I have a sense from reading the news and talking to friends in Britain that things are extremely not alright over there. Not since the heights of Thatcherism have different levels of society eyed each other with such contempt. They’ve been going through Ministers Prime like most of us go through 10 mm sockets. The royal family is on the rocks, and people keep invoking Charles I. Bad times.
The UK and the US enjoy a “special relationship,” and it’s in times of trouble that we do our best to help out the other. In this case, General Motors will be aiding the United Kingdom by offering various giant trucks. I love giant trucks. Giant trucks make some people happy, and who am I to deny our friends some happiness? If you’re a Ford truck owner, though, your happiness might be limited by the massive recall that’s impacting millions of trucks. It’s about lighting! No one tell Jason.
Yesterday, there were some questions about whether or not Stellantis execs were recouping big bucks while workers were left out in the cold. At least one guy did, and you’ll absolutely guess who it is if you read The Morning Dump often. It’s not fun to get passed over for a bonus, but it’s worse if you’re one of the 300 Lucid workers who are out of a job as the company tries to right-size before the launch of its new midsize offering.
May Joyous Escalades And Glorious Silverados Be His Companions
The photo above was sent in a press release from GM Europe and importer/distributor/homlogator Clive Sutton. I assume it’s the Cotswolds. The Western Cotswolds. The Far Western Cotswolds.
GM mostly retreated from Europe when it sold Opel and Vauxhall, but the company has made a fun little side business of exporting its largest vehicles to various corners of the world. If you want an Escalade or a Silverado, no one outside of North America makes a true equivalent. You may prefer an Alpina XB7 to an Escalade-V, but they are not the same thing.
Now, with the help of Clive Sutton, here’s what’s coming. Here’s what the founder had to say:
“This is an exciting moment for UK customers who have long admired GM’s premium and performance lineup. For the first time, buyers in the UK can view vehicles such as luxurious Cadillac Escalade and GMC Yukon Denali SUVs, or US favourite pickup trucks including the popular Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra – with, warranty, finance, UK homologation, and nationwide servicing. We are delighted to be the first GM Specialty Vehicles franchise in the UK and to lead development of the nationwide network.”
As of this spring, you can get the following:
- Cadillac: Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade-V
- GMC: Yukon Denali, Sierra 1500 Denali, Sierra 1500 AT4
- Chevrolet: Tahoe, Suburban, Silverado
Right on.
Now, I’m going to stop some of you right here. I can just hear the complaints. “Matt, these things are huge.” “Matt, the roads are not big enough.” “Matt, no one needs a Silverado in London.”
Sorry. Wrong. Wrong ideas. Yeah, they’re big, I mean, look at this via CarSized:
You can fit an entire Dacia just between the wheels of a Suburban. And, having driven a few different cars around England, I’m always surprised that so many of the roads can barely fit two small European hatchbacks at the same time. Any of these, in certain parts of the country, will sometimes be a challenge to drive. That being said, An Escalade is not much bigger than a full-sized Sprinter or Transit. It’s possible.
Also, if you’re American, I don’t understand the complaint. Britain has trains, walkable cities, congestion pricing, and high-density/transit-oriented development. If you do all of those things and build a society that doesn’t absolutely need cars, I think you’re allowed to have a few more fun cars. For every 100 miles of reliable regional rail, you get at least one Silverado. That seems fair to me.
The country also only got five medals at the Winter Olympics; they deserve a few Yukons as consolation.
Ford Recalls 4.4 Million Trucks Over Trailer Lights
If you bought a Ford truck or SUV capable of towing between 2021 and 2026, there’s a new recall you might need to worry about, via Bloomberg:
The callback involves a software glitch that could cause taillights, turn signals and brakes on trailers to lose communication with the towing vehicle and stop working, increasing the risk of a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a notice about the recall posted Thursday.
