2010 Cadillac Escalade on 2040-cars

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Mercedes leads in US luxury car thefts

Mercedes-Benz makes some fine automobiles. The Silver Arrow'd cars are so good, apparently, that thieves can't help but try to steal them. The German brand is at the top of the charts for luxury car thefts in the US, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, with New York City leading the way. (And those New Yorkers complain about Detroit being bad!)
The C-Class was the most stolen model, with 485 ganked between 2009 and 2012 in NYC alone, while the E-Class and S-Class (which also boasted the worst recovery rate, at 59 percent) both finished in the top ten. Following the C-Class was the BMW 3 Series and Infiniti G. Not surprisingly, each of these were the most common models in their respective lineups. Los Angeles and Miami are also prime hotspots for luxury car thefts, according to the Detroit News report.
While getting your car stolen is pretty awful, there was one inspiring statistic compiled by the NICB - the average recovery rate across the board was 84 percent, with the Cadillac CTS getting recovered 91 percent of the time.

Cadillac reveals more 2015 Escalade details, launches colorizer

Cadillac has opened up a mini-site to entice you into its all-new 2015 Escalade, and begun talking about more of its features and trim levels. While all versions of the new daddy Caddy will be powered by a 6.2-liter V8 with 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque routed through a six-speed automatic, there will be three trim packages you can wrap around that powertrain and seven exterior colors available to make it pop.
Features common to all trims include leather throughout, heated and cooled front seats, a 12-inch reconfigurable dash cluster, a quieter interior thanks to Bose active noise cancellation and the brand's love/hate CUE infotainment system. The base trim comes with adaptive remote start, hands-free tailgate, rear-view camera, park assist, Magnetic Ride Control and sits on 20-inch wheels. Moving up to the Luxury spec increases your stature with 22-inch wheels and adds a reconfigurable, color head-up display, a sunroof, power fold-and-tumble second row seating, Intellibeam headlights and a Driver Awareness Package with active crash-avoidance technology like Safety Alert Seat, lane departure warning and forward collision alert.
The top Premium trim gets a Driver Assist Package that includes Automatic Collision Preparation, automatic braking and adaptive cruise control, rear-seat entertainment, along with exterior touches like illuminated door handles.

How the demise of Lincoln's Town Car has kick-started a limo revolution

The deaths of the Ford Crown Victoria and the Lincoln Town Car have meant overhauls of three high-profile American fleets: police, taxi and livery car. Just as police fleets are more open to considering other options and a Nissan van is the new face of the NYC taxi, livery car companies are looking at replacements for the Town Car beyond The Blue Oval. Ford, via Lincoln, has made an MKT Town Car (pictured), but an article in the Detroit News claims "it has failed to win over most of the big limousine companies." The upstarts trying to move in include livery and limo editions of the Cadillac XTS, and livery specifications of the Toyota Avalon and Chrysler 300.
Each of those challengers, however, faces challenges. The Town Car was a workhorse, American, rear-wheel-drive sedan with plenty of rear legroom. Cadillac has been in the livery space before but with decontented models that were about selling the brand, not its luxury. It is taking the opposite approach with the XTS, pointing out that its livery edition is "contented in the upper half of the XTS range." Still, the CEO of Michigan's largest livery company says "it's quite a bit smaller than what we're used to," and he also prefers rear-wheel drive.
The Chrysler 300 is rear-wheel drive, and American, which matters to some companies, but Chrysler hasn't yet revealed the livery package for it. The livery Avalon marks Toyota's first time getting into that business in the US, a natural step after having done so well with taxi clients and with the Town Car out of the way. Still, the livery client is a different to taxi buyers, so the Avalon could face other soft-touch hurdles.