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regfootball

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Everything posted by regfootball

  1. regfootball
    she's prob an upgrade over Akerson and that old dude before him, and an upgrade over 'Red Ink RIck'
  2. regfootball
    yeah, that let's hope she is above all the media adulation they gave Marissa Meyer/Mayer from Yahoo. I'm hoping her maturity and longevity with the company stands out more than the fact she is a woman. I have no reason to doubt the credentials, but I am suspicious that GM would do this if they hadn't borrowed a bunch of govt coin. Not that it would make the decision, but a 50/50 choice can tip to 51/49 for a lot of reasons. I think GM may have marketing in the back of their mind here too. That said, she is prob among the most knowledgible marketers in the biz too.
  3. regfootball
    no doubt she has immense qualifications, but you have to admit it has PR benefits for GM to hire a woman to run the company.
  4. regfootball
    you're looking through a pinhole. In 2011, the production was 2.7 million vehicles. Still the number 10 global automaker. So not Toyota, sure, but as Americans typically may do, may disregard many other parts of the globe. If Suzuki wasn't making coin here, it probably made sense to pull out of a market they did not want to invest more in. I think if you had a company that made 2.7 million of anything a year, you'd be quite pleased. By contrast, Mazda had about 1.2 million units.
  5. regfootball
    The GM-Daewoo Suzukis and the XL7 did more to destroy the good will towards Suzuki than anything. I cannot tell you how many genuinely upset people I spoke with who had Reno's Forenza's (GM) XL-7's and Veronas in the service dept that gave them headaches. The Forenza in particular was one of the vehicles that no manufacturer would want. The thing that makes me LOL about it so much is the Kizashi single handedly was of the quality and drive to wipe all that away if Suzuki had invested in developing the whole line and marketing their product right! What is so interesting, the new Corolla has nearly the identical length and wheelbase and other dimensions to the kizashi. The Kizashi is a schosche wider. I think Suzuki had sorta tried to position it as a cheaper alternative to the TSX and Euro cars, which to a small degree made sense. Where they erred was calling it midsize. True that it was damn close to the other midsizers in commodiousness, but it lacked rear leg room. Our detail guy, he was going to get a K, and then I ended up writing a used Sonata for him....he needed a bit more room front and back for his 6'-4" frame and a car seat. But compared to the Elantra, Civic, Corolla, Cruze (all which were damn close in dimensions), the Kizashi had way more room and space. And drove far better. The prices would have needed to been adjusted some, but I knew people who spent 25k on a loaded Cruze, for 25k you coulda had an AWD SLS Kizashi (or at least a FWD one depending on the discount). I think had they marketed the car as a great alternative to the run of the mill compacts for not a heckova lot more dough, I think they would have fared much better than trying lump into the midsize class. I passed up a 2012 Used Kizashi SE leather FWD with 5k miles a few weeks back for 13k. The dealer quick saled it as they had gotten it in on a trade for a new Ford by a scared owner. They must have lost a buttload of money! It was actually a car that had sat on the lot where i worked for like a year before it was sold new. That was sort of LOL. I waited and when they went down from 14,500 to 13,000, the car sold fast. So that was a huge value loss vs. MSRP but still from what I see, they actually are holding up value fairly well (the AWD ones and the GTS ones and SLS ones at least). Recently there was a crop of fleeted units that hit the market, and a lot of them were FWD 2012's with about 30-40k miles that were selling most dealers in the 13-14 range. Imagine an AWD 6 speed manual turbo Kizashi SLS or GTS. Or even with say a 6 or 8 speed real automatic. I think that model of one could have been a huge game changer.
  6. regfootball
    what is a Q 50? what ever happened to the G35?
  7. regfootball
    superb post. it is the task of the current generations 'in charge' seemingly, to take what once were normal expenses (cars, energy, education, health care, food) and turn them into luxuries for the privileged....... As far as I am concerned you are absolutely justified to be pissed off. I would hate to be in your gen's shoes today.
  8. regfootball
    you do know that Suzuki is one of the top 2 car seller in Japan, number one in India, and number 9 it is I believe the world?