“These conditions result in a noncompliance with federal safety standards and can reduce a driver’s ability to control an attached trailer while making it less visible to other drivers,” Ford said in a statement. The automaker is not aware of any accidents, injuries or fires related to the issue.
Ford will issue an over-the-air software update for trailer control modules in the affected vehicles to fix the issue. Drivers may also bring their vehicles to dealerships for the repair at no cost.
It’s nice that more of these issues can be fixed by OTA updates, but this ain’t gonna help Ford shed its “most recalled brand” title for 2026.
Stellantis CEO Got $6.37 Million, Old One Got $14.1 Million
Yesterday, many of you were concerned that Stellantis execs were walking home with big bonuses while UAW workers got nothing. I don’t have a full answer to who did and didn’t but, right on cue, Reuters provided an update on executive compensation for 2025:
Antonio Filosa, who took over as head of Stellantis in June 2025, received €5.4 million ($6.37 million) in total compensation last year, the company said.
The compensation topped the company’s earlier projection that Filosa would earn at least $4 million annually in his first two years as CEO. His pay could rise to as much as $23 million a year from 2028, including bonuses.
Former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who resigned from the automaker in December 2024, had a pay package of €11.4 million ($14 million) in 2025, according to the company’s annual filing.
Mwhahahahahahahahahaha. So Filosa, who is trying to save the company, will get less than half of what Tavares (pictured above) will get for trashing the company. Amazing.
Lucid To Cut Ahead Of 2026
Can I get away with this joke twice? Let’s see! Lucid sold more cars last year and earned more revenue in 2025, but the cost of doing so led to bigger losses. Is that good? Is that bad? We’ll see, I guess. I’ll be going to the big Lucid Investor’s Day in a couple of weeks, and I’ll be able to answer that question better.
In the interim, Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff (pictured above) told CNBC that the company is going to adjust its staffing accordingly:
Lucid’s results come days after the company laid off 12% of its U.S. salaried workforce in an effort to streamline operations and “operate with greater efficiency and deliver on our commitments to gross margin improvement and long term growth,” according to a statement from the company.
Interim Lucid CEO Marc Winterhoff described the cuts Tuesday to CNBC as a needed realignment of the company’s workforce amid broader market and economic concerns as well as needed gains in efficiency.
“We are adjusting and going to a level where we think we want to be and need to be,” he said. “But it’s nothing that will continue in the future.”
Lucid is in an interesting position as it makes probably the best electric sedan available in the United States and, also, the best electric SUV. Is that enough? This year will be a big test of the company as it can now build things pretty well, which means it has to prove it can sell them. The company hopes to have a midsize vehicle of some sort to show soon, but that’s not going to be sold in any serious numbers this year.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I was reminded recently that Neko Case was briefly the drummer for Canadian Cuddlecore band cub. Here’s her drumming on “Nicolas Bragg.” It’s almost unfathomable now to have Neko Case in your band and not have her sing everything, though, incomprehensibly, she’s playing the bass here?
The Big Question
What American vehicle would you give the world today?
Top photo: GM
The problem with the GM BoF vehicles isn’t their long length (which is probably manageable), but their width. The 3 best-selling cars in the UK last year were the Ford Puma, Kia Sportage, and Nissan Qashqai, which are 1,805mm, 1,865mm, and 1,838mm wide, respectively, while the GM BoFs are all around 2,060mm wide; that’s 195-255mm (7.7-10 inches) or 10.5-14% wider! These are going to struggle to get past those width restrictions used to block truck traffic and/or reduce speeds that are scattered all throughout the country, including London.
Driving a Transit now requires you to hold your breath through width restrictions. The US trucks are about the same width (just over 2000mm) as is a full size Range Rover.
If GM wants to sell giant trucks in the UK, who am I to stop them. We’d like many non-US cars here, and as stupid as it may seem, many Euros lust over ours. And yes, aside from typically normal-sized cars there are many that are no smaller than a Yukon or Escalade – of course you can consider long versions of them, but why exclusively. Either way, a freaking Range Rover is huge and it manages just fine. Just not everywhere.
