smk4565

I think Musk is so arrogant that he thinks Tesla doesn't need any tax breaks or government help (despite building his business on them) and that if all the tax credits go away, it will hurt the legacy OEM's selling EV's more than him. But without that $7500 discount n Tesla's they look $10k more expensive than the ICE counterparts and once that value proposition is gone I think the sales grown crawls to a halt. And Stellantis and Nissan may be a mess, but Toyota is a juggernaut, Hyundai/Kia have good momentum, GM is looking pretty strong again, Honda does their core products well and the Germans have the luxury market sewn up. Tesla faces a lot of competitors who aren't just going to roll over.

Nissan has the new Kicks at a competitive price, that could do well like the Trax has. There is a new Murano. But the Titan is gone (not that they sold many anyway), the Altima is dying next year so that is a lot of lost volume, I think they killed or are killing the Versa, and the Z doesn't sell at all (too expensive). And a lot of those Sentra, Kicks, Rogue sales are probably rental fleets. It is just a junk brand. Infiniti sales are down 50% in the past 5 years and they are going to let Infiniti dealers move into Nissan dealers to survive. But Infiniti is in even worse shape than Nissan because they can rely on rental fleets and low credit buyers like Nissan does. No higher margin luxury sales, no high margin pick up sales, Nissan is a mess. Stellantis also a mess, way too many cost cutting measures and they build junk cars and too many brands to feed. You don't need Dodge and Chrysler, Alfa and Maserati, Citroen and DS, Opel and Peugeot, etc. It is all overlap, they could kill half those brands. Terrible product planning too, way too many expensive vehicles and they don't make a competitor to the Corolla or Rav4 or Model Y for the global market and those are the top 3 selling vehicles in the world. No Ford Maverick or Toyota Tacoma competitor at Ram. And the Stellantis fan boys want to blame the decline in the company on Tavares killing the Hellcat and the V8 Chargers, but Hellcat vehicles are low volume and they pretty much exhausted that market already. They could bring back a Hellcat Charger and they'd probably sell like 10,000 a year when the company has capacity to build like 7 million vehicles a year. The company is clueless on what buyers actually want, and they haven't put R&D into new product in forever and trashed the reputation of all their brands. And I think Tesla is next, once the $7500 goes away, and the west cost liberals stop buying them because they don't like Elon, I can see their sales dropping because that product line is stale as hell now, and the Cybertruck is already out of reservations, so those are about to be a sales bust. Unless Elon cons the government to buy 100,000 Teslas per year.

Probably is the last Nissan Murano as they won't be here in 10 years to do another one.

I wonder what people will think when they see 25% tariffs on Chevy, Ford, Ram, Dodge, Jeep, Nissan and VW vehicles? People think cars cost too much now, just wait. And if you deport all the illegals and loose construction and agriculture workers, housing prices will go up, produce prices will go up. The inflation will hit hard, which will probably lead to recession like 2008. Good chance Nissan goes bankrupt in the next 2 years, Stellantis is a mess (I have seen $26,000 off brand new Grand Cherokees or lease for $299 a month with $0 down, and $19,000 off 2025 Ram trucks already). When these big companies fall it has a trickle down effect. The only positive will be Elon will have pissed off all the liberals that used to buy Teslas before he went "dark MAGA" and once Trump turns on him for failing to cut money from the deficit, the MAGA people will turn on him too.

Well Mercedes is rumored to be killing the GLC coupe and GLE coupe in 2026. And the BMW X4 is being discontinued. The SUV coupe phase is over, which is unfortunate for Genesis who just put one on sale. Audi for some reason wants to hang in there with the Sportback's but their lineup is way bloated.

The Lyric has a weird back end, it is also too long for a 2 row SUV, and the wheels are too big, unless you get the base wheel. The proportions are just off, the Vistiq and Optiq look a little more like traditional SUVs and I think if you want to sell EV's it needs to look like a traditional car and not some funky futuristic thing that is different for the sake of being different. Also why Mercedes need to throw the EQ line in the trash which they are doing and they have an Electric G-wagon and their path to success is take the S-class body, the E-class body, etc and just drop it on the EV platform and call it a day. Cadillac's ICE lineup outside of the Escalade isn't competitive at all, they can scrap all that crap and push to EV.

I think Elon going full MAGA will probably drive away some of his former customers, plus there are so many other options coming on the market, and the Model Y is dated, although likely getting a refresh in 2025, but even the Model 3 is basically 7 years old, with just 1 refresh on it. And if you take away the tax credit, Tesla prices basically go up 15-20%, that will cripple their sales. GM just has to make sure they hit on build quality, and get the battery cost down, so that all these EV's at a least have no price increase in 2025 or 2026 as ICE cars keep getting more expensive so they can get some price parity. And a sub-$30k Bolt could sell like hotcakes because the old one sold well despite being pretty below par for charge speed and battery tech.

