G. David Felt

Rightttttttt and that is why VW, BMW and MB are at the bottom of sales in the US compared to FORD, GM and FCA here. Yes they are leading sales in the rest of the world, here they are just peanuts.

At least they are getting it out of the waterway to clean it up.

I have seen this more and more by the Germans and it would infer that the Germans are going down the same path the old GM did. The all new BMW 2020 745e has the same funky Shifter GM started to use and was blasted for yet it is OK to use it in a German auto? This is the kind of crap @smk4565 has bitched about in US auto's and now we see it showing up in the German brands which will get a pass cause all things German are superior. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127704_first-drive-review-2020-bmw-745e-plug-in-hybrid-luxury-sedan-goes-your-own-way-all-so-posh So what does this have to do with Genesis, nothing really other than to point out Germans are using the same parts Cadillac used first and now it is OK to call it Luxury? In fact, this has plenty to do with Genesis and the luxury segment as the Asians do have a higher reliability than German auto's which is why the Germans had to go to offering all maintenance to keep their leasing machine going as no one in their right mind would buy one. I expect the Genesis to outlast the same year model of a german sedan.

Great to see you back and posting @A Horse With No Name

Crickets

So first off, WHO THE FUCK CARES about Formula 1, Championship, LeMans, etc. The bulk of the people do NOT watch racing or care. Mercedes is already DATED!!!!, Blah brand style. You have NO FACTS of the actual Taxi Whore price spent on the plastic interior taxes and the real reason that the E-Class has been a taxi for so long is in Europe as long as you drive 150,000 kilometers a year, you can write off the price of the auto over 2 years. Yup 50% cost write off in year 1 and the other half in year 2 and the auto is worn out. The Taxi's are driven hard, put away wet and are pretty much worthless in 2 years and worn out. Ready for scrap. I will grant you that MB has a long life as Taxis. History shows that the founder thought taxi's were the logical use of Auto's and the first ones built in 1897. https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/lifestyle/classic-magazine/daimler-motoren-gesellschaft-supplied-the-worlds-first-motorized-taxi/ The W123 being the model that was sold as a fleet auto till the W124 came out with the name E-Class in 1993. At this point the wiki pages say that MB had 80% of the Taxi market till subpar quality reduced it to 50% and allowed VW to catch up. Since then world wide Taxi share has gone to 60% due to MB Vito Taxi Van that is popular. MB web site and wiki both clearly state that the taxi versions are very different than the luxury version sold. As such, one can infer that the plastic interior with vinyl seats are sold much cheaper than the Luxury model they sell in the US. I could go on but will not bother since you cannot even compare apples to apples. Data supplied by the web site above and the following two wiki pages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_taxicab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_E-Class In regards to GENESIS, and just about all other brands, I doubt Genesis wants to have a Taxi image as to why no one else goes after the taxi market. Value and higher ATP is clearly the focus.

Crazy Cool that a Blown LT4 V8 can fit in there. Not sure how many are willing to spend that amount of money on a truck like this but I will say it is a very cool build. Hopefully GM will realize they are missing a segment. Thanks for posting Blu, That is cool!

Lordstown motors released this video of testing of their Endurance Truck with in-wheel hub motors. Based on the following story, Lordstown motors still believes it can get it's truck into production in 2020 with delivery's starting shortly after that. I do wonder as they are going to be releasing at a time when Rivian, Ford and GM also release full size electric trucks. It will be interesting to see if they can assemble a truck that will pull buyers from the others. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127689_lordstown-endurance-electric-pickup-prototype-in-wheel-motor-goes-off-road Once Ford and GM have EV trucks, it will become harder for Tesla and Rivian to build and sell. At this point, Tesla will be their Rabid fan base and Rivian will sell to fans who currently have orders in and OEM to Amazon and Ford which will help them move towards profitability. I have to question if Lordstown motors can survive as the CEO is the same CEO who ran Workhorse and could not get their truck to market and now attempt 2 under a different name. Interesting times. Went out to their You Tube channel and now I have to say that this company will FAIL. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCelaIxnWV99SrYtRRpW7-ZQ Their best video watched is the one above and it only has 8,220 views. All 4 videos posted have a combined viewing of less than 15,000 views. This one has less than 400. This one has less than 3,400 views. Their press event of the company is less than 1,400 views.