But the market for these will be extremely limited. Last year I was using my friend’s X3 in Europe for few weeks and a full tank refill cost me well over 100 Euros. So a big American truck getting 10-12 mpgs is not something even remotely manageable for even the well-to-do crowd.
And considering the sales numbers to be, this seems pointless. Europeans can import any ol’ car they want to from anywhere – subject to registration/inspection compliance. We can’t do that because freedom. So if you have the dough (which you will need to regardless) you can import yourself that 2026 Escalade if you want to. It’s not like GM will have extensive support for these things anyways.
Big American trucks (tahoe, Suburban, silverado) don’t get 10-12mpg anymore. The 2026 Tahoe gets 28mpg highway, the diesel Silverado can get 29mpg.
Sure, let’s use the most optimistic numbers for a 2WD diesel driven gingerly on the highway.
Even if you remove 1mpg for having 4wd that’s still nowhere near 10-12mpg. Even the worst case combined numbers on the gassers is over 20mpg
If Brits want a huge, ridiculous vehicle, we’re allowed to drive a tank on the road here.
Because, um, no freedom, or something?
These days, Escalades and Yukons scream, “I’m in debt up to my ears, but want to look rich!”. If you can afford these, you could probably just buy a BMW or a Benz, unless you “need” a huge tank for your kids’ soccer gear. So big, unreliable, or horrible on gas, it makes ZERO sense to me. Better off with a CR-V or Rav4 for most of those cases that I’m joking about.
Hmm I went from an E63 wagon to an Escalade V and I don’t have think I have debt outside my mortgage…There are people that just think the Escalade is way cooler than a GLS or X7.
Have you owned it for long? They are a bit overpriced for what you get IMO. I don’t understand how anyone needs anything bigger than an X5, also, but that’s just me. X7 looks hilarious to me, like if it got any taller, it would look like a triangle from the back.
Not many 700hp government buildings that can do 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, sounds like a muscle car and is better built than my previous merc. I did lower it a bit though.
I’ve never seen a government building move. Cool to hear that you lowered it, kind of a dying art these days with everyone lifting stuff. I’m glad you like it overall, though.
Navigator is where it’s at for me these days.
When they put the Raptor R engine in a Navigator, I’ll consider it!
Is a Tahoe really more unreliable than an X5 or X7? So long as you stay away from the 6.2, I think I’d take my chance with GM. That additional cost in gas is probably being more than recouped in resale. GM’s full size SUVs seem to have comparatively good resale compared to anything somewhat similar out of Europe.
6.2 is supposedly fixed too.
By using different viscosity oil. Jury is still out
No, new models are supposedly unafflicted.
Supposedly.
I think the point is you’re paying the same amount, but getting a Chevy vs a luxury brand with better performance and much more fun to drive. Everyone has a different definition of fun, though. Some like to carry luggage, some like to turn corners fast in style.
Most people don’t buy cars based on fun
Also, I’ve owned X5, X3 and 5 series and never had issues with reliability so I don’t get the whole BMW are unreliable point. That’s more VW/Audi and Benz IMO.
I just think if you have 4-5 kids or a lot of luggage, a minivan would be good, not a 70k Tahoe or a 100k Yukon. Again, it’s just my opinion though!
The truly wealthy do not buy Yukons.
That’s not true, the truly wealthy ranch/farm set buy them
I think it depends on location and your definition of wealth level. But truly wealthy, like the top 0.10%, won’t buy them. But GM wouldn’t survive if it sold Yukons only to them. I agree with The World of Vee: you will see it more in rural areas, where people want to be able to drive on dirt/gravel roads a bit better.
TBQ
Right there in the last topic. The world deserves more Lucids. I spent ~45 minutes on Tuesday crawling all over an Air and a Gravity. They really are deluxe. Really amazing packaging. Of course, those futuristic windshields are probably nightmare when they get chipped, but they make an impression.
