The 2012 Cadillac SRX and CTS Sport Sedan have both received 5-Star Overall Vehicle Scores for safety from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Both vehicles were tested under the NHTSA's revised New Car Assessment Program that was implemented for the 2011 model year.

GM executive director of Vehicle Safety said, "Receiving five stars under the new rating system is an impressive feat - one that clearly demonstrates the strength of the SRX and CTS advanced structure, overall crashworthiness and effectiveness of the models' state-of-the-art safety technologies."

Read more about this great accomplishment at the link above!

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Sedan, Cadillac, GM

It's the eve of the Detroit Auto Show, and Cadillac officially kicked things off tonight by unveiling its 2013 ATS sedan at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. Why CCS? Many of the college's graduates go on to work in areas of automotive design, and as Ed Welburn, General Motors' Vice President of Global Design, told us, over 170 CCS graduates currently work within the larger GM design team, 20 of which directly worked on the ATS project. After getting our first impressions of the ATS in the flesh, we must indeed applaud those designers.



The ATS rides on an all-new rear-wheel-drive platform, and the end result is car that's about eight inches shorter in length than the larger CTS sedan. Cadillac's Art & Science design language has been updated for the smaller sedan, with angular lines and flat surfaces found throughout the four-door's styling. Sure, Cadillac is quite proud of the way the ATS looks, but what's most important about this car is its performance. After all, the ATS will go head-to-head with the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4, so on the road, it has to be good.

The ATS is around 100 pounds lighter than a comparable Audi A4, while packing a more powerful engine lineup.

A key factor to the ATS' development was lightness, and GM's North American President, Mark Reuss, stated that the new sedan will be "the most mass-efficient car in the segment." Weighing in at less than 3,400 pounds, the ATS is around 100 pounds lighter than a comparable Audi A4, while packing a more powerful engine lineup. The base engine is a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated inline-four, putting out 200 horsepower and 188 pound-feet of torque, which should be good for over 30 miles per gallon on the highway. The real points of interest are the new turbocharged 2.0-liter four and 3.6-liter V6. The up-level turbo four should be good for around 270 horsepower, and the larger direct-injected V6 will send 318 hp to the ground. Transmission choices include a six-speed manual or automatic gearbox, and both rear- and all-wheel drive will be available.

The ATS will get a diesel engine in its first life-cycle.

During the presentation, Reuss also confirmed that the ATS will get a diesel engine in its first life-cycle, though specific details are unavailable as of this writing. We know that GM is already working on a small diesel mill for the Cruze sedan, so the new oil-burning ATS could use a version of this engine, if not the same exact one.



As for how the ATS will perform on the road, we'll have to wait until we get our first stint behind the wheel later this year, but things do indeed look promising. In addition to a 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, the ATS will use GM's Magnetic Ride Control, and will have "the best steering I've ever tested," as Reuss stated. Vice President of Cadillac Marketing, Don Butler, says the ATS' key development themes were to make it "nimble, quick, [and] fun."



It certainly sounds promising, and if all this goodness comes to live out on the pavement, we only have one thing to say: Bring on the V.

Continue reading 2013 Cadillac ATS debuts in Detroit, diesel engine confirmed

2013 Cadillac ATS debuts in Detroit, diesel engine confirmed originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Detroit reveal of the all new 2013 Cadillac ATS!

Mary Kay independent Sales Force Members, Mary Kathryn King and Julie Wojcik of Valparaiso and Michigan City, received the keys to 2 new 2012 Cadillac SRX's- in customary Mary Kay Pink- in recognition for having achieved Mary Kay's "Cadillac Level" sales award.

"For more than forty years, the Mary Kay Pink Cadillac has been an iconic symbol of success," said Jason Boone Cadillac Sales Manager at Schepel. "As such, it's the most sought-after prize among Mary Kay's two-million independent sales force members. Our team here at Schepel Cadillac is honored to play a role in carrying on the tradition of rewarding success, which is what Cadillac is all about."

Founder Mary Kay Ash was a big believer in rewarding top independent sales force members with cars, dream vacations, diamonds and other lavish items she often referred to as "Cinderella gifts." Among these, the most iconic and enduring symbol of independent sales force member's success is the Mary Kay Pink Cadillac, which was the brainchild of Mary Kay Ash herself back in 1969.

The delivery of Mary Kathryn's and Julie's prestigious award was accompanied by a brief ceremony, which included the unveiling of their all new Cadillac SRX crossovers, and was attended by several close friends as well as colleagues from the local Mary Kay sales unit.

