Caddilac is going to NYC

For the past couple of years, the automotive industry and consumers alike have watched General Motors try to rally the "Motor City" and bring some much - needed life back into its shaky brand. However, amidst all the drama surrounding the numerous recalls that have been issued by GM, it's kind of hard to get behind the cause - at least for this automotive giant.

The news doesn't get any better, as Today, according to an article published on Car & Driver, World-Renown brand Cadillac will be moving their Marketing and Executive Functions bay-side to the SoHo Manhattan Area of New York City to operate as a stand - alone business unit. Though the Manufacturing and Engineering will continue to work in Detroit, that's not how it's going to remain, as they also stated that eventually, these departments will be following suit; and immediately, the question rises - what exactly has been happening over at General Motors?

We'll start with the infamous Ignition Switch Recall; the benchmark spark that set GM alite when it was made known that not only were the ignition switches faulty, but that the company had known about the problems surrounding millions of GM - produced vehicles way before issuing the recalls. This, in turn led to a series of nasty and fallacious lawsuits, testimonies, court dates, and employment termination that seemed to completely compromise the company's reputation. So what exactly is Cadillac's reasoning for moving their offices out of the Renaissance Center? Apparently they want to broaden their horizons and incorporate the Cadillac name into a more trendy market.

According to the report issued by GM to Car and Driver, the company wanted the brand to become "immersed in the premium lifestyle" of New York - which has some validity to it. Next year, Cadillac will be launching their newest S-Class fighting flagship sedan in New York, rumored to be called the LTS, although according to C&D, is a name that has not been officially finalized, though it has been confirmed that production will be based in the same Detroit plant that once produced the Eldorado ad the Seville, and currently produces the Volt, Malibu, Impala, and Cadillac's ELR. 

My thoughts on this can be paraphrased to a simple question - if Cadillac seems to be signing the pre-nups now, could they be going the way of now independent brand, Lincoln, or will they be more like the short - lived SRT brand if they do go solo?

 Cadillac has long been seen by many as the brand that signifies what American cars should be like - comfortable, big, leathery and soft on the roads. Lately though, changing market conditions, and a need to get itself away from the ancient demographic that still has this idea about the brand have morphed Cadillac into a more perfomance - based appeal, which has worked for the most part.

I believe that this is the first of many following actions to come within the brand, and could be the start of their reign to become an independent auto maker, so as to avoid the constant drama that has brought into question the quality of the cars that General Motors Produces. Sure, now they are saying that only Cadillac's Marketing and executive functions will be relocated, but keep in mind as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, they also made it clear that Engineering and other parts of the business will be following suit as well - so let me put it to you: Does the empire brand have what it takes to make things happen in the Empire state?

I suppose it's best to keep a close eye on Cadillac as they prepare to launch the LTS

Artificial

It's morning. Just as the clock hits 7am, a unique and futuristic alarm can be heard, pulsing in rhythm, emitting a sound that has been designed to recognize the brain's sleep cycles, going off only after it recognizes the end of a sleep cycle, preventing morning fatigue.

It was bright. It was majestic. Its presence filling the sky with a warm light and illuminating every detail of the land it basked its rays over. I looked up, and had to put my hand just beneath my eyes to prevent is incredible brightness from dazzling me too much.

It was beautiful.

I had only heard stories of this great light, and they had filled my nights with dreams and wonder of how it must have been to live amongst its presence. In my dreams, I would be filled with all of these fantasies, only to never find out where it came from, or why it was there; or why these rumors I'd heard filled my mind with so much wonder and curiosity.

It was at that moment, that my dream went black, as my alarm went off at 7am.

The morning was like any other. I laid in my bed for a few minutes, contemplating the week ahead. Outside my window, it was still dark, as it had always been. My room was simple. Adorned with my bed by the window, and on the other side, a desk, filled with tinkers and sketches from previous experiments. Since I was a kid, I had always had a curiosity about how things worked on the microscopic level. Now that I was in college, I had made it sort of a hobby; mainly because the stories I had heard about this mysterious light that had intrigued me so much when I was younger. After staring at the cluttered desk for a while, I had decided that spending the day in bed wasn't something I wanted to do.

I made my way to the bathroom, lazily, and I looked in the mirror, rubbing the last of my sleep out of my eyes, and I went about my morning routine. After a shower, I picked out my outfit. I checked the clock again, making sure I wasn't falling behind schedule. 7:45 am. Right on schedule. Checking the clock was second nature to us. It wasn't so much a habit, but rather, it was an instinct. It was how we grew up. It was how we were raised. It was a part of how we lived our daily lives from birth.

When we're born, each and every one of us is engrained with a chip, which enables us to tell the time numerically, without the need for a visual aid. We're taught how to use it in pre-school, and as we grow up, the idea that we have a computer chip in our brains eventually fades, to where it becomes a natural part of our thought process, although for the rest of our lives, we're always acutely aware that a part of us is, not really us.

