Jump to content
News
Reviews
Discussons
Activity
Create New...
Close

riviera74

Premium Subscriber
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,942

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

 Content Type 

Everything posted by riviera74

  1. riviera74
    How much of the concept will make it to production of an actual vehicle we can buy or lease? That is my only Q.
  2. riviera74
    QFT. Good bye diesel.
  3. riviera74
    $7500 to $10000 on the hood because your greatest competitor puts up a NEW vehicle that directly competes with yours? That sounds very pre-BK GM. Only NEW (and better product) can arrest and correct that issue.
  4. riviera74
    Interesting. The LS400 (1990) had a 4L V8 producing 250HP. The LS430 (2001) had a 4.3L V8 producing 290HP. The LS460 (2007) had a 4.6L V8 producing 380HP and the LS600h had a 5L V8 hybrid producing 439HP. And only this year does Lexus drop the V8 entirely because of CAFE and other restrictions elsewhere. Sad. Too bad that the best sales years were prior to the last recession (2007).
  5. riviera74
    Just 54K sold in China last year. Buick and Cadillac laugh at those puny sales numbers?. Unfortunately, Chinese mercantilism strikes again. After several years of building anything there, somebody over there steals all of your intellectual property. It is as if Beijing thinks nobody in a land of over a billion people can create and sustain their own anything the rest of the world would actually buy.
  6. riviera74
    There are some trails that this truck would be too big for it to go through. A Jeep Wrangler is better for all those narrow trails that this (or any full-size) truck.
  7. riviera74
    Germany is not the USA. Lower Saxony also plays a role. Firing executives is probably the only way VW survives the next decade since they do need a new direction away from diesels.
  8. riviera74
    I guess Giulia is living up to a reputation established 45 years ago: Fix It Again Tony.
  9. riviera74
    Well, Jaguar as a CUV brand would complement Land Rover as an SUV brand. . . . . except for that Range Rover Evoque that should be a Jaguar. Just don't lost the XJ/XK.
  10. riviera74
    I get that Buick is introducing that EV in China first. Fine. When can we get it here in the USA?
  11. riviera74
    I wonder when Cadillac will have an EV version of its newest lineup. Given that the Volt and Bolt are already at the local Chevy dealer, where are the Cadillac EVs?
  12. riviera74
    Why would anyone buy an Accord when they can buy a CR-V or a Pilot instead these days? Then again, GM wants us to buy more Chevy CUVs for one reason: the search for more money.
  13. riviera74
    I suspect that the real reason has to do with the cost of a V12 vs. that of a turbo V8. MPG can also be a factor. I remember a car salesman asking me years ago whether I wanted cylinders or horsepower. Almost no one would go for more cylinders when HP and torque are what you really need in an engine. The real tragedy is the near disappearance of the V6 in anything other than trucks, luxury cars and some (luxury and common) CUVs, with few found elsewhere.
  14. riviera74
    Agreed.
  15. riviera74
    Maybe GM wants all of us to buy the crossovers rather than the sedans, since the firm makes more profits that way. I would rather have an Envision or an XT5, but if I were to go Chevy, the Impala is the best choice (for me). As for the smaller cars, it is obvious why Chevy is using the same front-end look: $$$$$.
  16. riviera74
    Since the 1980s and 90s are long over, who said it could NOT be the next SUV/CUV as the halo car for Cadillac? Think about this: the halo car concept as a top of the line sedan is obsolete. Of course, that does NOT mean that the CT6 should disappear. Indeed it needs to continue. The real question is whether an XT7 or an Escalade will be Cadillac's halo vehicle for the next decade or two. That sounds weird in the face of the S-Class, the 7 series and the Lexus LS, but there is no guarantee that those large luxury RWD sedans will stay as the halo cars of their respective car marques.
  17. riviera74
    Why should they if the Sonic does not sell? Maybe the Orion assembly plant should be used for better selling cars and pull production out of Mexico or Canada. That will go very well with the current administration.
  18. riviera74