"Earning the Mary Kay Pink Cadillac is a major event in the life and career of a Mary Kay independent sales force member," said Jason Boone. "It's our privilege at Schepel Cadillac to help celebrate the achievement."

Schepel Buick GMC Cadillac earned top marks from Buick GMC as one of the top dealerships in the nation for 2010. Schepel received the Mark of Excellence as the No. 1 Buick dealership in sales, the No. 1 GMC dealership in sales, the top sales in used cars, the best sales in fleet and commercial vehicles and top customer satisfaction in the Chicagoland area.

During the fifth annual American Steelworker National Day of Recognition Rich Schepel, of Schepel Buick GMC Cadillac, was honored with an American Flag at the Gary Rail Cats game on August 26th.

The Schepel Dealerships also received honors this year from GM when awarded with the Mark of Excellence as the No. 1 Buick dealership in sales, the No. 1 GMC dealership in sales, the top sales in used cars, the best sales in fleet and commercial vehicles and top customer satisfaction in the Chicago area.

Schepel Cadillac's own, Jason Boone was featured in NWI Times Online article, "CTS-V wagon hauls more than just cargo." The article, found here detailing the CTS-V wagon covers everything from speed to cargo space. Its a family friendly luxury vehicle designed with its owners in mind. If you love the speed of a sports car but need the space offered in by an SUV then the CTS-V Sport Wagon might be the Cadillac for you.

Schepel hosted their 16th Annual Auto Show benefiting Elim Christian Services on June 18th and by all measures the show was a success! Over 300 entries were received for vehicles in over 30 categories raising $18,000 for the Elim Christian Services agency, based in Palos Heights, IL.

Elim Christian Services serves the needs of developmentally disabled children and adults with such disabilities as Downs Syndrome and autism.

Both admission to the family-friendly event and food were free, and more than 2,400 hot dogs were served that day, Tom VanProoyen, owner of Schepel said. The $18,000 raised during the event came from the $25 per vehicle entry fee as well as donations given by attendees.

Check out the link above the photo to read the full story by Lu Ann Franklin at the NWI Times.

The Automotive business has gone through a whirlwind of changes in the past year. Consolidating, dealer closing and manufacturer recalls have left many customers confused and have also left many retail buildings unoccupied.

This is not the case at Schepel Automotive Group on Route 30 in Merrillville. For over 40 years the Schepel brand has been a symbol of automotive excellence in the community. As the largest volume Buick and GMC dealer in Chicagoland for nearly 30 years in a row and the #1 Cadillac dealer in Northwest Indiana, The Schepel Automotive Group has now opened Schepel Certified Cars in the former Hummer franchise building.

What makes Schepel Different when it comes to buying a pre-owned vehicle?

In a word, VALUE! First, vehicles are priced competitively with all other available vehicles on the market. However, True Value means much more than the best price. After all, is a vehicle that is purchased at a bargain price that becomes a mechanical problem a value? Every Schepel Certified used Vehicle must pass a thorough 117-point inspection and is backed by a 6-month/6,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. Every pre-owned vehicle is reconditioned to the Schepel standard or it is wholesaled to another dealer to sell.

While it is true there are never two pre-owned vehicle that are exactly alike, you can count on every Schepel Certified Pre-Owned vehicle to meet exact standards, come with 6-month/6,000 mile warranty coverage and to be backed by one of the best service teams in the industry.

Stop in today and see a sales representative or visit the virtual showroom at SchepelCadillac.com.

By Andrew Ganz
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Hyundai.CarPriceSecrets.comWhile the standard, V6-powered Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon might be the most expensive variant of Cadillac's three-prong CTS lineup, selecting its fire-breathing supercharged V8 CTS-V Sport Wagon won't cost you any more than any other CTS-V variant.

Priced from $62,990 including a mandatory destination charge, the CTS-V Sport Wagon's base price matches the Cadillac CTS-V Sedan and Cadillac CTS-V Coupe.

Standard equipment will also essentially mirror the sedan and coupe, which include leather, heated seats, navigation, HID headlamps, Magnetic Ride Control and Brembo brakes.

Several options will be available, namely a $3,400 Recaro heated and ventilated front seats package, $800 polished 19-inch alloy wheels, $600 "midnight Sapele wood" and a $300 suede steering wheel/shift lever package.

Mechanically identical to the CTS-V sedan and coupe, the Sport Wagon offers a little extra utility to go with its Eaton Twin-Series supercharged 6.2-liter V8. Pumping out the same 556 horsepower and 551 lb-ft. of torque as other CTS-Vs, the Sport Wagon will offer both a six-speed Tremec manual transmission and a six-speed automatic. Currently, Cadillac does not offer a manual transmission in the standard CTS Sport Wagon.