Also, this bit : “The country also only got five medals at the Winter Olympics”
Wow! The alumni from my tiny alma mater managed to score four. I guess the UK isn’t big on Winter sports.
For medals, the answer is Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.
TBQ: ’67-69 Camaroes. They seem to be popular abroad and we certainly don’t need more of the-
Oh, wait, you meant new cars and not just me dumping things I get bored of seeing at car shows on everyone else? Hehehe…
So Mustang and Corvette are already international. A lot of smaller crossovers as well, just under different names. Same with many of the Midsize pickups…yes, I know we get the Taco and they get the Hilux, but the Hilux is newer and probably better.
I dunno, the New Charger, I guess? Or the Maverick if that’s not sold abroad already.
CT5-V Blackwings with the Manual. The more of those in existence the better.
Speaking of Cadillac, an Escalade V-series in Britain with a giant American flag decal applied across its roof would make for a hilarious not-so-mirror image of those Mini-Coopers with Union Jack top-covers here in the US.
I was thinking it would come across more like the General Lee
Sorry, that’s reserved for Mopar, er, Stellantis.
Especially if the horn plays The Star-Spangled Banner. Na-na Naa NA NAA NAAAAAA
Speaking as a British expat, that would be hilarious–and stealth! No one would ever know what’s on top of that SUV. =)
Do they still do the double decker bus?
How could they tell? Nobody’s tall enough to see it!
Probably will sell 200 or so of them as status symbols- they will never leave London so small roads won’t be an issue
Will GM sell more big trucks in Europe than they sold Cadillac BLS models? We’ll find out in a few years.
Honestly I’d send them the Maverick. Hybrid and AWD in a practical package. They deserve it
Like in ours, I bet the Ford Maverick would hit the sweet spot in a lot of other markets too, with the added Americana flavor for them. And it’s a cool example of America making something that’s simultaneously retro and contemporary.
Can’t picture a single person in the UK who asked for this or cares.
But at those grungy tail light bars JT frequents on the other hand? This is gonna be a hot topic! Finally Americans can import some of those sweet homologated tail lights with amber signals to slap on their Denali.
The only correct take today.
Why not officially sell some tanks? The reality is that in most cases, anyone in Europe can personally import just about anything anyway, GM might as well make some more money on it. Otherwise, they might well import a used one and GM gets nothing.
This is sort of true, theoretically these vehicles have always been available to anyone who wants one badly enough, while the reverse is absolutely not true for any American buyers wanting a Euro market vehicle
And you can thank the European makes for that legislation back in the ’80s.
I want BMW to send American versions of their cars over to Europe. Just curious if the turn signals work there.
From what I heard, no. No they do not.
I can’t wait until those Escalade customers realize that Super Cruise only gets them from the Hamptons to Key West.
TRX! Spread the hoon!
The comments being predictable on this one, I’m inclined to ask what the issue here is?
If y’all are right and no Brits want these, then the experiment will fail, GM will lose money, and the trucks will return to being sold only here.
But consider for a minute that GM’s product planners may know just a bit more about their market than you do.
I don’t think these will be huge sellers, but I do think there’s some demand for them. When I lived in Europe there were lots of people who envied our big trucks. Some of the wealthiest imported them and damn the costs. That will happen here too.
The real question I have is if a RHD version has been engineered? That seems like it would open up options in Australia as well.
Agreed. There’s plenty of admiration of all things USA amongst plenty of brits. You might wonder if an Acadia Denali is a better fit for UK roads, but it doesn’t have the cachet of an Escalade. And the market they are going for buys image.
There’s no issue, this is the GM golden bauble for George. There are plenty rich nobs and baller’s who’d love these things.
It seems that dunking on GM is still the move. I don’t personally get it, they make some dumb cars but they also make some really good ones.
