35 Facts About Cadillac

1.

Cadillac Motor Car Division is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors that designs and builds luxury vehicles.

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2.

Cadillac automobiles are at the top of the luxury field within the United States.

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3.

Cadillac is among the first automotive brands in the world, fourth in the United States only to Autocar Company and fellow GM marques Oldsmobile and Buick .

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4.

Cadillac had the first U S car to win the Royal Automobile Club of the United Kingdom's Dewar Trophy by successfully demonstrating the interchangeability of its component parts during a reliability test in 1908; this spawned the firm's slogan "Standard of the World".

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5.

Cadillac was formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company.

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6.

Cadillac's biggest selling point was precision manufacturing, and therefore, reliability; a Cadillac was simply a better-made vehicle than its competitors.

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7.

From its earliest years, Cadillac aimed for precision engineering and stylish luxury finishes, causing its cars to be ranked amongst the finest in the United States.

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8.

Cadillac was the first volume manufacturer of a fully enclosed car, in 1906.

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9.

Cadillac participated in the 1908 interchangeability test in the United Kingdom, and was awarded the Dewar Trophy for the most important advancement of the year in the automobile industry.

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10.

Cadillac became General Motors' prestige division, devoted to the production of large luxury vehicles.

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11.

The Cadillac line was GM's default marque for "commercial chassis" institutional vehicles, such as limousines, ambulances, hearses and funeral home flower cars, the last three of which were custom-built by aftermarket manufacturers.

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12.

In 1912, Cadillac was the first automobile manufacturer to incorporate an electrical system enabling starting, ignition, and lighting.

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13.

In 1915, Cadillac introduced a 90-degree flathead V8 engine with 70 horsepower at 2400 rpm and 180 pound force-feet of torque, allowing its cars to attain 65 miles per hour .

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14.

In 1928 Cadillac introduced the first clashless Synchro-Mesh manual transmission, utilizing constant mesh gears.

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15.

In 1926, Cadillac recruited automobile stylist Harley Earl in a one-time consulting capacity, but his employment lasted considerably longer: by 1928, Earl was the head of the new Art and Color division and he would ultimately work for GM until he retired, over 30 years later.

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16.

Cadillac introduced the "turret top", the first all-steel roof on a passenger car.

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17.

Exacerbating sales performance for the Cadillac brand was a policy, reflective of the times, which discouraged sales to African Americans.

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18.

Nick Dreystadt, mechanic and national head of Cadillac service, urged a committee—set up to decide whether the Cadillac brand would live on—to revoke that policy.

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19.

Cadillac entered into talks with General Motors and convinced the Cadillac group his new screws would speed assembly times and therefore increase profits.

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20.

Cadillac was the first automaker to use the Phillips technology, in 1937, which was widely adopted in 1940.

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21.

Postwar Cadillac vehicles innovated many of the styling features that came to be synonymous with the late 1940s and 1950s American automobile.

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22.

On 25 November 1949, Cadillac produced its one-millionth car, a 1950 Coupe de Ville.

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23.

In 1951, Cadillac began production of the M41 Walker Bulldog army tank, which saw service in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

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24.

In 1957, Cadillac attempted to move further upmarket, creating the hand-built Series 70 Eldorado Brougham.

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25.

Cadillac's success grew against rivals Lincoln and Imperial, which had division sales topping all of Chrysler for the first time in 1970.

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26.

Cadillac experienced record sales in 1973 and again in the late 1970s.

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27.

Cadillac brought out a dramatic redesign for the Seville in 1980 featuring a bustle-back rear-end styling theme and a move to the same front-wheel-drive chassis as the Eldorado.

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28.

In 1991, Cadillac introduced the Northstar engine, which was a family of high-performance 90° V engines produced by General Motors from 1991 to 2010.

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29.

The related Northstar System was Cadillac's trademarked name for a package of performance features introduced in mid-1992 that coupled variable valve timing, road sensing suspension, variable power steering, and four-wheel disc brakes to the Division's high-output and high-torque Northstar engines.

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30.

In 2005, the Cadillac STS was introduced as the successor to the Cadillac Seville, which beginning in 1988 was available as an upscale performance-oriented STS version, and comfort-oriented SLS .

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31.

In 2016, the Cadillac CT6 was introduced and was the brand's first full-size rear-wheel-drive sedan since the discontinuation of the Fleetwood in 1996.

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32.

In early 2017, Cadillac launched Book By Cadillac, a vehicle subscription service which was initially available in New York City.

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33.

Cadillac has won the Motor Trend Car of the Year award five times:.

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34.

Cadillac powered the Cadillac Northstar LMP a Le Mans Prototype in the early years of the American Le Mans Series from 2000 to 2002.

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35.

Cadillac returned to prototype racing in 2017 with the Cadillac DPi-V.

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