G. David Felt

I have to disagree with you my friend, ANY ICE engine cannot always be rebuilt. Some are past the ability to be done. Sounds like the tranny in these were a mess anyway, so while a start of cool tech back then, retrofitting for a more modern power train might be the easiest and cheapest way to go.

Cool, weird read as the story is written as if it is law but then parts written as if they are proposing changes. Weird, Thank you for your input on it.

Yes, before those you posted and thank you for finding the info and posting, I am wondering if in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's if this was done before and failed?

Not true, there is plenty of German made stuff I like including auto's. Yet as I stated, this is below what the public here is going to expect unless they are a badge snob.

Yes it says that at the start and then just below it it stays: Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said at an energy conference in Tel Aviv. “From 2030 onwards, the State of Israel will create alternatives and will no longer allow the import of cars that run on gasoline and diesel fuel.”

All the stories say new auto sales are to be banned.

Right!, I am surprised by this and with the heat I would think it would affect it but clearly not.

Nope below it IMHO, I think the Chevy even the Nissan luxury interior is better. That is the problem. MB has built up a reputation for Luxury with the tag line the best or nothing at all. The US expects them to be that and yet they are going vans and low end auto's that compete with Chevy and Toyota and that is affecting their image as people expect them to be uber luxury and something special and they are no longer that.

The ministry of Energy in Israel made the announcement that in 12 years, Israel would be fully reliant on Natural Gas, Solar and Wind power to support the nation for electricity and transportation. 2030 is the year all gas / diesel ICE auto's will be banned. Companies that need medium and heavy duty trucks will have to buy Natural Gas trucks and for consumers all choices will be electric or natural gas. This is on top of stopping all importation of Coal from the US and changing their energy plants to 100% Natural Gas and adding wind turbines off the coast and solar throughout the country. The goal is 83% natural gas and 17% renewable energy production for the country starting in 2030. Currently the country as of today is 71% natural gas, 27% coal and 2% renewable. They have managed due to contract obligations long term to reduce their reliance on outside needs and coal as an example will only be used as a backup source as they complete their obligations under contracts to the US. Israel discovered in 2010 the Leviathan field 10KM or 6 miles off their coast what is considered to be one of the world's largest natural gas fields and comes online January 2019. This field is expected to reduce to zero their reliance on the US for natural gas exports. Israel has signed deals to supply Jordan, Egypt with Billions of cubic feet of natural gas over the next 10-15 years. This comes on top of the Tamar gas field that was discovered in 2009 and started production in 2013. By 2020 Israel is expected to be energy independent for the first time. As the supply lines are finished to Jordan and Egypt, natural gas delivery will start in the 4th quarter of 2019. We then have Denmark who has also announced the end of all gas / diesel new car sales by 2030. Yet here is where they have diverged from the rest of europe that will allow existing auto's to stay on the road till replaced / retired. Denmark has announced that due to the vote of the people, 17 years from now or 2035 all auto's period allowed on the roads must be electric. This means if you have an old auto you like and want to keep it running, you will have to convert to electric. As it stands here is the current date of new gas / diesel auto sales banned: 2025 - Norway 2030 - France, Netherlands, Ireland, India, Austria, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Korea, Spain and Israel 2030 - Cities that will ban new gas / diesel auto sales are Athens, Madrid and Mexico City 2040 - The UK has set this as the date for the end of new ICE auto sales. The following places have set electric auto sales targets - China, US, Japan, Canada, Norway, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden. 2050 all of the European Union will only be allowed to sell electric auto's. China will have a major effect on the world as they have stated percentage goals for new auto sales for a company with 2019 being the start with 10% of all new auto sales per company must be electric. This goes up every year, it was 8% in 2018, 10% for 2019, 12% for 2020 and so on for the Chinese ZEV mandate. China is currently on track this year to sell one million electric auto's, 149% increase over 2017. Overall, countries around the world are pushing to change the way things have been which will have a large impact on the original oil producing OPEC nations. Independance from reliance on energy from other countries is at an all time high as countries move to have no reliance on other places and be self sustaining by using renewable energy or existing forms of energy they have discovered. Times of Israel Story UPI Story CNN Business Story. Investors Story on China Electric auto sales Electrek story on China EV sales

Do not know, but it is the first one I have heard of. Edit: @balthazar Yoda of auto history, Question restated since @ccap41 found history of recent use of plastic oil pans. So question to you, are these the actual first use or did they try them before in the last 50 years but like GM diesel conversion V8's of the 70's they were a disaster?

It is much more minimalist than it's sister Nissan truck. Then Nissan if you get the Luxury package looks better than MB.

I agree it is not much better but then they are not charging a luxury price or presenting a luxury persona as MB is.

I drop a few Oats in your bucket my friend along with a new wood chisel! Thinking on this more, this is where electric powertrains or a modern ICE powertrain can keep these babies on the road if the OEM is not longer working.

Very true, there are composite plastic that is stronger than steel equals. I just hope that for an AWD CUV, there is some sort of protection shield underneath. Much like how tesla needed to add a shield to protect better their plastic battery case on the Tesla S. Just make sure the lite material choices are protected as there is no history of plastic oil pans before. I hope the heat does not warp it and make them leak.

You see nothing wrong with the Fisher price black plastic garbage interior and cheap ass add in screen glued to the dash. If MB is trying to say yes we can rebadge a cheap truck and charge stupid crazy prices, then they succeeded.

WOW, What a Plastic Puke box of garbage. That coming here will only be bought by badge snobs that do not understand a real truck or the quality of a truck they have here but the stupid 3 point badge on the grill and all the cheap ass black plastic interior. The dash is pathetic. This is anything but Luxury, Cheap ass Chinese garbage if I did not know who supplied the truck. Pathetic.

