Junkyard Find: 1999 Cadillac Escalade

Starting in the 1997 model year, The General’s Cadillac Division glued Cadillac badges and some puzzling cartoon-duck advertising to the Opel Omega and called it the Catera. I’ve photographed just about every junkyard Catera I’ve found because they seem like relics from a long-ago past when Detroit car companies believed Americans would buy their European-market cars… or cars, period. Another Cadillac from the same era fits right in with American automotive trends of the last couple of decades, though, because it helped create them: The Cadillac Escalade. Here’s a first-model-year Escalade, found in a Silicon Valley self-service yard a few months back.

Read more
  • MaintenanceCosts 308/311 is just the rating of the gas engine by itself. The full powertrain power rating, taking into account both power sources is 483/479. The car will do 0-60 in under five seconds. Frankly, I find the idea of that being "underpowered" bizarre.Also, "understated" has never been less fashionable within my lifetime. We are in a moment where everyone wants to make a Bold Statement with everything they do.
  • 28-Cars-Later @PoskySo here's some interesting data, Manheim's Used Car index is still 28% higher than shortly before the Plandemic (155 on chart) after declining from a height of 39% (roughly 215) in January 2022, yet interest rates are now more than double on average. Maybe the White House should focus on some deflationomics instead of mucking up everything?
  • Dale Had one. The only car I ever bought because of a review in a guitar magazine.Sure was roomy inside for such a small car. Super practical. Not much fun to drive even with a manual.Sent it to college with my stepson where it got sideswiped. Later he traded it in on an F-150.
  • Bd2 Hyundai's designs are indeed among the most innovative and their battery technologies should allow class leading fuel consumption. Smartstream hybrids are extremely reliable.
  • 28-Cars-Later So now H/K motors will last longer in between scheduled replacements. Wow, actual progress.