smk4565

Tires make all the difference.

It mostly isn't needed, if you live in the mountains of Vermont or Colorado, sure. But for probably 75% of the USA or more, you don't need AWD. And as we go to EV, it makes more sense for RWD than FWD because the engine isn't over the front axel so FWD becomes pointless and RWD works just fine. Which I am all about that, I drive a RWD car.

According to Caredge, Buick and Lincoln cost more to maintain. And the gold standard for long term maintenance cost is of course Tesla. Which is just one more reason the mass market brands are screwed, they can't beat Tesla in anything, when Tesla is fully scaled and priced against them, it is game over.

Yet Toyota wins in 6-10 year maintenance costs and if you factor in resale value, you will take an absolute bath buying a Lincoln or Buick vs a Toyota.

Probably will cost most than an A6 or E-class. And I feel like the people that can afford a $60,000 sedan are going to buy an Audi or Mercedes, not a VW. And the people that are EV or nothing will buy a Tesla.

Switching to ICE shouldn't be hurting their sales, they still make the Golf, Jetta, Tiguan, Atlas and they introduced the Taos. Killed the Passat but that was a sales dud anyway. Their sales dropped because their ICE cars aren't selling and their supply chain is no doubt jacked up because they rely on Eastern Europe and Ukraine for a lot of parts. But Tesla increased sales in the same time frame, they solved supply chain. Here are 2019 US sales on the left and 2022 sales on the right. Most of these brands are done, some like Honda and Ford have lost 500,000 units, Nissan has lost about half its volume, Buick and Dodge lost half their volume, VW is down about 1/3. BMW, Hyundai and Kia are up slightly, Tesla more than doubled. Mercedes down 10,000 units, but they are up in 2023, they should pass 2019 levels this year, which is pretty good considering Tesla hit the luxury market first and they survived. Once Tesla rolls out the lower priced cars and hits the mainstream these brands that are struggling now are going to be headed for bankruptcy. And VW is getting outsold by BMW, Mercedes and Lexus right now and that is with VW's cheap cars. The id4 is priced and sized like a GLB or Lexus NX, the iD7 will be priced higher than a Lexus ES. Who is going to buy these VW's with Lexus-level pricing when people aren't buying VW's at Toyota level pricing? JLR, Nissan, Mitsubishi (and Renault) are done, (Subaru and Mazda will be bought by Toyota). Honda, Stellantis and VW in 10 years will be half what they are now. None of them stand a chance against Tesla. Toyota has so much size and cash, I think they will put up a fight, and GM and Ford will put up a good fight in the USA, but won't have the global scale Tesla will have. Hyundai/Kia are a strong contender, although they don't make much profit per car, so if ICE sales drop and they aren't making profit on EV's they have no margin for error.

VW is on steady decline, I can easily see them at 6 million units per year in 2030. And Tesla will be around 8-10 million, BYD could get to 6.5 million and pass VW. Now if BYD can’t expand much out of Asia then VW could stay ahead of them, but I can still see Tesla, Hyundai and Toyota all in front of VW come 2030. Stallantis will probably drop from their current number so I think VW could still edge them out.

VW will never pass Tesla in EV sales and VW will not be the #2 car maker by volume in 2030, I suspect Tesla and BYD will have passed them by then and VW will be in a battle with Toyota and Hyundai group for the 3rd-5th spots. And VW couldn’t sell Passats at $30k or Arteons at $40k. But here they come with a rumored $50k+ sedan. You will be able to buy a Cadillac CT5 or Lexus ES for less money than this VW. Unless VW pulls a shocker and charges $39,990 for this thing.

Still a pretty slow ramp up. Maybe the plan is to introduce iD7 in 2024 and by 2026 be up to 20,000 units per year.

We know they will over price it, and we know it won't sell. We already saw that story play out with the iD4 and the aforementioned Arteon. VW came out with a lower priced iD4 since launch and has the tax credit this year and did get a sales bump, but they sold 9700 in Q1 in the US vs like 100,000 Tesla Model Y. And the Model Y cut prices twice this month, so now you can get them for iD4 money, and the Model Y is faster with more range and the Model Y is bigger and roomier. When Tesla hits the 20 million units a year level, VW is going to be one of the losers, although not in the big loser list like Honda, Nissan/Renault/Mitsubishi, Mazda and Subaru. VW probably drops to like 6 million units a year in 2035, those other ones might not even be here.

