space needs due to that simple fact.

When the type of auto that the public wants is not there of course there is no market demand. Americans want their roomy full size auto's and until the auto industry delivers said auto's the demand will not be there. Once Rivian gets the R1t and R1s full size truck and SUV being built, I expect considerable demand. I also believe that once Ford rolls out their F150 EV based on the skateboard concept that demand will be there. I think allot of folks are waiting. I know I am and once the right EV is on the market, will happily buy.

This is going to give the Germans a run for their money as well as the Americans I believe.