  9. regfootball
    As you know I sold these for awhile. The problem was more with the 'Suzuki' part than the 'Kizashi' part. We had trouble selling them vs. those that wanted larger midsizers. Truth was, the car was packaged well and had more room for its size than most other cars. But it was a tish shy on leg room in the back (it has more than the current Malibu). The reverse of that, the car is almost identical in dimension to the Chevy Cruze. It has more room and far more sophistication than the Cruze. Overall, the size of the Kizashi is more equal to the compact. Most folks who drove one, loved the car. Most folks who came in had already known about the car and its great manners and better than a commodity car quality. The underlying story here is that the car was developed with the US primarily in mind. Since they do not operate in the US anymore, is why the car is gone. The Suzuki authentics concept is almost identical in size and was developed more or less to replace the Kizashi. The Authentics will be lighter and more oriented to be marketed against the compacts like the Kia Forte etc. in the countries it is in. Suzuki's failure was its US distribution and the fact that the Japanese base office is notoriously stubborn and not at all flexible to go outside its core markets. I still keep an eye open for a good used one that I can buy super cheap but if I don't, no big loss. I got so many raves from my customers that i sold especially the GTS and SLS models to. And the AWD customers too. The car itself was a tweener and that hurt it a lot. Think Chrysler Sebring from like 2004. Not big enough to be a midsize, but clearly not a compact. This knee jerk sort of behavior by Suzuki is the type of $h! we who tried to support them was so maddening. "Why don't you put cruise control on the base cars?" "Why is your gas mileage so $h!ty" "Why don't you have XM radio" "Why can't you get a stick with AWD" "Why isn't there a Kizashi crossover" "why is there no Kizashi turbo" "why can't you get leather or a sunroof in an SX4"? "why didn't you make at least one version of the Kizashi without a CVT" Suzuki does so much dumb $h! that you want to go over there and personally slap up each and every company officer in charge over there. Moltar, had you ever set foot in one? They were clearly different from commodity cars once you drove one. Suzuki Authentics (Kizashi II)
  10. regfootball
    one trick pony. the only thing it has going is reliability.
  11. regfootball
    Germany and Japan both very xenophobic on their car choices
  12. regfootball
    The Equinox ATP would need to have a split breakout to show the ATP for the AWD and FWD ones. 24,8xxx is not what the average AWD Equinox sells for.
  13. regfootball
    EXACTLY for a guy like me who puts about 90 miles round trip on a day, some days 150 miles, this is particular could be bonecrushing. This could really kill job mobility, and hurt business that have lots of employees in fleet cars. Aside from the big brother aspect and the fact that the government has NO BUSINESS keeping track of how many miles I drive a year. This type of stuff stifles the employment market. When the housing market blew apart and people were trapped in their houses (and some still are) and can't move, at least you still have the option of driving a distance to a job to make a living. Your creating a punitive environment for people to go far out to find more and better work if need be for making a go for yourself.
  14. regfootball
    From my test drives of several of the mid sizers recently, I do very much believe that the Ford is the class champ in that it is the best car for the widest range of buyers. Mazda 6 is a good car but I don't think it will appeal to or work out well for nearly as many buyers as the fusion. It might be better in terms of sport and a bit of sexy style. But it has limitations elsewhere. I really believe more folks would like a Malibu than a Mazda 6. 1-Fusion 2-Passat 1.8 3-Mazda 6 4-Malibu ( i would put the Malibu in a tie for 3) 5-Altima, Legacy 7-Accord 8-Camry 9-Intrepid
  15. regfootball
    incentives mean so much for many buyers and the mfrs use them to tweak sales month to month. having sold, very very often it is simply an incentive that makes the difference between the choice of a model, or even pulling the trigger on a deal. Ford is quite the master too. It's just a matter of pulling strings from the incentive guys. The old MKz's......Ford was fine letting them rot all year on the lot because they knew end of year when the new body came out and the old ones were sitting, they knew they could just throw a cheap lease incentive on it or some obscene cash on the hood and BAM, sales guy can switch a buyer out of a more expensive Fusion and into an MKz with a cheaper lease for a nicer car. Or, move someone up a size class. From say a Focus to a Fusion. It even works well in reverse. If the Fusion sells too much, and Focus drags a big and clogs the factory.....put a cheap lease on the Focus and watch em fly out.
