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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    They probably couldn’t sell all 999 at the price they wanted and this would have been a money loser. The end must be near if an SUV coupe isn’t the hottest thing...
  2. smk4565
    The subscription service only works with autonomous cars that can drive themselves to another subscriber when you aren’t using it. Then you split the cost of that car up among 4 or 5 subscribers and it becomes much cheaper to do that than own a car.
  3. smk4565
    Cheap crossover = many, many sales units. Americans love crossovers and they love Wal-Mart pricing.
  4. smk4565
    Batteries will get better and so will the charge network. If there was a better charge network people wouldn't think they need 250-300 miles of range, which adds cost for a lot of battery you aren't using. 0% of buyers buy a gas powered car based on mileage range, because gas stations are all over the place. If there is more electric charging stations, people would probably be happy with 150-200 mile range electrics which would help get cost down. Also "electrified" could mean a hybrid Sierra. And really, why wouldn't you do some form of hybrid on every gas engine you have? Adding electric to any engine makes it better.
  5. smk4565
    Is the Land Cruiser better than a Yukon or Expedition or Navigator? If not, then time for Toyota to make an update. The G-wagen didn't really have completion other than maybe a top end Range Rover for all those years, and people still bought it over the Range Rover.
  6. smk4565
    Hey now, if Ghosn is found not guilty there is a job opening for him!
  7. smk4565
    It is not a matter of IF it is a matter of WHEN. One day batteries will be cheap, that is how technology works. I think one day an electric will cost the same as a similar horsepower gas car. We just don’t know when that day is.
  8. smk4565
    It looks better than the Silverado, but GM styling has been coming up with a lot of misses lately. Silverado doesn't look good, XT6 is pretty forgettable. I am not a truck person at all, but I think Ford and Ram have better trucks than GM right now, and probably 10-15 years ago I would have said GM has the best trucks.
  9. smk4565
    But Toyota leaves a lot of stuff out to rot on the vine, the Tacoma and Tundra had 10+ year model runs, ditto for 4Runner, Lexus GX, Lexus LX, etc. And also, G-wagen sales rose consistently from 2009 through 2017, the older it got the better it sold, LOL. Mercedes constantly put out other new product, with the G-wagen they were building what those buyers demanded.
  10. smk4565
    Maybe except the new G is about 3 inches wider so that old hood would not fit, the wheelbase is longer but I don’t think overall length is up more than an inch or two. The new one is 190 inches long I think the old was 187 or 188.
  11. smk4565
    The door handles/latches spare tire cover and headlight washer nozzles are the only carryover parts. Although the 4 liter V8 went in the old G550 a couple years ago but the AMG’s has the old 5.5 liter.
  12. smk4565
    Maybe the $50k price makes it a smarter buy, but the G-wagen is better off road, has more power, 9 gears, probably gets better fuel economy even though both suck in that regard, and the G is way more luxurious. Plus the G has a chassis developed in 2018, no more 1979 chassis. I have seen 2005-2006 G-wagens with over 200k miles even near 300k miles that sell for $20-25k still. The resale value is huge on those too. I wouldn’t buy either personally, I am a car person.
  13. smk4565
    Aren't they all the heritage edition? This version has been on sale since 2007, we are entering the 13th model year without an update. That is pathetic. Toyota isn't strapped for cash, update your vehicles.
  14. smk4565
    Daimler is the equivalent to GM as Daimler has vehicle brands under it and you can't buy a Daimler brand car or truck just like you can't buy a GM brand car. These 2 are actually quit similar and different from others such as Ford, Toyota, VW, where the parent company is also the brand name. Daimler brands are Mercedes cars, Mercedes Vans, Mercedes trucks, Mercedes bus, Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Buses, Fuso and Smart. Mercedes-Benz cars sells about 2.3 million units per year, thus my original point was they don't really need BMW's help for economies of scale, they are bigger than BMW and they have enough economy of scale on their platforms. A CLA costs about the same as an A3, Q3, 1-series, S60, XC40, ATS, XT4, MKC, Lexus NX, Acura TLX, etc, so if none of that is a luxury car, then I guess a CLA isn't either. But for a lot of "luxury" brands a lot of their volume is from sub $45,000 product, Mercedes main volume comes from the middle of their line. As far as the AMG One goes, they will get it right, their goal is to get the car right, not put it on sale ASAP. And it will beat any Ferrari road car ever made, and any other road car for that matter. And if Ferrari was so great, they wouldn't have lost to Mercedes 5 years a row in Formula 1. Ferrari are supposed to be the racing experts, the most legendary racing team of all time, it is what their business revolves around, and yet Mercedes beats them every year.
