Until the refresh of the Cadillac Escalade arrives, you want the Lincoln Navigator if you need a premium American battle tank. It’s a Raptor-powered beast of a cruiser, and Lincoln is keeping it fresh for the 2020 model year by offering a new appearance package and more standard tech.

Starting with the visuals, there is now a Monochromatic Appearance Package for the Navigator. If you don’t like chrome, and this author doesn’t, then this is a box you’ll want to check. Yes, there’s still some chrome, it is a Navigator after all. But the Monochromatic Package on the Reserve series offers three different colors to “showcase the bold lines” of the Navigator.

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Earlier in the month, Lexus brought a convertible LC to the United Kingdom’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. While the car came clad in silvery camouflage and was officially referred to as a “prototype,” we didn’t take it all that seriously. Drop-top cars haven’t been in vogue for quite some time and — if we’re being honest — the LC hasn’t been super popular either.

A lot of that has to do with the coupe boasting an entry point of nearly six-figures. Sleek and sexy, the LC makes a wonderful grand tourer for those seeking something a bit more plush than a Porsche 911 and are willing to sacrifice a bit of performance for said luxury. However most people with the means to pick between the two will still select the more-expensive, and hardcore, German.

For holdover convertible enthusiasts, there wasn’t even a choice to be made. Porsche was offering an open-air experience while Toyota’s luxury arm was not — and had not since 2015. But that’s about to change, because Lexus has confirmed that the LC convertible will eventually enter production.  Read More >

The Rare Rides series has visited a performance 442 Oldsmobile previously, when we took a look at a one-off Hurst Intrigue 442 (which most everyone hated). Today we’ll see the very last time 442 appeared on a factory Oldsmobile.

It’s a Cutlass Calais Quad 442 W41, from 1991.

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General Motors is issuing a recall on select Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, including HD models. According to Transport Canada, trucks equipped with a power sliding rear window could have a defroster circuit that can melt itself or, in rare instances, catch fire.

As no fix currently exists, GM is asking owners to bring their vehicles into the dealership so that the fuse for the rear defroster can be disconnected while it works on finding a better solution. The recall encompasses 159,240 trucks from the 2014-2019 model years.  Read More >

Just as quickly as small diesel engines in vehicles in North America saw a resurgence, they appear to be going away. Earlier this week we shared the tragic news that Ford wouldn’t be putting the diesel engine in the Transit Connect. Today we’re sad to report that the Chevrolet Equinox diesel is also going away.

The Car Connection reports that the Equinox is going away for the 2020 model year. Chevrolet told them that the canceling of the oil burner is a result of “slow demand.” While we might all think that we want small diesel engines in our cars and crossovers, we’re not actually shelling out the money to buy them. At least not in the quantities required to make them profitable for the automakers.

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We, very literally, have a bit of a fluff piece for this Friday afternoon. Coming out of Frankfort, KY, a curious little kitten had mistakenly selected the rear subframe of a 2000 Honda Accord as a safe resting place. Little did she know, she was about to have a very tall tale to tell her furry friends.

Earlier this week, over a journey of several hours, the kitten rode from Lexington to Versailles to Frankfort in the undercarriage of the Honda. It wasn’t until the car’s owner was stopped at a Hardee’s restaurant that he finally heard her meowing from within the chassis. By good fortune, they were right next to Midas of Frankfort, which is owned by a fellow racer and friend, Scott Bourne. When the restaurant manager went over and asked Scott if his crew could help, they didn’t pussy foot around and got right to it.  Read More >

Portland seems to be a relative hot spot for old, well-maintained Saabs, and Rare Rides covered this Portland-based 99 previously. And while that little blue sedan racked up 195,000 miles, today’s 900 has covered several times more than that. Just how far can an old Saab go?

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After suspending manual background checks to encourage fresh users in April, Daimler subsidiary Car2Go found itself with a problem in Chicago — its new customers were stealing cars by the gross.