I got back into my room, and I opened a special door. Behind it was a small room, the walls lined with warm, soothing colors, and positioned in the middle was a bed, adorned with a single pillow and lining, positioned beneath a large light hanging above that emitted a light that was specially designed to stimulate essential vitamins and minerals within our bodies. We are required to do this every day for 20 minutes to keep our skin healthy. Anyone who missed more than one week would have to go to the emergency room for Vitamin treatment. Without it, we wouldn't live very long. Of course, that was just another part of daily life for us.

In the stories I've heard, no one ever mentions anything about time. In fact, I never seem to think about it in my dreams. It never seems present. It seems natural. It was when I had my first dream about these fantasies and myths, that I started to wonder why they were so captivating to me.

The Rally.

The dirt was loose, the weather was bleak, and through my veins pulsed every ounce of blood my body contained at light speed, coursing through my hands, despite the white knuckle grip that I had bestowed upon the steering wheel. Under the hood, the power-snorting V8 engine roared as it carried me through the forest on this narrow stretch of dirt road, kicking up untold amounts of mud, dust and brush in its wake. This Land Rover was unlike any I had ever driven, and this race was unlike any I had ever competed in. In the passenger's seat my co driver accompanied me, providing insight on upcoming corners as we strived to finish the backwoods sprint as fast as physics and our minds would allow us to. This was the G4 challenge, and the stakes were high.

I had remembered at the beginning of the race what my father had told me as a child. It was a lesson that I had carried into my adulthood and to this day, it made perfect sense. Today, I was holding those words true to every corner I took with the Defender at blistering speed. My co-driver was steady with his instruction and I was anticipating each corner with great confidence.

"Left crown into 2 right sweep!" He exclaimed into the microphone, the adrenaline forcing the words out in a rushed tone and a proper volume. He had to shout to overcome the sheer volume of the powerful engine up front.

I cranked the wheel left, the sound of loose gravel and mud kicking up beneath the car, understeer threatening to put us into any one of the hundreds of trees that rushed passed us as we progressed through the sprint.

"Right sweep into 4 left crest!" He exclaimed with vigor.

As we came out of the bend, I mercilessly turned the wheel hard right, correcting the slide and putting the Land Rover back on track, a lick of over steer kicking the tail out just enough to whip our bodies against the grain of gravity and inertia. There was only a mile left.

A straight lay ahead, and as we came upon it, I pressed my foot hard down. Though the dirt and mud seemed straight and level to the naked eye, the story that the suspension told was quite the contrary. We hit dips and crests that pressed down the springs at some times, and took all four wheels off the ground at others. With my foot hard down, I continued on relentlessly, shaking all doubts I had in my driving abilities as confidence took over. Just as we neared the end of the straight and approached the tight right hander that would lead us to the finish, I turned the wheel, anticipating that I had slowed enough for the thick rally tires to find grip.

I hadn't.

I pressed hard on the brakes, careful not to lock up the wheels of this 2 ton beast as it hurled us toward a tree, rather than keeping us on the road. I only had milliseconds to react, and As the Defender seemed unresponsive to my corrective maneuvers, I turned the wheel as hard as I could to the right, hoping that it would give me a hope of at least avoiding the trunk of the massive Pine tree. I closed my eyes and braced for what I predicted would be a devastating impact.

The Land Rover leaped off the course, still sustaining enough speed to put me and my co driver through the windshield, but as we landed with a hard thud, the wheel which had been cranked to the right, gained traction and veered the truck just wide right of the tree, leaving us in the forest, still moving, the sound of thick and damaging brush banging on the under tray of the land rover, delivering engine-crippling blows as we slowed. Flashes of light came from the distance by the road from the cameras of the spectators and photographers that had witnessed the incident, assuming that we had given up. But we hadn't.

Still carrying speed through the thick and unforgiving brush, I hurled the Land Rover back round toward the track and made my way back through the brush and passed the tree that had nearly compromised our chances of winning; the only sound to warn onlookers to move coming from the ravaging V8 as it propelled us through the forest.

As I re-entered the course, me and my co driver glanced at one another, mutually agreeing that we were still physically in tact despite the battering we had taken from the rough terrain of the forest floor, and I put my foot back down. and continued toward the finish line. We hadn't won, but I knew that finishing with pride was better than not finishing at all. As the crippled Land Rover crossed the line, a steady line of applause filled the air as we came to a stop. Upon exiting the car, it had become apparent just how bad the damage was.

Two flat tires, a bent rim, a missing fender, a bent brush bar and a mucky coating of rocks and mud adorned the sides and back of the truck, turning the orange finish into a gradient brown as my gaze continued down toward the ground.