  15. smk4565
    The Sierra Denali does not touch $100,000, nor does it have the tech wizardry of an S-class. If Exclusivity = luxury then Smart is the most luxurious vehicle in the world. If a million dollars or even a half million is the measuring stick for luxury then we are saying only top end Rolls and Ferraris and Bugattis, McLarens and the Mercedes-AMG One are luxury cars. So in that regard GM sells no luxury priced vehicles. It is windy considered by pretty much everyone that luxury brands are Infiniti, Acura, Lexus, Cadillac, Lincoln, Tesla, Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar/Land Rover, Rolls, Bentley and the other high end super car brands I already mentioned. Of this group Mercedes is #1 selling in the world. GM isn't a car brand, if you want to compare "luxury priced" vehicles that GM sells vs what Daimler sells, I am sure Daimler would win that easily.
  16. smk4565
    Mercedes is referred to as the #1 selling luxury brand in the world since they outsell BMW, Audi, Lexus, Cadillac, etc. They sold about 2.3 million cars the past couple years, about 400,000 of that are A/B-class platform so you are still talking about 1.9 million C-class and up which would be about $45k + cars. Mercedes has a full truck and bus line, those are $250,000+ vehicles but obviously not luxury cars like a Silverado is not a luxury truck.
  17. smk4565
    He was still Chairman?!? Although really I thought he would just run Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault all from his jail cell. Seems like something he would want to do. This guy is a piece of work. I think my all time favorite Ghosn move was when he "stepped down" as CEO of Nissan, only to pick his successor and make him self that guy's boss as chairman of the Nissan-Mitsu-Renault alliance.
  18. smk4565
    Daimler doesn't have a money problem though. They are the #1 commercial truck maker in Europe, Freightliner is #1 in USA, Mercedes is #1 selling luxury car, etc. They have a lot of sources of income and they don't have a profit problem. That being said, the people buying a 1-series or A-class probably aren't going to care about the chassis that much, and BMW and Mercedes would probably use their own engines and transmission and make the cars feel different enough. Also funny that Infiniti doesn't want to partner with Mercedes anymore but BMW wants to join in with them.
  19. smk4565
    I feel like this is unlikely to happen. This would be like the unholy alliance. Mercedes can get enough scale off their FWD platform that they don't need BMW to share cost on, why help them out. I think it more likely the combine efforts on autonomous driving systems.
  20. smk4565
    Okay, so even not taking into account when any platform was made. How competitive are the Charger/300/Challenger to a Camaro or Mustang? Or the 300 to a Maxima or Avalon or Impala? All those big sedans are dying off anyway, but Chrysler sales are down. Challenger sells well for a coupe but a feel like a lot of Challenger/Charger sales are fleets without a lot profit behind it. And they are probably facing CAFE issues post 2020 but that is a powertrain issue.
  21. smk4565
    VW group might do 50 EV's. Spread that out over VW, Skoda, Seat, Bentley, Audi, Porsche, etc and 50 would be easy to hit. They have a ton of brands to spread that over.
  22. smk4565
    I am sure for the right price Mercedes will sell them a mid 2000s E-class platform if they want something newer. That LX platform is way dated now, they have to do something, and Giorgio is a good platform I don’t see why they couldn’t just use that. As far as electrification goes, Tesla is now American muscle, though not a muscle car, the American performance car is a Tesla. Especially with the new roadster that “will accelerate at the limit of what humans can withstand “ and do 250 mph.
  23. smk4565
    “Sold out” of 80 cars isn’t much to get excited about. I don’t know why they don’t build every Continental with suicide doors to generate a little excitement. This car is probably dead in 2 years anyway, might as well go out with a bang.
  24. smk4565
    Well I don't know how long this brand or its dealers will stay in business selling hundreds of cars a month. You can't spend hundreds of millions on R&D and tooling to design and manufacture the G70, then sell 500 a month and have it stick around for another generation. Hyundai has really botched things with this brand launch.
  25. smk4565
    Might be but Tesla probably sold more Model 3 in December than Genesis sold all year. Those Genesis cars are like unicorns, you never see them.
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