Autoblog

Click any image for a slightly larger shot.

Earlier in the week, a handful of tiny images from General Motor's presentation to employees leaked onto the Web, providing a glimpse into the future of Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and Saab. As the General's spinmeisters try to console both Wall Street investors and tepid consumers after Black Tuesday's depressing announcements, they've finally released these all-too-small pics into the wild images began surfacing on other sites, sourced from GM's own media portal where the video of Wagoner's presentation was posted.

Aside from GM's plans to reduce white collar expenditures by 20 percent, eliminate salaried employees' health care after age 65 and a cut its way to liquidity to the tune of $15 billion by the end of 2009, Bob Lutz dropped the bomb that the current iteration of the Beat isn't coming to the U.S. and that the 40+ mpg Chevrolet Cruze won't be immediately available to North American consumers after it debuts at the Paris Motor Show.

Regardless, the images give us a sneak peak at the stillborn (Stateside) Cobalt replacement, which features tautly drawn headlamps, deep swage lines and a grille that apes its big brother the Malibu. The Cadillac CTS Sportwagon features a massive D-pillar reminiscent of that found on the CTS coupe concept and taillights that stretch from the edge of the roof to the lower fascia. The Caddy SRX's design is precisely what's been predicted, while both the Buick sedan and Saab 9-4X – a supposed competitor to the BMW X3 – are hardly compelling.

Check the images in the gallery below and give us your own opinion about GM's supposed saviors.


[Source: AutoObserver]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Cadillac CTS coupe.

News of facility closings and truck and SUV production cuts have been very sobering to GM's plant towns and the union workforce. While GM's live press conference was bad news for many, the General's Lansing Grand River plant had plenty of reason to smile. The facility received word that the CTS Coupe and Sport Wagon were green-lighted for production, giving the plant more variations of the strong-selling CTS. The two-door CTS should provide Cadillac a shot in the arm here in the States, but the Sport Wagon could be a wild card. The sporty family hauler will likely sell well in the wagon-loving Euro market, while also giving US buyers a fashionable alternative to the SUV. The CTS will supposedly receive a 2.9L turbo-diesel powerplant, which will give Cadillac a stronger presence overseas, while giving shoppers States an oil-burning alternative.

One potential downer for the plant is that the SRX will be moving to a front drive platform, meaning that production could potentially move to another plant. The SRX never sold in high volumes and it didn't have a market overseas. The CTS Sport Wagon will arrive in the spring, with the CTS Coupe following during the summer.

[Source: Lansing State Journal]

Click above for a photo gallery of the Cadillac CTS-V

Last week, we reported on a Top Gear piece that indicated Cadillac would not be sending the CTS-V super-sedan to Europe. Cadillac contacted us with some corrections and clarifications, which we now deliver to you. First, the CTS-V is going to Europe. That fantasy matchup in the likes of Auto Motor und Sport that pits it against the likes of the M5, RS6 and the AMG E-Class is bound to happen after all. Top Gear's complaint centered around the UK-market's particular situation. You see, the CTS-V is not going to Blighty in right-hand-drive form. The V-Series car is only being produced with the steering wheel on the left side of the IP, though the company STILL can (and intends to) offer a limited number of CTS-V sedans in the UK in LHD configuration, according to Caddy spokesman David Caldwell. This could be duplicated in other RHD markets as well, save for Australia, where apparently, the regulations are such that left-hand-drive vehicles are simply not an option. We won't shed a tear for Australia, though. They have plenty of cool stuff that we won't see either.

So, to sum up: the CTS-V will be exported. Europe will see it, and so might the UK, but with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side (as far as they're concerned).


[Source: Cadillac]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V.

UPDATE: Never mind. Hunting season is very much back on. Click here for details.

Cadillac's wicked new CTS-V may have the likes of the BMW M5 in its sights, but it appears that it won't be hunting down the best that Munich, Stuttgart and Ingolstadt have to offer on their Autobahn home turf. According to Top Gear, Caddy's U.S. minders don't think the V's blown V8 is good for Europe, so the car apparently won't be making the boat trip across the Atlantic. Unfortunate, as it would have been interesting to see how America's ultimate muscle sedan would have fared when euro journos pitted it against all the hometown favorites. Sure, we'll see comparos done Stateside, but it would have been fun to see Cadillac put on the "away" jersey to try and add some luster to that long-tarnished "Standard of the World" mantle against Europe's top performance machines -- including the ones we don't see here, like the new Audi RS6.


