Mulling Mules

By Liz

This photo goes back in time about two years, in order to address something several readers have brought up. We’ve talked previously about “mules,” the test vehicles we use a lot in the early development of a future vehicle.

More Answers!

By Liz

More answers to your questions . . .

Test Cars:

The cars we typically build and use in development are kept for as long as possible, sometimes a couple of years. They often start their “life” underneath heavy camo, being driven and otherwise used in any number of ways. As time goes on, the camo sometimes comes off and we often adjust and update them to incorporate other features in need of testing. These can be features or systems for subsequent model years. Or, sometimes they can even turn into “mules.” In any event, we never sell these cars, as they are often heavily altered, and, frankly, they’re just very tired! If they’ve outlived their usefulness in testing, they are scrapped. The photo above shows one of these in action in Germany last year.

What’s A Mule?

By Liz

In my last post, in response to some questions from readers, I wrote a bit about the use of camouflage on test cars. That got me thinking about another related aspect of testing future cars: mules, the ultimate camo.

We need to test aspects of vehicles long before we’ve ever built a full pre-production car. In a case like that, we have the ultimate camo. It’s called a “mule.” This photo shows what looks to be a regular Cadillac STS up on a hoist in a garage. In reality, these are “mule” versions of the 2008 CTS.