Kinda the same thing as all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over Brexit. You only ever see criticism (I honestly don’t know enough about the EU politics of it all to fully grasp all the consequences) but there were obviously enough people there that wanted it to pass.
My guess is you’re right, and realistically it is no different here; there is generally something inherently cool about the things you cannot have or are very rare and that will likely be enough for this to have some level of success. These will be for quite wealthy people which will also limit how many are sold but the desire is likely there.
Well, Brexit passed by a narrow margin and the pro-Brexit campaign was notoriously and intentionally dishonest about the campaign in the run up to the vote. Support has gone down dramatically since passage, now about 30% support and 60% against.
Not that we’d know anything about being lied to and regretting an election on this side of the pond.
Fair enough. I think the point is, we all see the majority opinion on this (I mean, the cars that may or may not be a good fit for our British friends) and make a lot of assumptions on the success or failure of something.
30% of the car buying market showing interest in these vehicles might be a stretch but I honestly would not be surprised if it were true. But there will be a decent market for these even if niche.
Perhaps, just like Brexit, we will see initial interest and great sales but waning interest as the reality overcomes the novelty.
As long as they each ship with a couple replacement engines, everything should be hunky dory.
I read it slightly differently, that a specific company is stepping up to handle the importation and “federalization” (I don’t know what the right word here is in this context) of the products to then sell to UK consumers. As such I don’t see GM looing anything, the onus is on the importer doing the work.
You’re probably right, I guess the people who take pleasure in GM failing would need to console themselves with the importer in this case.
Agreed – there are always fools with money, might as well relieve them of it when you can. They may sell dozens! At extremely fat margins.
Also, might be something to stroke a certain Orange Idiot’s ego with. “Look we are exporting stuff”.
The Silverado and Yukon already have RHD versions on sale Down Under, so that may have helped make it happen.
I gotta think Ford and Stellantis have been doing their own research and will be watching GM on this one too. Both of them are already selling their pickups in Australia too.
You can already buy the RAM, various F trucks and the Silverado down in Australia. All three undergo third party (but factory backed) conversion. So numbers are low, prices are high. There’s a RAM that lives around the corner from me (their other car is a Honda Fit complete with a “My other car is a RAM” sticker) and I saw a Silverado on the road this morning (but by jingies did it look ungainly trying to exit the servo).
There is a company that does a good job on the conversions (Walkinshaw, which is the ex-HSV factory) and I believe Ford partnered with someone else and it’s been a disaster. More details in the link:
Ford F-150 sales slump amid quality concerns in Australia – carsales.com.au
The blow back in the comments you refer to is a mixture of the reality of these cars often not suiting the local driving conditions, pre-conceived notions (sometimes fair, sometimes not) of the people that buy them, and also a push back against perceived American imperialism.
I know the “America exporting freedom” thing is mainly a meme, but for a lot of the rest of the world, it gets kind of irksome, giving we have a lot of freedom and perchance wouldn’t trade ours for the American flavour, and that no doubt feeds into the comments as well.
But one of the joys of living in the free country of Australia is that if a company wants to sell a car that meets the legal requirements they can do so and a citizen who has the cash (or finance) to buy one can do so.
This will feed the black market in stolen newish Yukons and Escalades. They will end up in Russia and some of its dubious neighbors.
I live about 30 miles north of Aberdeen, the Scottish one.
There’s a market here for American SUVs.
Just the other day I saw a brand new Dodge Durango cruising around. I did a double take, realising somebody personally imported that and it must have been pricey to do, as well.
Fair play to that guy though!
I can’t believe you aren’t listening to the Hoff’s (pictured above) stunning rendition of Hooked on Feeling after using that photo.You really need to see the video to truly appreciate it for the work of at that it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8&list=RDPJQVlVHsFF8&start_radio=1
Yes we need to suffer through the musical genius of the Hoff.
I remember fondly when his big musical event was derailed by a white Bronco.