Both transmissions channel the power to the rear wheels, which take advantage of a limited-slip rear differential with a cast iron housing.

The CTS-V Sport Wagon will also include Cadillac's Magnetic Ride Control, which uses magneto-rheologically controlled shock absorbers to respond quickly and precisely to changing road conditions. Brembo brakes - six-piston calipers in front, four-piston calipers out back - help bring things to a stop.

Inside, the CTS-V Sport Wagon is mostly a standard CTS-V affair, meaning it gets Obsidian Black accents on the dashboard and doors and optional Alcantara covering for the gear lever and steering wheel. Recaro sport seats with pneumatic bolster controls will be standard.

Naturally, the CTS-V wagon looks the part on the outside. Sharing the same basic body kit theme seen on the coupe and sedan, the Sport Wagon rides on 19-inch alloy wheels wrapped in Michellin Pilot Sport PS2 tires.

Cadillac SRX Gets IIHS Top Safety Pick

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2010 Cadillac SRX: Top Safety Pick by IIHS
By Mike Magrath

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety finally got their hands on a 2010 Cadillac SRX (mfg after May 2010) and proceeded to crush it from various angles, including the new roof-strength test.

In order to score a 'good' on the test, a vehicle must be able to resist four-times the weight of the vehicle with less than 5-inches of roof deformation. The SRX withstood a pressure of 4.14 times its weight. Federal roof-crush standards require only 1.5 times the vehicles weight. The last 2010 Cadillac SRX we tested weighed 4,292 pounds.

The 2010 SRX joins the Audi Q5, Chevrolet Equinox, Dodge Journey, Ford Flex (after Jan 2010), GMC Terrain (after March 2010), Kia Sorento, 2011 Jeep Cherokee, and Volvo XC60 as IIHS Top Safety Picks.

LINK
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Filed under: Car Buying, Coupe, Cadillac, GM, Luxury

When we had our first shot at the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe, we described it as "audacity in motion." After all, the new Caddy coupe is indeed one of the most attractive designs to come out of General Motors in quite some time.



In an effort to get these hot new two-plus-twos out on the road as soon as possible, Cadillac is ramping up production of the CTS Coupe a bit early, and the first few models are starting to roll off of assembly lines at GM's Lansing Grand River assembly plant. Pricing starts at $38,990 for the base, rear-wheel-drive model, which will be joined by the pavement-bending CTS-V Coupe later this year.



Check out the sexy new CTS Coupe for yourself in the gallery below, and hit the jump to read Cadillac's press release.







Photos by Damon Lavrinc / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.



[Source: Cadillac]

Continue reading 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe headed to dealers ahead of schedule

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe headed to dealers ahead of schedule originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There was a time when General Motors was a design leader. Before the Aztek, before the Catera, before the Sunfire and before the Citation, GM was synonymous with bold, strong, emotional automotive design. The General was so good at it that in the 1950s it was able to flood dealerships and stress factories just by tweaking a given model's sheetmetal a few shades. Imagine anyone caring about a new rear end on a 2011 Chevy Malibu. Yet the revised bodywork of the 1956 Bel Air was a major cultural phenomenon.

The name Harley Earl – the legendary head of GM design from 1927 until 1958 – still strikes reverence into the hearts of many. One glance at his famed Buick Y-Job, a 1949 Cadillac or the original Corvette is enough to see why. Earl's parting shot was the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado – the one with the tail fins that could nearly touch the moon. Then you have Earl's successor, Bill Mitchell, the man responsible for the third generation Corvette, the 1966 Toronado and the magnificent boattail Buick Riviera.

For a variety of reasons, in the 1970s General Motors and striking design parted ways. GM's styling wandered through the desert, swapping glitz, purpose and chrome for tighter profit margins, increased badge engineering and a large patina of plain ol' dull. All you need to do is take a gander at the third-generation B-bodies to see how far GM went in the wrong direction. Let's not even mention cladding.

For the last decade or so there have been signs of hope. Vehicles like the Chevrolet SSR, Pontiac Solstice, C6 Corvette and the new Camaro were proof that GM and great design are on the road to reconciliation. As a division, Cadillac has made the biggest strides with their Art and Science design motif, showing great signs of life. The front end of the second generation CTS is fantastic. From a pure design point of view, and with the possible exception of the now dead Pontiac Solstice, no General Motors product has been world class since Mitchell retired in 1977.

That changes now. Meet the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe.

Follow link for entire article.

Originally Posted by Press Release
DETROIT – Cadillac announced today it will provide owners of all 2011 models with frequently required maintenance services for the first four years or 50,000 miles as it seeks to build the best customer service experience in the luxury segment.

