When I see those December car commercials with big red ribbons tied onto cars’ roofs, I’m skeptical that anyone would spend that much money on a Christmas present. However, looking over just how quickly the special edition luxury cars that retailer Neiman-Marcus has put in their Christmas Book for the last 17 years have usually sold out, often in a matter of minutes, it’s clear that some well-heeled folks do indeed enjoy buying cars as gifts for others or for themselves. Last year’s Neiman Marcus Christmas car was the 2013 McLaren MP4-12C Spider and NM’s allotment of a dozen McLarens sold out in less than two hours. This year the Texas based retailer is selling 10 special edition 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Volantes at $344,500 each. It appears that Saks Fifth Avenue has been looking over those same sales figures and has decided to get into the Christmas car market with a limited run of 100 2014 Cadillac ELR Saks Fifth Avenue Special Editions priced at $89,500. Available exclusively through the Saks Holiday Catalog, the Saks edition of Cadillac’s extended range EV based on the Chevy Volt costs about the MSRP of a new Mitsubishi Mirage more than a standard ’14 ELR, ~$13,500. (Read More…)

Pricing for the Cadillac ELR has been announced, and the swoopy Caddy coupe with the Voltec powertrain has been stickered at an astonishing $75,995, not including the $7,500 federal tax credit as well as other incentives.

One can make the argument that there will be a market for a premium plug-in that wealthy buyers can write off as an expense in one form another, personally, I think GM is out of their mind.

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With 70 percent of its buyers new to to the brand, the Cadillac ATS is an important way for the brand to bring new buyers into the fold. But the ATS is still missing an important product that its main competitors currently have; a coupe.

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TTAC writers will stoop to any trick to get access to cars. This may be my last post at TTAC because I bribed my way into the ELR and may be removed for ethics violations (a Diet Pepsi was involved.) Fresh off its début in Detroit the ELR may be old news, but since none of the TTAC staff had seen one in the metal, I knew my duty.

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Hot on the heels of the broken embargo comes real live shots of Caddy’s Volt. The ELR gets a nice boost in power – 207 horsepower and 295 lb-ft versus 149 horses and 273 lb-ft for the Volt. A .5 kwh larger battery means slightly less range in EV mode, but an 82-mile boost in overall range and a longer charging time (4.5 hours with a 240V outlet, 12 hours with a standard outlet). There’s also a paddle-shift activated regenerative braking feature – we’ll have to drive that one to see if it actually works well.

Someone posted this photo, presumably of the production Cadillac ELR. We won’t be the first to break an embargo but the cat’s out of the bag…

So, here’s the inside of the Cadillac ELR. It looks pretty ATS-esque, save for the Volt-style power readout in the center.

Anyone looking for a poorly-lit teaser of the Cadillac ELR is in luck! Cadillac just released this image in advance of the car’s debut at NAIAS in a few weeks. In addition to the CUE system, the ELR will also get a bigger battery pack and a more powerful motor to help differentiate itself from its plebian sibling, the Chevrolet Volt.

GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant will get a $35 million investment to build the Cadillac ELR, a luxury coupe that uses the Chevrolet Volt’s gasoline-electric drivetrain.

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Technology blogger Christopher Price has found out that two all-new 2014 models from GM are coming, thanks to doing some digging around OnStar’s website.

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