[Source: Top Gear]

While domestic sales continue to slide, the auto market in China is thriving. Both General Motors and Ford have reported double-digit sales growth for the first-half of 2008 in the world's most populace country, with GM moving 590,126 Buick, Chevrolet, and Cadillac vehicles for a total sales increase of 12.7 percent, while Ford sold 172,411 units for 21 percent jump in growth. With China recognized as the second-largest vehicle market outside the United States, and with their economy forecasted to grow by at least nine percent this year, automakers in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. are investing heavily to expand sales and production in the Chinese market. It is worth noting that vehicle sales in China have been nearly immune to the increase in global oil prices as governmental controls keep diesel and gasoline prices among the world's lowest.

[Source: Detroit News]

During a dealer teleconference today, General Motors announced it would be launching a zero-percent financing sale beginning tomorrow, while simultaneously raising the prices of its 2009 vehicles.

The "72-hour sale" will run from June 24th through the 30th, and will offer customers 0-percent interest rates for 72 months on most Chevys, Buicks, Pontiacs and GMC vehicles. So far, there's no word on whether the offer will extend to Cadillac and Saturn. GM will also offer $500 in "bonus cash" to buyers who opt to purchase GM products outright rather than leasing them.

At the same time, the General is going to be raising the prices of 2009 models by an average of 3.5-percent "across the board," something that was bound to happen, according to Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of vehicles sales, service and marketing.

On the production front, GM will be adding a third shift to its Lordstown, Ohio plant to increase production of the Pontiac G5 and Chevy Cobalt, while at the same time boosting production of the Pontiac G6, Chevy Malibu and Saturn Aura through the use of maximum overtime. Also of note: GM has hired Citibank to investigate the future of the HUMMER brand, which comes in the wake of GM's CEO, Rick Wagoner's announcement that "all options" are on the table regarding GM's faltering off-road brand.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Cadillac CTS Wagon.

Cadillac's product onslaught will continue with another iteration of the CTS that takes aim at the Kraut-wagons from Mercedes and BMW. The CTS wagon will debut in 2009 and will be sold worldwide, and it's expected that the CTS coupe will debut later that year.

As expected, the Provoq concept will replace the SRX in 2010 and will ditch its predecessor's Sigma underpinnings and utilize a new platform created by blending the Theta and Epsilon architectures. Power will be provided by a V6 and Cadillac's general manager, Jim Taylor, expects annual sales to land somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 units.



[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

This has been a big year for GM's organization alignment, with President Fritz Henderson opening up about the brand issue snafu and the appointment of four brand czars. HUMMER was meant to join forces with Cadillac and Saab in a premium channel, but while HUMMER is still in the family, it's apparently been put out on the lawn. GM Inside News (GMI) reports that GM is treating HUMMER as a goner, saying that the H4 program is on life support for handover to the next buyer, and the H3 GMT-700 program is kaput.

The bigger hearsay is that GM's board is considering euthanizing GMC or Pontiac. Those two brands were to be aligned in a brand channel with Buick (PBG). Getting rid of GMC could make some kind of sense, since it's entirely brand-engineered vehicles with some of the worst mileage numbers in the fleet. Shunning Pontiac would be a surprise to us since the Solstice and G8 have given it a nice brand awareness boost and it's got some products in the pipeline. If GMC or Pontiac did go, the GM board would consider folding Saturn into the PBG channel to maintain sales volume. In corporate-speak, we believe this is called GM's "gloves off" phase. Thanks for the tip, Dan!

[Source: GM Inside News]

We're back for a fifth week in a row, a recent record at the very least. Chris, Sam, and Dan edge us ever closer to number 100 with Autoblog Podcast #98. Of note this week, we cover the new SVT Truck from Ford, whatever it'll be called, as well as BMW's Light Visionary Model, the Le Mans finish, burnouts in a CTS-V, and the impending tumble into a gaping chasm of suck into which NBC might soon take us when the U.S.-spec Top Gear debuts. A stroll through the Autoblog Garage is in there, too, plus the usual insight and witticisms. Please keep the emails rolling in to podcast at autoblog dawt com with comments and suggestions, especially any good ideas for
the soon-arriving episode 100. Thanks for listening, see you next week!

SUBSCRIBE to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
ADD the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
DOWNLOAD the show now

Click above to view video after the jump

The message was somewhat short and therefore cryptic: "This is video we shot of the CTS-V driving some hot laps at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford, MI." Our curiosity sufficiently piqued, we clicked the link and watched the vid. What we saw was the new 2009 Cadillac CTS-V being manhandled around Milford. With a running commentary by the driver, the new mid-size supersedan can be seen blasting around Milford at quite alarming speeds. The deep bellow of its 556-hp supercharged 6.2L LS9-derived LSA V8 is amazing. The video is perhaps not as inspiring as the 7:59.32 run around the Nordschleife, but is still quite the spectacle. Actually, it might not even be as exciting as our own video of a recent ride in one at Milford, but it's always fun to see the CTS-V move in a way that belies its bulk and reminds us that American automakers really can build world-class cars. Check out the full 3-minute YouTube video after the jump.


[Source: GM]