Totally agree with you as they do look very similar and I think unless you have them side by side to see the size difference, many will confuse if it is an XT4 or XT5. Even with the subtle differences in the plastic lower valance in the front they are allot alike. True family resemblance.

@ocnblu @Cubical-aka-Moltar I admit I am only Human. I grabbed the picture from the media section where they had XT4 and did not look close enough. Now the pic is from the XT4 section on the cadillac web site. Happy?

I agree with that too, I like both in this body style!

I would have to agree with you on the data you point out here. It has been interesting that Diesel has lost a bit of it's benefit with stronger turbo gas motors and what electric power trains are doing. The break even point as we have discussed in other threads here have shown some crazy long years of ownership to recover the cost. Other than businesses, it will be hard for normal people to really justify the new straight 6 diesel or 3L Duramax that they are coming out with I feel. I hope they have it smooth and quiet like the Cruze diesel was. No one would know a diesel was next to them in how quiet that engine was.

@dwightlooi What are your thoughts Dwight on plastic oil pans and the tech changes that motors are undergoing?

Take a 650HP Tesla P100D powertrain, 2 2017 Chevy Volt Batteries and one Honda S2000 and you have a wicked fast auto!

https://www.motor1.com/news/268789/honda-cr-v-engine-troubles-report/ Seems Honda's popular CR-V and their Civics that share their 1.5L Turbo motor are all having a major stall problem from Oil and Gas getting mixed upon entering the engine. This becomes an even bigger recall for 2019, 2018 and some 2017 models as Honda sold over 500,000 CR-Vs in the US alone not including this same engine in Canada and Mexico. Honda says they are working on a solution and will apply it under warranty to all engines. Yet this makes one ask would you want a new cracked motor to fix a problem with gas / oil mixing or would you want a complete new motor? While Honda has not stated what they did on the recall for the CR-V in China, the Civic owners in China as well as around the world are not happy and with a Hybrid version on sale using this motor, many more will probably not be happy.

https://insideevs.com/nhtsa-tesla-model-3-safest-vehicle-tested/ Very cool so the Tesla 3 is the safest auto period of all the cars out there. The videos in the above links of how the car handles is very impressive. Highest rating as Musk tweeted out weeks before the testing. This is good news as they are raising the bar for personal safety in an auto.

The 2019 Cadillac XT4 is in production, on their way to dealerships and out for test drives around North America. Reviews have been very positive and people have a variety of love / hate it for the design. Even here on Cheers and Gears various members have a passion on how plastic is being used on the front and rear of the car. With that it is time to take a closer look at some of the tech on this newest CUV from Cadillac. I found sandyblogs.com and the writers Tech Link. Here they do a pretty good job of pointing out the various tech on new auto's. I wanted to bring this into C&G for discussion and see what you all think. Tech open for debate: XT4 Electro-hydraulic brakes Turbo Charged 2.0L engine Plastic Engine Oil Pan Multipoint Air filter sensors 9 speed transmission with shift by wire Active Twin Clutch AWD system Active Sports Suspension Next Generation Infotainment system Rotary Controller Driver Assistance systems Hands Free power liftgate 22 new specialty tools to work on the auto The XT4 is the first GM auto to use their new brake control system that takes up considerably less room under the hood compared to a traditional Vacuum assisted power braking system. This new brake system is 13 lbs lighter than the old one it replaces. There are new braking sensors, brake pad sensors, wheel speed sensors and a new Power up self test. This makes the braking system a very self aware system for faster response with greater safety. We then have the feature heavy 2.0L Turbo 4 motor with AFM (Active Fuel Management), SIDI (Spark ignited Direct Injection), DOHC (Dual Overhead Camshafts), VVT (Variable Valve Timing) with this being the first new engine built on CSS or cylinder set strategy. This engine also uses an electric water pump using a built in local interconnect Network to manage cooling. Oil is the Gen 2 full synthetic SAE 0W-20 and uses a hardened plastic oil pan connected to the engine block. This oil pan helps to reduce the overall weight by a few pounds. The DIC in the auto is able to manage the multiple air sensor points on when you need to change the air filter. The 9 speed transmission is one of the smallest ever and uses electronics to shift gears via input from the EPS (Electronic Precision Shift). This does have a slightly different pattern over the XT5 as it is just a straight up and down only. The AWD twin clutch system is electronically controlled and allows a perfect 50/50 between front and back wheels and yet allows power up to 100% to be sent to the wheels with the best traction. The active Sport Suspension adjusts to the road every 2 milliseconds and allows the driver to change between tour, sport or AWD mode at any time. Cadillac is rolling out their next generation infotainment system. Higher quality graphics with a much faster more responsive system. faster to touch as well as voice. This system supports NFC (Near Field Communication) for easy pairing of your phone and the system. Besides touching the screen or a button, there is a rotary controller now allowing ease in access among the menus and feature function. Driver assistance systems is easiest to just post their long list of what this includes: Safety Alert Seat Rear Camera Mirror Surround Vision 360-degree Camera Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning Front/Rear Park Assist Rear Cross Traffic Alert Front Pedestrian Braking Forward Collision Alert Forward/Reverse Automatic Braking Head-Up Display Automatic Parking Assist with Braking Final feature is one that Cadillac competitor has had for years, Hand Free power liftgate. When you are within 6 ft of the rear of the auto with the fob in your pocket, you can just swing your foot and it will open the rear liftgate. The final listed item is all the new tools needed to work on the XT4. You can review the list on the Tech Link 1. Tech Link 1 Tech Link 2