    Infiniti is not going to replace Buick when it has already replaced Pontiac (from a performance standpoint, especially given Nissan's lack of performance -- 350Z aside). Remember, Toyota said in 1990 that the Avalon was Toyota's Buick. After nearly three decades, that prophecy may have been fully borne out, especially since the death of the Buick Lucerne in 2011 and the shift (for Buick) from sedans to CUVs here in the USA, not to mention the shift in gravity to China.
  19. riviera74
    The Taurus is the police car, not the Fusion. As for the Sonic, I suspect that the real reason is lack of sales and very tough competition from the Yaris and Fit and Rio and Accent and the Mazda 3 more than anything else.
  20. riviera74
    Personally, I have never been a fan of CAFE. I do think the last administration's EPA went too far. The problem with CAFE is that it tells automakers to do what consumers should do instead: buy the right vehicle for their needs. If gas prices rise above $4 again, then consumers (when they can) will dump the gas-guzzling SUVs for fuel-sipping hybrids or even electric vehicles. The gas tax (or better still, a VAT on crude oil and its distillates) is a far superior way to improve fuel economy through markets and consumer response rather than through federal mandates. Auto safety, on the other hand, does not have a pricing mechanism. Hence the need for (most of) those regulations to stand as is. I doubt that this administration's EPA will end CAFE altogether since that would require a new law to replace the one from 1975. But I will welcome the end of CAFE, since it is heavily biased towards trucks and against large sedans from the get-go. One last thing: CARB exists for good reason (LA smog is a real health issue), but they can also buy (and do) cars that currently meet tougher European standards since many automakers already in many respects meet them overseas.
  21. riviera74
    I know why Saturn was created in 1985, and GM ultimately learned enough so that Saturn could disappear in the wake of BK in 2009. Why did Toyota create Scion? It was not as if they needed Scion at all. (Lexus in 1990 was a nuclear missile aimed directly at Mercedes-Benz, particularly the S-Class. Lexus still does that and probably exceeds MB these days.) Other than the original xB, why Scion? I am glad Toyota ditched Scion only because it seemed unnecessary in my book. As for the car itself, I am sure the Yaris will do fine without the iA designation. But that leaves me with a question. In the era of the crossover, who will actually buy a Yaris?
  22. riviera74
    There is NO WAY that GM or Ford will allow the Mustang or the Corvette to become crossovers. For one thing, both of them sell as is; the same is true of the Camaro. Secondly, the typical Corvette/Mustang/Camaro buyer IS NOT looking for a crossover at all. Thirdly, why would anyone buy a car name that is NOT authentic to what people expect out of said vehicle? Lastly, the crossover reminds me a lot of the SUV craze of 1991-2008. Once gas prices spiked to $4-$5 a gallon, SUVs almost disappeared and CUVs filled in the gap (more efficiently). What could happen is that the hot sports sedan (think 300/Charger twins) or the hot sports coupe (see above) make a partial comeback because there will always be customers who do not want to be caught dead driving a crossover. Now, FWD sedans and coupes are having a hard time selling because a lot of people want crossovers as a substitute for the bog standard FWD sedans. These FWD sedans have been with us since at least 1972 and they ultimately replaced RWD sedans by 1992 with few exceptions. The CUV might evolve a little more to meet different needs, just like Cubical said. Nobody truly knows what will happen in 2030, in terms of auto trends or buying habits. Either way, we should still keep watching.
  23. riviera74
    TEN? A maximum of FIVE per car marque will do.
  24. riviera74
    That interior says one thing: Ready for Anything. CR-V is officially on notice.
  25. riviera74
    Sounds like a good RWD CUV, but why a three-row CUV? I thought the Navigator was supposed to have that niche. Doesn't Lincoln need a five-passenger CUV underneath the Navigator?
×
×
  • Create New...

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

I've whitelisted
Continue without support

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search