Last In The Line?

Drive Time

Many years ago, Jeremy Clarkson gave a V12 Aston Martin a test drive, and lamented along the lines of:  “What’s terrible is that this magnificent engine is soon going to disappear, because governments and Greens are going to force it to be phased out.  And that makes me very sad.”  Very unlike him to be so gloomy (as opposed to enraged or vitriolic), made all the more so because it was the final scene of a season-ending episode.

I had a similar feeling when I read this review of the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, especially this part:

“Cadillac’s engineers knew for a while that along with the CT4-V Blackwing, the CT5-V Blackwing would be the brand’s last internal-combustion super sedan. They wanted to go out on a high, and there’s something gloriously absurd and subversive about this car in particular. By the middle of this decade, Cadillac will be all-electric.”

It’s one thing to hear Clarkson making a prediction, but it’s quite another to be faced with an unstoppable corporate decision.

I’ve never wanted to own a Cadillac of any description or era, but I have to tell you that right at this moment, if I had the cash, I’d go and buy one of these just because.

Then again, why would I want to reward Cadillac, when it’s going to stab us gear/petrolheads in the back soon with their Duracell cars?  With the same cash situation, I would be even more tempted to buy one of these, simply because it has a V12 engine:

     

Don’t even get me started on some of the V12 oldies… e,g,

A pox on the Greens, may they all burn in the gasoline-powered flames of hell.

13 comments

  1. Batteries have limited range. And if your batteries hit zero percent on the way home in the middle of a snow or rain storm, how do you charge your car quickly on the side or middle of the road where it ran out of juice?

    I can call for help and re fuel a gas powered car on the side of the road in minutes.

    Can an electric car be re charged in minutes if it runs out of juice while driving? Or do you end up leaving your out of power electric car on the side of the road and phone a friend to pick you up in a GAS POWERED CAR?

    Is battery manufacturing “green”?

    Is battery disposal when end of useful life on these electric cars comes of all these electric powered cars “eco friendly”?

    How is the power made that charges these electric cars? Is it an “environmentally friendly” process?

    Batteries are for cell phones, laptop computers, flashlights etc.

    This nonsense – It can be summed up by re organizing the letters of the latest bullshit variant of Covid

    OMICRON – re arrange the letters in that word and you get MORONIC

    MORONIC is what all this is. These cars and all this green bullshit is the MORONIC VARIANT.

  2. From 2027: In auto news today, General Motors announced the discontinuance of the Cadillac brand. Sales have dropped to only 1500 units the last three years. GM was hoping the electric car mandate ordered by the late President Biden would give them a lock on fleet sales to government. Sadly for the company, President Trump cancelled the executive order in 2025 and the hoped for sales never materialized.

  3. How many of the executives today, making those decisions for “later this decade” are only a year or two away from cashing out their golden parachute and moving on. They certainly don’t want to be around when Cadillac goes tits up, but they will definitely get their little incest buddies to appoint them to the board of directors of yet another company to screw up. Just like the politicians passing bills that will go into effect 10 years down the road. It’s all good if you’re not the one holding the bag when shit gets real.

  4. My 85 year old mother has a Cadillac CTS 2 door with the 6L LS2 engine. It was a “demo” model that the wife of the dealership drove until it had 6k miles on it and my mother bought it. It is stupid quick and handles very well. She puts less than 5k miles on it a year.

  5. I married into a Ford family, and we get the employee/retiree discount. I’m probably driving my last Lincoln because they’ve done away with sedans although they still make Lincoln SUVs and crossovers. I normally drive cars into the ground but I might trade this one in early because all the sedans are disappearing.

  6. So what often happens when the fun police decide we are having too much fun?

    Prohibition didn’t exactly stop the sale of booze. Even if they stop the sale of gasoline, ICE cars can run on Methanol and alcohol.

    Some of those ” Oldies ” you pictured are 50+ years old and getting more valuable by the minute. They are all not going to magically disappear just because the Greenies want them to.

    You are going to need a lot more $$$. keep buying those Powerball tickets.

  7. The destruction of GM is now inevitable, whether by bankruptcy or takeover by properly run companies.

    The head of Toyota recently noted that there is insufficient electrical generating capacity in the world or in any country to run an all electric vehicle fleet.

    Dump GM stock, buy Toyota or maybe VW – the Krauts are currently getting kicked in the nuts by the reality of energy supply and may have learned.

  8. My eco-friendly neighbors/friends ask me why I opted for the big V-8 in my Jag XJ. I said “because it doesn’t come in a V-12”.

  9. And if you start to dissect exactly where this premise that the ICE must be phased out, and by what authority such decrees are proclaimed, you end up with a lot of nudge and smoosh; hints of legitimate authority, but without its actual substance. A regulation here, and interlocking requirement there, a dash of social opprobrium there, it all adds up with zero accountability, socialized responsibility, and no single bad actor to point your finger at.

    The art of smiley faced fascism reaches a new high.

  10. I remember when Cadillac made “the last convertible” in the 70s (I think it was).
    How did that work out?

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