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riviera74

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Everything posted by riviera74

  1. riviera74
    Now that interior looks like a luxury SUV done properly. I do not like the rims on that Navigator though. They look like they belong on a different vehicle.
  2. riviera74
    Love the interior on the new Enclave. I do hope that the Avenir trim level shows up throughout the entire Buick line (regardless of name) quickly. The exterior is OK, even though I am not a fan of that disjointed chrome on the D pillar. That might make more sense in a smaller crossover (Encore?).
  3. riviera74
    Drew, I will take a v6 over a turbo 4 any day of the week. Also, if the Regal and the LaCrosse are so close dimensionally, the next LaCrosse should have the same dimensions of an Impala to give everyone (especially GM) some real space difference and a reason to either stay at a Regal or really move up to a LaCrosse. There is no good reason a midsize and a large car should be so similar externally or inside the cabin. Too many buyers will orphan the LaCrosse and buy Regals instead. I know we live in a time where the crossover is king, but I am not sure that a wagon is necessarily going to make much of a difference in the sales tables when Buick already has THREE crossovers. A V6 in every (non-small) car and crossover please. 4 cylinders just don't cut the mustard.
  4. riviera74
    Subaru is not that big. Then again, they have their niche and are doing better than almost any one brand. I do have a question or two: Why is RAM selling better than the GMC Sierra? Slightly more importantly, when is Ford going to give people a REAL product reason to choose Lincoln over everybody else?
  5. riviera74
    The Cadillac Land Yacht no longer exists. Maybe Cadillac's problem is that, unlike many other brands, Cadillac is part of GM (as opposed to being fully separate). The image thing does matter unfortunately, simply because image (once set) tends to become concrete. Short of ending Cadillac and starting over as something completely separate (like Saturn its first decade or so), there are luxury buyers who still think Cadillac is still partying like it's 1999. There is not much that can be done about that. Baby boomers still have the 1970s and 80s in their memories, and since the vast majority of luxury buyers are past 50, those memories will still linger. Also, there are the older DTS/STS/Eldorado cars that still exist on the road now, 15 years later. Cadillac still needs to keep on upgrading their vehicles and keep getting better. Short of MB/BMW/Audi/Lexus falling off, Cadillac will at times struggle in the sales league tables. Just remember, in about 25 years or so, Boomer everything will eventually fade away and Millennial buyers will not have the 20th Century guiding any of their decisions.
  6. riviera74
    While I may not want to see the V8 or the V6 become extinct, there are a lot of factors President Trump cannot account for. Even if CAFE were to end, that does NOT mean that the rest of the world will end fuel economy standards. I just saw here in this forum where Volvo (way smaller than GM, I know) went 4cyl only in 2011 and apparently it is going extremely well for them. While many of us here would love to see 4cyl stay in the compact/subcompact lane, the rest of the world (China especially, not to mention India) would prefer that the 4cyl take the place of the V8 in virtually all vehicles. That may be sad for us, but we here in this forum (and similar forums elsewhere) do not constitute a large enough base to build an entire car company around. Did anyone here think that the crossover would essentially replace the SUV nine years ago? Did anyone here forsee the sedan (especially large sedans) as endangered as they are ten years ago? Yes, hybrids and diesels cost more. Then again, that is where we are and crossovers are where the market is headed.
  7. riviera74
    R - E - L - A - X. This is a Regal, not an Envision.
  8. riviera74
    I agree that cronyism and hypocrisy is strong in this administration. That is why Trump's stance seems so weird. Automation will eventually end employment in building cars one day. What Trump NEEDS to do is get Congress to do its job and dump CAFE entirely. Yes, 4cyl and 6cyl will be the rule because of China and Europe. Also CARB (which is tougher and worse than CAFE) still exists but California has two good reasons for that: Los Angeles SMOG (which is what inspired CARB in the first place) and high gas prices. Admittedly, the smog problem is not as severe as it was during the 1970s but I doubt anyone wants to go back to multiple smog advisories throughout the year. CA gas prices are also much higher than most of the continental United States, despite the fact that a lot of oil is pumped out of CA (not like Texas, but still) mostly because of higher gas taxes.
  9. riviera74
    I am relieved that they are going to tweak the Enclave rather than make massive changes to the shape of the large crossover, simply because the shape itself is one of the best things about it. I do hope that the Enclave upgrades many of the features and interior of the crossover. The nine-speed is a nice upgrade over the six-speed it originally came with.
  10. riviera74
    About President Trump driving a Rolls-Royce, what do you expect from a billionaire? People like him are their primary target market. As for wanting to reduce the mileage standards, I will believe it when an actual BILL is passed and Trump signs it. CAFE was a bad idea in 1975 and it is a bad idea now. If Trump and the GOP were smart, they would simply abolish CAFE for good.
