smk4565
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Everything posted by smk4565
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They are to Cadillac if you take away Vans and the pick up. Mercedes isn’t selling Chevy priced product which is the vast majority of GM sales. They wisely set up their luxury brand to have a car for all needs, while GM set up their luxury brand for people that want mid size sedans and midsize crossovers. Mercedes owners have no reason to look at another brand because Mercedes has a car for every need. Cadillac owners if they want a convertible or coupe after this year or a performance SUV or sports car, etc have to go look at another brand. Then if they find that brand better, when they neee a new sedan they probably aren’t going back to Cadillac. This is also why most niche brands don’t make it l, outside of novelty stuff like Ferrari or Lamborghini.
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Owning a car makes more sense now. But one day when cars and Uber can function with no driver it will be cheaper to have a robot pod shuttle you around.
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When the autonomous pods arrive that get you from point A to point B while you can sleep or play on your $1,000 phone for a price of a $300 a month subscription then the masses won’t buy cars. The majority of people buy a car to get from point A to point B (school, work, grocery store, etc). They don’t want to pay $400 for a payment, $200 in gas, $100 in maintenance, $100 in insurance, yadda yadda yadda. Most will take the autonomous pod. The enthusiast and the wealthy that have too much disposable income will still buy a car, which is where Cadillac makes sense.
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They couldn’t build a more reliable or more fuel efficient taxi than Mercedes. The E-class is the best mid size sedan in the world, regardless of intended use.
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Cadillac is dying now too?!?! I actually think in a world of self driving pods and mass transit, a car becomes a luxury item. Thus Cadillac is the brand that makes the most sense if mainstream car ownership disappears.
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Worldwide they sold that. Mercedes sold 2,310,185. They got some catching up to do.
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The imports didn’t really hit the market big until the 70s, mainly due to gas crisis. Cadillac sold 350,000 cars in 1978 and 150,000 last year. Mad far as the brands go, GMC has the most consistent and focused marketing and brand image, they have been constant with it for a long time. GMC is their best managed brand, Cadillac is probably their most mismanaged but Buick has a lot of baggage and a small line that was mostly made up of stuff from other brands. I would say Buick is the weakest brand so if they had to kill one that would be it. I don’t think GM will kill Buick in the USA though.
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It worked in the 50s and 60s because the Germans and Japanese cars weren’t here. When competition arrived GM crapped the bed. How? Bad management and laziness and arrogance.
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Land Rover News: Land Rover Debuts New Inline-6 Engine
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Land Rover
Correct and GM has too many transverse engine products. If they made the Traverse/Enclave/XT6 on a rear drive platform you could put an in-line 6 in all of them plus all the current rear drive cars and trucks they have. A Turbo 4 is enough for any mid-size crossover or sedan from Chevy or Buick. I could make a strong case to kill the 3.6 V6 and that is for the USA, not even getting into It being over China’s 3 liter displacement tax which makes it useless there. Answered in response to Drew’s post. -
Envision and Terrain are the same size but Encore is smaller than both and Acadia is smaller than Enclave and Yukon is biggest. So they have enough size spacing. Cadillac is about to overlap all those vehicles too, I am sure dealers want an XT3. I don’t hink GM cares, SUVs equal profit. Chevy and GMC overlapped for decades and they don’t care.
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Land Rover News: Land Rover Debuts New Inline-6 Engine
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Land Rover
This is JLR’s own engine not from anyone else. It is based off their 2 liter 4 cylinder engine family. That is where the cost savings is, a V6 and an in-line 4 have different parts, in-line 4 and in-line 6 can share almost all the parts so it is cheaper to manufacture. Electric probably has 10 years before it replaces ICE, at least. And an engine program should only last 10 years anyway, unless you are Toyota. And some engine programs are like 5 years before they go to a new one. -
I can see Buick as an all crossover brand (at least in the US) come 2021 model year. Without Opel to source cars why bother selling a fancy Malibu when sedans aren’t big sellers anyway.