It has pretty good power and performance for the price point, but it is a C-class or 3-series size car which can whip this in performance, granted they cost more. The C63 has over twice the horsepower. If Acura really wanted "incredible performance" they should have put over 600 hp in this car, not 320. Probably this will be high $40s, a CLA35 is a good comparable for it price and performance wise. CT4-V is pretty close also. Sporty cars, but not the top tier performance.

I'd take a Tesla over this thing. The VW Arteon looked better than this car and was allergic to sales at $40,000. This will be a sales bust in the USA, might do okay in Europe and China, but China also has EV price wars galore going on. If they did a Golf or Jetta EV (that isn't a 100 mile range compliance car) that might do well in the US since those 2 cars have had some success here. Passat, Phaeton, CC, Arteon were all sales duds back when sedans sold, and now the masses don't want sedans. The Mercedes hyper screen is ridiculous but at least it isn't tacked on top of the dash, they build it in. But I would prefer the non hyper screen cars to get wood trim or actual materials in the car, not just screens everywhere.

$66,000 for a TLX? Um, no.

Not a fan of the super short trunk lid and I wish every car wasn’t just big screens inside but that is the trend. It is kind of boring looking but most VW’s are. Hard to have an opinion until we know what the price is.

Tesla Model Y Long Range is now cheaper than a Nautilus even before the tax credit and gas savings.

The Buick Envista base price is actually less than the 2024 Trax and Trailblazer. Buick isn’t mid-Lux anymore, they are basically a dumping ground for GM global products how Saturn used to be. They could make Denali a Chevy trim and not need GMC. I think GMC is mainly around because of the dealer agreements, and it isn’t worth paying off all those dealers off. If GM was starting from scratch today it would probably be Chevy-Cadillac, but they are 100 years into this model and aren’t going to change it now.

I meant black plastic body cladding.

Because... money.

Body cladding = SUV. This standard was set by the 90s Pontiac Montana.

This brands naming scheme makes no sense. Also makes no sense that they have like 17 dealers, and very low production volume. This thing has Jaguar I-Pace shape, and that didn't sell. I don't see how this brand makes any money, eventually the Chinese will probably get tired of subsidizing it.

You can find plenty of forums with GM and Ford quality issues too, Northstar V8 and Triton V8, enough said there. Here is the 10 year resale from Car Edge on the Lexus and Lincoln, the Lincoln after 10 years is worth $10,000 less and $9,000 less after just 5 years. And the Aviator actually has the same 45% drop in 5 years. These Lincolns are bad resale, which is why people buy a Lexus, because when they go to sell it in 5-10 years, it is worth way more money.

2024 Lincoln Nautilus pricing with destination: Premier: $51,810 Reserve: $56,145 Black Label: $75,860 2023 Lincoln Aviator Standard: $53,340 Reserve: $59,005 Black Label $80,725 These are pretty close in price, and all those Nautilus prices are with the 2.0T, if you add the $1500 Hybrid that gets the power a little closer to the Aviator, it is basically the same price.

The RX may be a blah, but the Lexus build quality and reliability leads to low ownership cost and high resale value. A used car buyer won't touch a GM 3.6 V6 with 150,000 miles on it, when people won't think twice about a 200,000 mile Lexus. My aunt is on her 2nd ES350, the first she put about 220k miles on then passed on to my cousin who has been driving it the past 2 years, that car might be nearing 250k miles at this point. And that's dealing with Minnesota winter abuse too. And good on Mazda for doing rear drive and a straight 6, but that probably could have been used 5 years ago. Seems like hybrids and turbo 4 or EV has been the trend, and they are setting up 10 years of a thirsty 6 cylinder that makes turbo 4 power.

And those good vehicles usually come from Tesla and Toyota. But I’d take the Lincoln over a Nissan/Infiniti, Acura or an XT5, although this costs more than an XT6. And you can’t trust Land Rover or Alfa Romeo reliability. The Cadillac Lyric with the tax credit is cheaper than the Nautilus. That seems like a no brainer.

The Encore is still on their website, but the Encore GX and Envista will suffice for 2024 model year I am sure. And really the whole line up is pretty disappointing, there are a lot of better SUV's than an Envision, and Palisade, Telluride or Mazda CX-90 are better than an Enclave. GM's crossovers are pretty aged and tired. And if they don't care because they are just letting them run out the clock and putting money in EVs, that's fine, as long as they can crank up EV production in a hurry.