The program, called Cadillac Premium Care Maintenance, covers scheduled oil changes, tire rotations, replacement of engine and cabin air filters and a multi-point vehicle inspection.

“Cadillac is adding Premium Care Maintenance as a way to extend customer service beyond the sale,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president of Cadillac sales and service. “The program is designed to raise satisfaction for owners by ensuring access to expert service. It should lead to higher loyalty rates for dealers by establishing them as a valued resource for our customers.”

Cadillac Premium Care Maintenance launches with the arrival of the 2011 model Cadillacs. The CTS family, which is being expanded this year to include the all-new CTS Coupe, will be the first of the 2011 models to arrive at U.S. dealerships in late summer.

Premium Care Maintenance is the latest in a host of Cadillac initiatives that elevate the luxury ownership experience. It joins other Cadillac customer service and ownership benefits including:
Five-year, 100,000-mile Powertrain warranty along with standard 24/7 Roadside Assistance and Courtesy Transportation.
Four-year, 50,000-mile vehicle bumper-to-bumper warranty coverage.
Standard one-year OnStar Directions and Connections plan, which includes Automatic Crash Response, Turn-by-Turn Navigation, Vehicle Diagnostics and Stolen Vehicle Assistance.
Standard XM Radio with a three month trial.

In 2009, Cadillac placed second in the industry in both the Sales Satisfaction Index and Customer Satisfaction Index studies from J.D. Power & Associates. A survey by AutoPacific of 2010 new vehicle buyers rated Cadillac No. 1 in total satisfaction.

“Cadillac rates among the industry’s best in customer satisfaction, but we have room for improvement,” McNeil said. “Cadillac Premium Care Maintenance is another step in our goal to set the standard for the industry in customer service.”

Filed under: New York Auto Show, Performance, Wagon, Cadillac, GM, Luxury

The world's automakers are introducing around 20 new vehicles this week at the 2010 New York Auto Show. Some of those cars are pretty interesting, but here's the juice: In 20 years, there is exactly one car being shown here today that people will still be whispering about. That car? The Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon. You're reading this correctly. Cadillac, former maker of landau-roofed Boca Rotan retirement sleds will soon be offering a station wagon stuffed with a 556-horsepower, supercharged and Corvette-derived 6.2-liter V8. If that's not loony enough for you, yes, you can order it with a six-speed manual. Wowza.



We first glimpsed the V Wagon last night at a fairly gala Cadillac cocktail reception, complete with GM design boss Ed Welburn and none other than Maximum Bob Lutz, the man who may have single handedly willed pistonhead fantasy into production. The CTS-V Sport Wagon took center stage flanked on either side by the plain old CTS-V and our Detroit Show favorite CTS-V Coupe. To put the spectacle in photographic terms, even though it was surrounded by some pretty desirable metal, the newest V managed to "pop."



We pressed the flesh and asked our full battery of penetrating, hard hitting questions ("Can I go to the launch?"), but the general theme from Cadillac seemed to be this: They known they're not going to sell many, and they just don't care. Sometimes doing what logic dictates you shouldn't do makes the most sense. Remember the Buick GNX? There was simply no rational reason for GM to allow that monster off a production line. Yet 23 years later, what Buick are we still talking about? To our minds, the CTS-V Sport Wagon has a similar, skull-cracking je ne sais quo about it.



But should a recently Chapter 11 company be in the business of building small volume, high-performance station wagons? Well.... yes, absolutely. Here are all the reasons why that we can think of. First, when was the last time an American luxury brand offered a full line of anything? For decades now, BMW has been happy to sell you a 3-Series coupe, sedan, wagon and convertible. Cadillac has had... the CTS four-door. Until now. Besides, having a low production halo version of your halo vehicle is the stuff that builds legends.



Or how's this, BMW sells a hopped up M3 coupe, convertible and sedan, but no wagon. Sure, BMW makes the M5 Touring (i.e. wagon), but they won't sell it to Americans. And Audi won't sell us either of its hot rod grocery haulers, the RS4 and RS6 Avants. We know Mercedes-Benz will be making an E63 AMG Wagon, but will they sell it here? Dunno.



But Cadillac will happily sell you a CTS-V Wagon for just a small premium over the Sedan. Figure about $65,000 or so. And if you haven't been reading between the lines, a bangin' five-door might help Cadillac strengthen its tenuous foothold in Europe, especially if this show car's leather/Alcantara interior and massively bolstered Recaro sport seats make it to production. Either way, Caddy just dropped a mighty big gauntlet.







Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

New York 2010: Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon is fantasy writ large originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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