First off Mercedes-Benz has whored out the E-Class at lower prices to dump and keep assembly lines going in Germany due to the craziness of the Union contracts, so the whore out the E-Class and sell a little of everything else into rental and then at high prices sell a marketed Luxury version. Cadillac, Genesis, Acura, Infinity, etc. have all chosen to NOT whore out a specific model and go after profitable sales which has allowed Cadillac while a much lower sales volume, a very high and profitable ATP. IN KEEPING THIS FOCUSED ON GENESIS G80 I am sure if they wanted, Genesis could whore out any of their models to rental, taxi or any other place to get many versions moved. Yet as has been learned from looking at the past, selling into the fleet business reduces auto value. G80 has clear style points pulled from all over the auto industry on the outside and some will like it, others will hate it and some will go Meh, and drive it if they have too. Interior is high quality and I suspect at the price point they sell the cars, they will win over converts. I know one already as my brother in-law who drove a BMW, then a Mercedes, then back to BMW went with Genesis. When asked why, he said the quality of the interior for the price point for what he sees as an appliance for getting from point A to B and back is far better than the cost both in purchase and maintenance of the German brands and he suspects will maintain a lower cost of ownership way longer than what he paid for in the European auto's. He is a CPA with his own firm and an investing firm with Boeing as one of his clients investing millions of their workers 401K contributions. He can easily afford any auto and yet he does not see any reason to pay for higher priced auto's than that and he has said that while he would love a lower maintenance cost EV sedan, he also in his mind cannot justify now their cost. He figures in 2 to 3 years enough should be out that he can then reduce ownership costs further by going EV but for now, the Genesis is the best value for the dollar in the luxury auto segment. Genesis wins.

So like the Toyota and GM alliance that Toyota made profit on the re-badge of the Matrix, aka Pontiac Vibe. Maybe this time, Honda will fail if they do not have a true different style and GM will be the profit maker. Interesting times, Interesting

Grubs

Sedan Sales have been falling off for far more than 5 to 7 years. If you want to point to a more critical point, 2000 is the year, you had ups and downs but the real drop started then, a recovery after the Depression of 2007 to 2012 and now pretty much dead. Where as Truck /SUV sales have been going up for a long time again taking into account the 2007 to 2012 depression. I believe the G80 as will the G90 and G70 will take market share from all three major segment leaders, American, Asian and European. Yet even they will have limited sales as the market moves to Luxury Trucks / SUV/CUVs. Welcome to the new age of Luxury.

At costco today and had an MB and Caddy side by side to compare. Neither were impressive to me. Crazy stupid mods on this 4 banger with a fart can Mustang. ?

NEW FLASH - Honda just signed with GM to use their Ultium Propulsion system and BEV 3 platform for their upcoming two new EVs. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127688_future-honda-electric-vehicles-will-be-co-developed-with-gm-could-have-super-cruise According to the news release, Honda EV's will be built at GM North America Plants for the Americas Market. To Quote GM: For GM, it means more production volume, and the chance that the company will reach economies of scale on its Ultium investments sooner. GM president Mark Reuss recently said that about 60% of the company's product development work is now toward EVs, versus 20% just a few years ago. To Quote Honda:"As EV volume increases, both companies will be able to more rapidly achieve economies of scale, reduce cost and provide value for both our companies and our respective customers," said Jeffrey Smith, Honda North America VP for corporate communications. Seems this should allow both companies to make a profit and have low cost entry level auto's on top of mid and luxury version EVs.

Thanks for that update, crazy, just crazy.

I am all about keeping everything safe and functional, but the years I have worked on the east coast and been in the various states, seems to be allot of enforced state checks / inspections rather than common sense, repair and maintain your auto. Emissions testing is just stupid now as most auto's are so clean and you can see when an auto is burning oil so then the police should pull over and a hefty fine given. Same with people driving around with broken up auto's, do not need an inspection but I understand what you say and appreciate your thoughts on this.