There is only one American vehicle suitable for everywhere in the world.
It’s time to revive the Rally Fighter.
We need to Monkey’s Paw Adrian’s love for American automobiles by forcing him to daily a Suburban for a month. While also send him to all of the most Urban events we can find.
I’d watch this. Not only a clash to his tastes but I assume he will get caught on a bridge like Clarkson did
Oh we are now in desperate need of an Uncle Adrian review of a Silverado 2500 ZR2 Crew Cab
In black, of course.
With the AEV Bison Package
Yes, sending Escalades to the UK is totally about consumer demand and definitely not pandering to a certain citrus-hued political figure.
Didn’t Starmer make the agreement to take a small number of US vehicles back during the Most-Favored-Sycophantic-Nation tariff negotiations?
Yes.
And then last week he got slapped with the same tariff as everyone else.
I cannot get my head around driving any of those barges around the majority of England. I might work on the freeways but in most towns and cities you’d be a road hazard.
I’d give them the Studebaker Lark.
I would love a Lark convertible. That’s all I have to add.
A convertible Lark would be fine!
With gasoline (petrol) in the UK costing roughly $7 a gallon (so the yanks can understand the apples-to-apples pricing) I can’t imagine that there will be too many people opting for these massive land barges from GM that get 15mpg. Good luck finding parking for these whales. Most residences there will not have adequate parking for them.
I can only imagine what the taxes on that beast are.
I’m gonna mention this to my UK-based coworkers and get their take. I’m sure it will elicit some serious snickering from them. My boss is Welsh, I’m sure he’ll have a hot take on it.
Would probably use up 4 parking slots at the Tesco.
So, same as they do in the US?
UK slots are much smaller. If they use 4 in US, they’re just being a d**k.
Yes, I think you have a good read on the typical owner.
Are LPG conversions still a thing?
An Escalade V gets about the same fuel economy as a Mercedes G63
I certainly would not want to pay for that much fuel at that price, but plenty of people drive big trucks like that here without being particularly rich, and without fuel being a crippling expense for them. If fuel there is about double what it is here (Canada), and if the fuel expense here is affordable, I can imagine plenty of people over there being willing to pay 2x(affordable) to drive one of these, especially when the shorter distances there are factored in. That’s just the fuel economy side of things–there’s definitely other reasons someone might not want to drive one, but it does make sense to make something like this more available over there, since there don’t seem to be any natural competitors there that can match both their capability and comfort.
15mpg is on the low end of the imported models listed (escalade non diesel) the Silverado, Sierra, tahoe, Suburban, are above 20 & above 25 combined for the duramax.
First, you’re missing that the Escalade is ~2 inches wider with mirrors folder (and, yes, the Escalade is also wider than the Range Rover)
But, more importantly, you’re not parking your full-sized Sprinter to pick up groceries at your local Tesco on a daily. You still need to fit between the lines in a parking space, open the doors, and get in/out.
But, most humorously, standard B-class drivers licenses are limited to 3500kg. A weight that both the Range Rover and Escalade are under by within ~10kg.
I do not know about UK, but other than licensing, in many countries you cannot register a gross 3500kg+ vehicle for personal or mixed use.
Exporting recalls, I see… I would love to see the whole electrified lineup from GM in Europe and China including the Celestiq. Nothing screams more freedom than 200 kWh batteries (insert eagle sounds).
*dubbed as with Red Tailed Hawk for the American audience as eagles sound like seagulls.
This is good trivia. I always look up when I hear a Red Tail, that sound has a presence. I can’t say I ever heard an eagle, but now I know!
Cadillac already sells the Optiq, Lyriq, and Vistiq in Europe
Make sense since we make the RHD wiring harness for the Lyriq
Cadillac’s sales numbers in Europe are in the double and triple digits annually. They make up a miniscule percentage of all vehicles sold, and that is being kind to GM.
True. Doesn’t mean that they aren’t already for sale in Europe.