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Land Rover News: Land Rover Debuts New Inline-6 Engine
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Land Rover
Riding Mercedes coat tails on this one. But a good move for them. -
Mercedez Benz News Mercedes-Benz EQC is Sold Out for 2019
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Mercedes-Benz
Probably the German built ones will come to USA as anything Mercedes builds in China is sold in that region. They are currently expanding the Alabama plant and building a battery factory next to it so I would expect once that is done these EQC’s and others will be sourced from there. A slow ramp up in 2019 is fine to get quality right, after that they need to get it rolling. As I said they aren’t Tesla with one factory. The new S-class factory will open in 2020, they will make EV’s there also freeing up Sindelfingen for E-classes and the like. -
Mercedez Benz News Mercedes-Benz EQC is Sold Out for 2019
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Mercedes-Benz
They better ramp up production big time in 2020, this is Mercedes-Benz not Tesla. -
GM has money now, they could build anything they want. It is a matter of choice now not limited resources.
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Probably got a big shipment out of the former Yugoslavia during the fall, much like Newman’s shower head dealer.
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I always liked the rear end styling of that car, I think the rear still looks good today. I thought the headlights were too rounded off and the front was a little off. I liked the interior of that car at the time. I test drove one that was 3 years old maybe and remember it being too floaty and I had an Aurora at the time , that was probably 6 years ago. I drove an STS, gen 2 CTS, XF, MKZ, Genesis 4.6 and then an E350 and the E350 was way better so I bought an E550 without driving it figuring it has to be better than a 350.
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Haven driven both those (540i) I do think the STS has better luxury, the BMW maybe a better grade of build quality and fit and finish. The difference was in driving, that E39 5-series could run circles around an STS or Gen 2 Aurora.
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That is the best looking BMW sedan ever made.
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Well, I mean the faster the van the faster the man with a van can make his deliveries and the more deliveries the more money. At least Jeremy Clarkson would see it that way.
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Alpina counts it is on BMW's website. You can't buy a Hennessey car are a Cadillac dealer. That is why I left off the Brabus S-class that does 227 mph, I don't care what an aftermarket tuner does that voids out a warranty and could blow the engine. For stock factory cars the BMW Alpina B7 is the fastest one, which actually pisses me off because I don't like BMW, that is the real enemy of my brand. The A8 doesn't sell here at all, in China they clean up though, so on a global basis the A8 does alright. 7-series was in a model change over at the end of the year, plus the CT6 is 5-series money. The 5-series easily outsells the CT6, and the top end 5-series costs more than the top CT6. If the CT6 was 7-series money, it would sell 200 a month like the A8 does. 2019 CT6 is $50,495 CT6-V $87,795 2019 5-series is $53,400 M5 $102,700 2019 7-series is $83,650 M760li $156,700 And those are base prices before options list for the lowest model and the base price of the top trim.
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This is the 2019 CT6 V-sport backseat: And a 760 And an S-class Maybach
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The 2005 BMW M5 could go 200 mph with the speed limiter removed but it did have that governor put on there. CTS-V can hit 200 mph, but we are talking about a car bigger than a CT6, with a lot more weight (4,820 lbs) to move in the Alpina B7. And this thread was about the CT6 rivaling the best German sedans, which you have to throw the Panamera and maybe AMG GT63 4-door in there too. I still see the CT6 as more of an E-class/5-series rival that is just bigger. Maybe Lexus LS level when you have the V8 model added in there, it can offer the muscle the Lexus can't, even if it doesn't have Lexus reliability/quality. We can call that an even match up. But neither the CT6 or LS are "ready for prime time" of that $100-200k segment, they just aren't that level.
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This has a top speed of 205 mph, making it the fastest sedan in the world (factory produced). Gauntlet thrown, are the Lexus LS or Cadillac CT6 going to beat it? I hope AMG steps up to the challenge.