Got it, forgot you guys are on the east coast where static Government oversight of having to tell auto owners that this or that is broken and has to be replaced and excessive auto inspections to create low paying jobs are a requirement. I have yet to see a government group that uses dealerships for the Police, medical or fire auto's that are used as they usually have their own mechanic shops. I give this to you as I constantly am surprised by how much government oversight and running of the average persons life there is on the east coast. Crazy.

Oops, meant DOT, but then you did know what I meant by that. Now the electronics is another things all together and those are sold separate from the headlight assembly unit which is mostly plastic and are very complex. You know that those are separate items when getting replacement parts from an accident. Silly Boy, who is still stuck in the past with ICE auto's not wanting to change to modern cleaner running EVs. LOLWUT!!! Right back at ya! EXACTLY how MB and BMW were in the 70's and 80's before finally catching on with the badge snobs. As such, I expect Genesis to reduce from a almost 30 year barely making it to a much smaller time line before they equal the German brands. Yes, one needs to watch what they say as the market can change on a dime and boom out goes the Europeans for who knows what next. Maybe EVs? ?

I agree not all after market suppliers are quality, but some are and worth it. I disagree with you on more complicated than that. If it meets DOT requirements, then there really should not be a difference between the OEM and the 3rd party company selling direct while also supplying the OEM. I have not seen complex headlights now that they are all pretty much formed plastic with reflective chrome lining on the inside and then the front clear lens attached.

Metric

I have gone from fueling every 4 days to about every 7 to 8 days on the SS. So yea, spending less money which is good on fuel. How is Auto Accident repair essential to the commonwealth? With everyone supposedly staying home, much less traffic on the roads, auto repairs are reduced and I do not see how an auto repair from an accident is considered essential unlike food or medical? I am honestly surprised that your state has that listed as essential. Repair shops here are all shut down.

Searching online, I see prices for the Corolla HID headlight assembly from $367 to $645 on Amazon and a crazy $941 on ebay, but who uses crapy ebay any more. I am surprised they are still in business. Interesting to see that depending on the Toyota dealership web site you use, prices for the HID headlight assembly run from $799 to $971 from the Miami Toyo dealership. Crazy for that auto to have that expensive a headlight assembly for a 2020 corolla. $1,100 I can see as an MSRP price but that is just stupid for a chunk of plastic and LED bulbs.

One to rule them all!

We clearly have European, Asian and Americas auto fans. I feel this is a good place to discuss the sales of segments, models, etc. here. I have pulled the latest Statista data that can be gotten for free to show here and discuss. As such, there is clearly a leadership perceived image that BMW and Mercedes-Benz have carried the last few years. Yet with that, you look at over all sales and both these companies have flipped and flopped leadership of the year in specific luxury segments but lack over all auto sales in the US. Based on the reports that @Drew Dowdell posted in January 2020 on 2019 auto sales: Ford - 2,422,698 GM - 2,887,046 FCA - 2,203,663 Tesla - 367,500 Audi - 224,111 BMW - 360,918 Genesis - 21,233 Honda - 1,608,170 Hyundai - 688,771 Infiniti - 117,708 Jaguar Land Rover - 125,787 Kia - 615,338 Mazda - 278,552 Mercedes-Benz - 357,729 Mitsubishi - 121,046 Nissan - 1,227,973 Porsche - 61,568 Subaru - 700,117 Toyota - 2,383,349 Volkswagen - 363,322 Volvo - 108,234 2019 Auto Sales Luxury Brand Sales in 2019 Large Luxury Auto sales 2019 Mid size luxury auto sales 2019 Small Auto Luxury auto sales 2019 Best Selling Trucks ranking in the US 2019 Car Sales over the last 30 years in the US. Over all Auto Sales from 1978 to now.

Based on personal experience with Mercedes-Benz I would still take the G80 over an E-Class knowing my ownership costs will be lower and reliability will be longer at a lower price.