On the April 15th, the ride-sharing service notice an uptick in usage that was well above the norm. However, as the day progressed, the company found that a lot of its higher-end vehicles weren’t coming back. Instead, they were convening on Chicago’s West Side. Two days later, the Chicago Police Department announced that it had been notified by Car2Go that some of the company’s vehicles may have been rented by deceptive or fraudulent means and was officially on the prowl for justice.  Read More >

After our last installment, I feel nothing but regret for misrepresenting butchering TTAC Commentator Arthur Dailey’s query.  Because people do get in their car to warm it up before beginning the process of rooftop snow removal. And they’d prefer to remove roof snow, not snow that fell into power window switch pods.

So after multiple emails, a promise to try again. To which Mr. Dailey’s reply was:

“OK.  But perhaps you could expand that to explain something related to car design?  Which is why I sent the question to your attention.”

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Developing electric cars for scale in Europe takes time, money, resources and commitment. Volkswagen has the new, advanced MEB architecture designed just for that purpose. There are other automakers, though, who need to have an option. For Ford, that answer was simple. They already are working with VW on several projects, so it makes sense to expand that relationship into platform sharing.

In an announcement that also included VW’s investment into Argo AI, Volkswagen committed to providing 600,000 MEB units to Ford for a new electric vehicle that’ll be manufactured and sold within Europe. That includes all of the electric components, according to Dr. Herbert Diess, VW’s CEO. Ford’s CEO Jim Hackett said that it would be “built Ford proud.”

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As you no doubt already know, we lost a big name this week. The Volkswagen Beetle ⁠— formerly the Volkswagen New Beetle, Volkswagen Beetle, Volkswagen Type 1, Volkswagen, KdF-Wagen, etc — finally bit the dust in Puebla, Mexico on Wednesday.

A mariachi band was on hand to provide the last production Beetle with an up-tempo swan song, Deutsche Welle reports. While it’s the end of the line for the historic, Hitler-tainted nameplate, memories remain. Do you have a personal encounter with this model you’d like to share? Read More >

If you were waiting for a special-order new GMC Sierra or Jeep Gladiator to show up at a West Coast dealership, you might have to wait a little longer. Unfortunately there was a train derailment in Lincoln County, Nevada, yesterday, and some of the victims were brand-new pickups.

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Making a mistake while trying to remedy an earlier one is a routine part of the human condition. We’re imperfect creatures and sometimes the easiest solution after a string of foulups is to just sweep something under the rug and hope nobody ever bothers to look there — even though they probably will. Incredibly, this logic can spread to an entire organization and with roughly the same effectiveness.

Earlier this week, Ford issued a safety recall on select Focuses manufactured within the last decade (1.5 million were recalled previously). But not before becoming the subject of a scathing report from the Detroit Free Press claiming the automaker knew the cars had bunk transmissions and did everything in its power to keep that under wraps in order to continue selling them.  Read More >

Cadillac is hard at work preparing for the next generation of their big bruiser Escalade. Lincoln’s counterpart, the Navigator, makes a healthy 450 horsepower from its Raptor engine. How does Cadillac plan to compete? A new report suggest it’s going to get some help from the Camaro.

According to a posting from Muscle Cars and Trucks, the Escalade is going offer the supercharged V8 that powers the Camaro ZL1 and the Corvette Z06. While details are light on when this engine will go in, or what type of performance to expect, it is apparently going to be a “powerhouse.”  Read More >

Volkswagen’s Beetle has officially ended production. The last examples of the brand’s famous model rolled off the assembly line at VW’s Puebla plant in Mexico this week, with the company reserving the final one for display at Volkswagen’s local museum. The automaker said the car would live on as “a lasting tribute to the automobile’s rich and storied heritage.”

As one of the most recognizable and historically important cars ever made, the original Type 1 was manufactured between 1938 and 2003. The “New” Beetle hit the assembly line in 1997 before being replaced by the A5 version in 2011. Technically, that’s the car that’s getting the axe. However, with nothing in line to replace it, Beetle as a whole is going the way of the dodo.  Read More >