It is very bizarre that Trump is anti-EV, yet he partners with Elon. So something has to give, either Elons turns on him or Trump starts pushing EVs. If the $7500 tax credit goes away, I think Tesla is sunk, because they basically have a 15-20% off MSRP sale going on thanks to the government. At full price I think the sales slow down, especially with a stale line up. The problem with the current Cadillacs is Chevy FWD chassis and a Chevy 2.0T or the 3.6 V6 that has had reliability issues, definitely not competitive with the Germans or Lexus. But if you toss that out and have a 500 hp Lyriq, a 615 hp Vistiq, then you start squashing the competition. I am not a huge fan of the styling of the EV Cadillacs, but the XT's looked a bit ungainly with their FWD proportions so these look more modern. Early reviews on this and the Lyric seem to say they have luxury but there are some build quality issues. I think if GM can keep working on getting some cost and weight out of the battery, and get to the 1980 Mercedes or 1990s Lexus school of build quality they can have some winners. Because build quality has historically been where Cadillac falls flat.

What they are missing, is standard range LT that is like $62,500 ($55k after tax credit). I imagine that will come, and they are pushing higher end trims until they can make more batteries. But once you get the price down, I think sales take off. As much as people pay crazy money for pick up trucks, you can't survive on the $80-90k stuff.

I think this vehicle could do well because I imagine the interior is about as roomy as an Escalade, this is about the size of a GLS or X7 so it is basically full size 3 row SUV under $80k with 615 hp. That is quite the combo, way better value than a Navigator, Grand Wagoner or even a gas Escalade unless you need to tow, and a lot of people might think those huge SUVs have gotten too huge, and will prefer this. I think GM could do really well with the EV's once they work the bugs out and battery costs come down in the next couple years. The Equinox I think will sell well, the Lyriq id the #2 selling Cadillac, if the Bolt comes back at $29k before tax credit (assuming you can still get $7500 off) then they will sell a crap ton of those because the $30k Tesla is never coming. And if Bolts are like $21,000 after tax credit, they can undercut Corollas and Elantras even, they sell like crazy at that price. The XT4 is being discontinued, the XT6 is a dud, they can dump all that junk and the new generation Cadillac that is all EV could be pretty formidable.

1235 to have 1 more than the Lucid.

They should make an electric sedan with 1500 hp to complete with the Xiaomi SU7. Might as well put 1500 hp in the Lyric too. Since these EV’s have ridiculously pointless power.

Not sure what is worse, 631 hp being the most powerful Audi ever, or that their highest performance vehicle is an SUV.

A year or so ago all the talk was Tesla was going to build the factory in Mexico and they would build a sub $30k car. But now it seems it will be that Robo-taxi instead and I don't see that working in 2026, except maybe like on a closed college campus or business park or something where it is geo-fenced and doesn't go above 25 mph. They don't even have a licensed level 3 system right not, so to be level 5 in 2 years seems not possible.

If they could get these to quality for the $7500 tax credit they would be cheaper than the Escape.

So the powertrain that is standard in a Toyota Sequoia is optional in the Lexus. And this powertrain isn't really the hallmark of reliability that Lexus and Toyota had with the old powertrains. The interior on the LX seems to be behind what you get in the X7, GLS or Escalade, and I think the LX is newer than all those, and with the 10-12 year refresh rate these seem to get, you wonder how dated the interior will look in 2033 when they are selling the same interior as in the photo. It looks dated now.

Sounds like the Lincoln will work. I think the price is quite fair, it looks in pretty good shape.

Can get a 2018 GLS450 for under $20k. 2018 GLS 450

If you don't need a body on frame SUV, I am sure you can get cheaper SUV's and the Pilot and Highlander though boring will be reliable and they have cheap parts cost. I just saw a news story about a police department wanting to dump all their Durangos because they are so unreliable and break down all the time and replace them with Explorers that they wanted but couldn't get during covid. The cops seem to do well with the Explorer so they must be pretty reliable. I wouldn't buy any Stellantis product, they are all unreliable trash. There is a Stellantis dealer near me selling Compasses for $10k off, Hornets for $12k off, Grand Cherokees for as mush as $20k off, Ram trucks are $9k off, etc. And I work with one of their body shops and I was told they sold about 120 cars a month before the pandemic and sold 34 in July. Awful product, no discount is big enough to buy anything from them because maintenance and depreciation will eat you alive. And Kia/Hyundai with the 2.0 or 2.4 cylinder engines burn oil and grenade themselves, the 3.8 V6 vehicles are probably fine. But any Kia/Hyundai without the push button starter is a theft target, I see thefts or attempted thefts on them all the time. And Tellurides always have pars shortages if you are ever in an accident and need parts for it.