  16. regfootball
    i think the outlander sport is pretty cheap AWD too. Dealers here are marking big off MSRP also. Like 5 grand off. An AWD one can be had OTD price of 18,500. (got a lease quote on one today actually) Lancer has AWD too, prob a couple grand cheaper yet. I know the car is ancient, but it's probably more enjoyable than the Impreza still. with GM, it's like the cheapest Equinox I usually see stickers for at least 30. A Trax AWD would sure sell in bunches.
  17. regfootball
    fail toyota
  18. regfootball
    today was the perfect example of why Subaru is doing well selling average milquetoast. winter storm. the localities are less and less all the time plowing and maintaining the roads. Either due to budget (fallacy) or some whiners who moan about road salt and einvironmental BS. And then you drive by 4 cars in a ditch in the main freeway through a community and there are cops and stuff having to waste time pulling people out where if the roads were salted and plowed timely / enough, they wouldn't need to. I could not get around on the unmaintained stuff this morning. My Cobalt and its near done bald Hankooks made me stop by the tires plus because I honestly could not stop at a long approach to a stoplight on a hard down incline this morning with ABS cranking for many seconds. The tire stores go nuts on the first few snowfalls, crazy busy. Everyone wants traction. We all know tires play a lot, but people get sick of the sliding around in the snow BS, and Subarus AWD is a cheap as $h! way to improve your position in life on that when you get the chance to swap out your car. Sure, many mfrs offer AWD cars. But think about it. With Subaru, its built in. You know its part of the deal and the cost is not much more. What does GM offer for affordable AWD? (crickets) Chevy's cheapest AWD is the Equinox. And, it ain't cheap. Buick, the REGAL finally has AWD. NOT CHEAP! Encore, yes, but seriously, in the high twenties at the size it is at, it's going to not work for those looking for much size. GM had the VIbe. That was cheap AWD. Why can't GM offer something like a Legacy sedan for cheap. I can buy a new Legacy with AWD and cloth heated seats for about 23k. Impreza AWD prob for less than 20k. To be a little more fair, AWD across the industry has not come down below 25k very often. Subaru really offers it in affordable guises.
  19. regfootball
    Regal year end incentives....... ATS uptick is pleasing Impala + Malibu as a team is still a good match vs. Fusion + Taurus Equinox + Terrain how so many still boggles my mind on top of all those Captivas. Is the Captiva one of GM's best sellers?
  20. regfootball
    my take is they really went plain on the passat and jetta and its coming back to bite em. that, and the 2.5 boat anchor was in the hopper too long. the 1.8t should revive some interest. No they need some mid cycle styling refreshes on the Jetta and Passat, and redesign the interiors a bit. build love for the new golf and sell the $h! out of the diesels. stiff competition is a bit at fault too. Jetta's focus has been watered down a bit. It's now a hybrid and a diesel, it needs more ads just as a basic good value car in its class. With style. I still think the transformation of the Beetle into something that has some macho to it is fabulous. Its a cool coupe now, not a big rolling bubble.
  21. regfootball
    best evah
  22. regfootball
    If you turn Buick overtly into a cush ride division again, the old rep of floating couches and old persons cars will come back around. You gotta portray some youth and sportiness at least to get good press. Part of that is having a few models geared towards sport. May not have to be a GS. But seriously, how could this not be attractive here?
  23. regfootball
    what the f-k is a TLX? I did like the previous TL. And the TSX. But neither would fly to the top of the list when confronted with other choices. Acura, Buick, Lincoln are the types of brands that do not stand out against the first tier of luxury makes. They probably have more appeal to brand loyal Chevy, Ford, and Honda fans who want a nicer car. (not knocking Buick there as Cadillac is the GM brand). Infiniti is sort of on the same path. What the eff are they doing? Strangely enough, Lexus seems to be trying to do some things to keep a pole position in the luxury market. Only if to be able to keep the doors open to sell more crossovers. I do think it is sort of to the point where Honda may actually improve the Acura or premium Honda models popularity by combining the sales channel in some locations. When the RLX is your flagship and your mainstream sedan is not a TL but now a TLX? when really the names Integra, Legend, Vigor, still hold much more cache ...........
  24. regfootball
    Blu, how about '4 door coupes'? I think the Astra 3 door as a verano hot hatch I have no Idea why we don't have that here yet? LAcrosse GS would just be a cheaper XTS V
  25. regfootball
    I don't like the GTR. Too ricer.
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