Mercedez Benz News Mercedes X-Class to be Xed Out

[G. David Felt]

15 hours ago, smk4565 said:

True to that.  I think Tundra could outsell F150 if Toyota got on it.  But F-series does have a big line that get lumped into there.  And I don't see Toyota doing medium duty trucks and such. 

Nope NEVER gonna happen, Toyota is missing a very important DNA link to get a full size Body on Frame truck right. 

Called Red Neck DNA which is missing from the Japanese society. Without this, they will never understand the individualistic nature of die hard, hard core Truck buyers that will never leave their birth truck for another brand.

[balthazar]

18 minutes ago, dfelt said:

...they will never understand the individualistic nature of die hard, hard core Truck buyers that will never leave their birth truck for another brand.

It goes even deeper; it’s such an ingrained Americana thing that it doesn’t have to be One Brand Only, but it sure as hell is unlikely to be a Japanese brand.

[smk4565]

Toyota could literally buy Ford Motor company outright, they have that much money.    They can also hire 1,000 American engineers to design and build a new Tundra, they could buy Rivian out too.  Toyota made $17 billion last year with very little full size truck profit, that is insane, Ford would lose money without the F150.  If Toyota spend even 1/5th of last year’s profit on a new Tundra it would be best in class.

It is embarrassing that Toyota is so lazy with the Tundra.  Even the Tacoma and 4Runner, update that stuff.  

[ccap41]

And Apple could buy Ford, GM, and FCA and look where their automobile efforts landed because they realized it isn't as easy as they thought. 

Best in class does not mean best in sales. That's been gone over at least a million times already. Wasn't the Tundra best in class in 07-08 when it first came out? YUP. 

[surreal1272]

2 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Toyota could literally buy Ford Motor company outright, they have that much money.    They can also hire 1,000 American engineers to design and build a new Tundra, they could buy Rivian out too.  Toyota made $17 billion last year with very little full size truck profit, that is insane, Ford would lose money without the F150.  If Toyota spend even 1/5th of last year’s profit on a new Tundra it would be best in class.

It is embarrassing that Toyota is so lazy with the Tundra.  Even the Tacoma and 4Runner, update that stuff.  

What a lazy statement. Apple could buy all the German brands but would it mean anything? No and neither would Toyotas ability to hypothetically buy Ford. That’s just lazy talk when your previous arguments haven’t worked. Two things. The domestics will probably never get the mainstream market and the Japanese and Germans will never get the American full size truck market. 

2 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Toyota could literally buy Ford Motor company outright, they have that much money.    They can also hire 1,000 American engineers to design and build a new Tundra, they could buy Rivian out too.  Toyota made $17 billion last year with very little full size truck profit, that is insane, Ford would lose money without the F150.  If Toyota spend even 1/5th of last year’s profit on a new Tundra it would be best in class.

It is embarrassing that Toyota is so lazy with the Tundra.  Even the Tacoma and 4Runner, update that stuff.  

You call Toyota lazy but at least they have the ability and the means to build their own truck without borrowing someone else’s truck just to watch it turn into yet more vapor ware. 

[balthazar]

Toyoter couldn't handle 3 brands, it's not going to buy 2 more.

[riviera74]

1 hour ago, surreal1272 said:

 The domestics will probably never get the mainstream market and the Japanese and Germans will never get the American full size truck market.

The domestics LOST the mainstream market (despite their best efforts) somewhere between 1985-1995.  The only thing that keeps Ford and GM running well (and FCA from suffering the fate of Hudson and Nash) are the trucks and BOF SUVs.

[balthazar]

2 hours ago, riviera74 said:

The domestics LOST the mainstream market (despite their best efforts) somewhere between 1985-1995.  The only thing that keeps Ford and GM running well (and FCA from suffering the fate of Hudson and Nash) are the trucks and BOF SUVs.

Except for one thing- the mainstream market has long & steadily embraced the SUV & truck AS mainstream. 
GMC sold 311K units in 1986, they sold 556K last year.

[G. David Felt]

On 7/17/2019 at 7:38 PM, riviera74 said:

What were the sales of the Lincoln Mark LT compared to the Cadillac Escalade EXT?

Also, I am not sure if Cadillac CAN make a true luxury pickup given the predominance of the GMC Sierra Denali, which already fetch Cadillac prices.

Lincoln Mark LT was sold from 2005 to 2008 US / Canade and till 2014 in Mexico.

Cadillac Escalade EXT was sold from 2002 to 2015 for North America.

Data from the following web site: http://carsalesbase.com 

[ykX]

I was just rewatching Grand Tour Season 3 and there was an episode were they tested three European trucks, Ranger, VW and Mercedes Benz.   So after they used the bed to carry some heavy stuff on each of them, MB rear bed sides got bent so badly they could not close the rear gate.  Didn't happen in Ranger or Amarok.  Basically after torturing all three of the trucks they said MB was "rubbish", Amorok was ok but the only one they liked was the Ranger.  

[G. David Felt]

2 hours ago, ykX said:

I was just rewatching Grand Tour Season 3 and there was an episode were they tested three European trucks, Ranger, VW and Mercedes Benz.   So after they used the bed to carry some heavy stuff on each of them, MB rear bed sides got bent so badly they could not close the rear gate.  Didn't happen in Ranger or Amarok.  Basically after torturing all three of the trucks they said MB was "rubbish", Amorok was ok but the only one they liked was the Ranger.  

Sooooooo, MB cannot build a competitive truck even with the foundation from another truck maker.

@smk4565 will not like this but I am sure he will find some way to blame everyone but MB and move the goal post again..............

[smk4565]

I watched that episode and the problem is the Nissan Navara that underpins the X-class.  Which is why it was a sales dud.  A 100% Mercedes truck would do better but they don’t want to put money into something like that.

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

I watched that episode and the problem is the Nissan Navara that underpins the X-class.  Which is why it was a sales dud.  A 100% Mercedes truck would do better but they don’t want to put money into something like that.

Obviously with cutting of products, the money pit of money to spend on whatever MB wants is not true. There are limits and MB cannot and chooses to not bother trying to compete in the Trucks market.