I think the Navigator and Expedition both look pretty clean for the model year. I don't know too much about the reliability of them, but Fords tend to pretty reasonable from a routine maintenance standpoint. And if you need a body on frame SUV those are a good price, because I searched for Yukon's, Sequoia/Land Cruiser and Escalade within a few hundred miles of IL and there are basically none newer than 2015 under $20k. And most of the Tahoes available are 2WD or look like a former police or fleet vehicle, and there are a few 2015-16 with 100k miles around $18-19k. The GM pushrod V8s seem to run a long time so that's a plus. I think the Navigator is a pretty good buy actually for the price. but the terrible fuel economy needs factored in too, the running costs will be higher on that than probably just about anything else.

My car has the M272 5.5 liter V8. But my point was the V8s and V6s are going away a being replaced by 2 liter or smaller turbo 4's with electrification. A third of Toyotas were hybrid last year, I bet half their sales in 2025 are hybrid because most of their models you are forced to get a hybrid. And 10 years ago you could get a 301 hp 3.6 V6 in an Equinox, even a couple years ago a 250 hp turbo 4, now it is just a 175 hp turbo 4. And maybe that is by design, if you want more than 175 hp you buy the Equinox EV. A 2007 Mercedes E350 had a 268 hp V6, a 2025 E350 has a 255 hp turbo 4. Soon they'll do this with pick up trucks, and you'll see 2 liter turbos in full size trucks to power the front axle and a 100 hp electric motor to power the rear axle. Agree that a $30-35k EV could clean up, because a Camry is now hybrid only and starts at $30k. I bet the next-gen Rav4 becomes hybrid only, and Hyundai has 1.6 liter turbo 4's with hybrid. They are creating complexity and maintenance costs for these new cars, and I don't think consumers realize it yet, but in a few years they'll probably want to jump ship from this and go to EV and not have to worry about plugging in a car, and putting gas in, and changing oil, and changing CVT transmission fluid every 20,000 miles, etc.

You don't have to have a high revving DOHC cam engine, DOHC engines can still make torque, mine makes 391 lb-ft form 2800-5000 rpm. The new E450 has 369 lb-ft from 1,800-5,800 so it is flatter, but a lower peak too from the smaller engine. But it is all brands, the 2025 Equinox/Terrain have a 175 hp turbo 4 and 10 years ago they had a 182 hp NA 4-cylinder or a 301 hp V6. Every car brand is taking power away in the name of fuel economy and emissions. Which is good to have better economy and emissions. But I think what might push people to EV's faster is that gas cars will all be electrified or hybrid and be super heavy and super complex to work on like the new C63, and they will be expensive to buy and expensive to maintain.

I haven't seen an EV9 or EV6 in one of my shops so I don't know what the repair cost is like on them. Hyundais and Kias tend to have a high repair cost in general because their parts are expensive. A door on a Tucson is about $2400 compared to a Rav4 is about $900, any Subaru is about $800. Hyundais and Kias also you plastic radiator supports, they break almost always in an impact, compared to Chevy, Toyota, Subaru use steel. I did look up the price of an EV9 headlight, they are $2500. But it is only 1 unit. The Tucson and Santa Cruz that do the split headlight and signal lamp cost about $1600 each and usually if one breaks the other does too, so you are looking at about $3200 for the set. I had a '23 Tucson that needed a bumper, grille, the 4 lights and a hood, probably a rad support too from hitting a deer, fenders and structure were fine, and it was like $13,000 in damage. On a CR-V or Forester that is probably a $6,000 repair.

Perhaps the Godzilla engines will last that long, but it will depend on what rivals come out with also, that engine may not be competitive in 5 years. But I could see 10 more years of gas V8s in the Super Duty's, they'll be long gone in an F150, the 2025 Ram has no V8, the Silverado probably won't in 5 years, they are already pushing the 4-cylinder Silverado.

GM's turbo 4 is a better move, but that 3.6 V6 had issues anyway so I don't think it is as hard to replace, compared to the VQ engines that were great in their day but are past their prime now. But everyone does this, and 2024 Mercedes E350 makes 13 less horsepower than a 2007 E350 and nearly 50 less hp than a 2012 E350. The goal is all fuel economy and reducing emissions now, big engines are dead, and it's kind of sad.