  11. riviera74
    A RHD Camaro sounds great for down under. Now if only we can make a sedan version to replace the recently departed SS. . . . .
  12. riviera74
    Well, if somebody at GM wanted to build a direct Jeep competitor as GMC product, I'm in. I wish Sergio would give Ghosn a call and let them talk merger. The only reason Sergio keeps talking FCA-GM merger is that GM foolishly failed to buy Fiat back in 2005 and had to pay an exorbitant exit fee of $4 billion. Tell Sergio to just go.
  13. riviera74
    Better to ditch Europe than be a global player when the European auto market implodes. As for Regency's points: Do we miss Pontiac? Sure. GM does not simply for profit reasons. The SS should have been the new Bonneville, but GM wasted Pontiac after 1985 or so. Cadillac could use a better and larger CUV lineup and the CT8 to come out NOW rather than in the next three years. As for developing Buicks and Holdens, let China do the heavy lifting since China is buying anything with a Buick logo on it. Lastly, ditching a LOT of European pension obligations is a GOOD thing. The GM empire needs to shrink so that GM can actually survive if not thrive past 2030.
  14. riviera74
    That's exactly right. Details matter!
  15. riviera74
    It may require a serious auto recession to really clear out dead names and shutter factories in a way that the last recession did not, at least outside the USA. Ghosn did save Nissan from becoming Plymouth, but who will save Nissan/Renault/Mitsubishi from going the way of Studebaker in 1963? I doubt we will have half of these car brands around in the next 8-10 years. The only question is who will be RIP.
  16. riviera74
    What cmicasa said.
  17. riviera74
    You know, this leads me to a suggestion. If GMC can dress up a bunch of trucks that have a little distinction from Chevy trucks and call them Denali, why can't Cadillac? Think about this: a typical Denali adds about $5000 to the price of a typical GMC model with SLT-2 trim, right? And since Denali is at least 75-80% pure profit, then why doesn't Cadillac have its own Platinum trim for its cars and CUVs? And the Escalade should be the starting point for this new trim, even more so than it is now.
  18. riviera74
    I understand why Europe and China prefer a turbocharged smaller engine (i.e. engine displacement taxes). But why should Cadillac settle for that here in the USA? Turbos mean one thing that GM had mostly been moving away from since 2000: Premium Fuel. Have you seen premium vs regular fuel prices? The price gaps are anywhere from 45-60 cents in some places. And while turbos solve the torque problem somewhat, mileage becomes an issue too. Maybe the real problem is that the LFX 3.6L V6 has worse torque than the 3800 and 3900 V6 engines from the last decade. HP is great but every CUV like every car needs torque. Otherwise, the review is spot on. Keep up the good work. The CUE issues remind me of all the issues BMW had with its infotainment system on its flagship 7 series back in 2002. Bavaria needed at least two or three years to resolve those issues. Why can't Cadillac simply contact JVC or Kenwood and let them do the infotainment instead of CUE?
  19. riviera74
    Alliance, huh? Why not a real merger between those three brands instead?
  20. riviera74
    QFT Balthazar. Especially about the Camaro.
  21. riviera74
    I do not know if this is true, but there is nothing that says that GM cannot bring the SS back in a year or two. Ideally there will be a new-bodied SS and a SS-based Cadillac CT8 along with it for all to see and buy sometime soon.
  22. riviera74
    Maybe GM wants a better diesel engine for the cars. You could get away with a different type of engine in trucks. Or perhaps Cadillac does not want a diesel engine in their cars.
  23. riviera74
    Actually, I would rather have Buick keep the curvy look. It makes the Enclave look less like the Traverse and Acadia. The Enclave also need to have more features and amenities to distinguish from Chevy and GMC, and possibly build a basis for a Cadillac XT7.
  24. riviera74
    A billion in cash and a billion in assumed liabilities..... for Opel/Vauxhall. Why should GM assume a billion in liabilities? I still remember when GM was stupid enough to negotiate a deal to buy FIAT and then get taken to the cleaners for $4 billion as an exit fee. THAT greenmail saved FIAT and allowed Sergio to acquire Chrysler. Better to leave the liabilities AND the boat anchor squarely in PSA's hands. Europe's auto market is heading south and it needs to be culled. Capacity needs to disappear and somebody may need to go out of business. Remember the nearly 1000 dealers that went out of business in 2008-10 in the wake of the Great Recession here in the USA, along with a bunch of factory closures since Oldsmobile was killed in 2004? Europe needs exactly the same thing simply because the sales are simply not there. Better that PSA deal with this than GM, simply because Paris and Berlin will have to deal with economic reality very soon.
  25. riviera74
    Back to Opel, would an EV run in Detroit or Minneapolis (or most of Canada) in the middle of a harsh winter? Or in Europe, deep in northern Scandinavia? If not, the EV will be almost strictly a Sunbelt vehicle.
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