smk4565

They should make a Gladiator with the Demon engine, rear drive only and drag radials. Seems like something FCA would invest money in.

If everyone else dumps their sedans, more sales for Mercedes. I did read the CLA250 has 221 hp, up 13 from the current model. I think the AMG 35's will be the sweet spot of this range with 300 hp.

I think the GLB will be the the big debut off this platform and sell like hot cakes.

Well they could put a turbo V6 in there also like the Edge ST. I think a V8 SUV would be pretty thirsty and even if the Blazer was on a Camaro platform I doubt they would go there with it. Camaro/Charger/Jeep buyers don't care about pushrod, so they can get away with it. The V8 will be dead in 10 years anyway. The problem really though isn't the engine on the Blazer it is the price tag.

Well true, if it was an Alpha platform with a 335 hp V6 and 450 hp V8 option then I could see the $57k price for a V8 "camaro SUV." But as it stands this is a Jeep Cherokee, Ford Edge, Honda Passport competitor which are like $28-$40k with exception of the Edge ST that is about $45k.

It looks a lot better than the current car, but it also looks pretty much the same as the A-class sedan, I don't see the reason to build both of these when one would suffice. I'd rather this be the "sedan" and them offer the A-class hatchback as the other body style. I like the looks of this, the rear end that looks like a C or E coupe is an improvement over the A220. I am not a fan of all these Edition One trims with neon orange or yellow striping that every Mercedes seems to get. It seems like a cheap marketing ploy that they should be above doing. CLA250 should have 208 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque.

GM seems to think Chevrolet is the performance brand and people will pay for it. That might work for a Corvette, but Camaro sales are down. And they want to price a Blazer like a Cadillac. It used to be the top end Chevys were still cheaper than a Cadillac. Trying to move Chevy up market is stupid because it ignores the entry level buyer for other brands to pick up and puts Chevy on top of Buick and Cadillac.

The problem for Cadillac is they had old retirees in Palm Beach buying cars and they realized they had to change course. They saw Mercedes in the 1980s being the car for country club elites (Bobby and JR Ewing on Dallas drove them, the old lady on Falcon Crest had one, etc). Thus Mercedes had a bit of an old stodgy image where as the BMW 3-series in the 90s and early 2000s was a huge seller and young people were gobbling them up and Cadillac wanted to get young buyers. So they chased the 3-series, 5-series, and X5 with their early 2000s renaissance. Then the Lexus RX got hot, so they changed course and went after that. Inconsistent strategy, marketing and branding. Mercedes stayed the course, the philosophy of now isn't really any different than the 1980s Mercedes, rock solid build quality, smooth ride, technology, safety, and powerful engine available in every car. Cadillac should be more like an American Mercedes, but that car is now Tesla it seems. I would agree if you can't make a V-series of every Cadillac (which they can't with the platforms they use) then you might as well shut that down and focus on luxury with smooth ride and smooth acceleration. An S560 does 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, that is pretty fast for any car let a lone a full size sedan and it isn't an AMG car, doesn't have any boy racer wings on it, etc Cadillac can build torquey, smooth accelerating and riding cars, Battery-Electric can play a big role there, that is what Tesla is doing. And Tesla don't have a "sport trim" either, unless the little P badge is a sport trim, but all the cars look the same. I read a fully loaded Blazer is $57,000! They are nuts. That is a well equipped XT5 that has the same engine and is the same size. It gets you a bare bones GLC43 but that says AMG on it, not Chevy. And there are a slew of Lincoln, Infiniti or Acura SUVs for $50k also, or a Jeep Grand Cherokee. They have way overpriced the Blazer, the Honda Passport will probably outsell it.

Tesla is out of my price range, plus I would rather save up for a Mercedes electric car that will not have big panel gaps or problems. But regardless of Tesla build quality they are the hottest product out there.

The Tesla Model 3 sold more units in December than the Cadillac ATS and CTS combined sold in all of 2018. I think the electric car is very viable.

I think the electric crossover concepts are going to be the hot thing over the next year or 2 of auto shows, with all these brands getting multiple on market in the early 2020s. It will be like a tidal wave. Tesla is outselling Infiniti, Acura, Lincoln, and Cadillac now, they outsold Audi in the USA in 2018 and Tesla is selling more expensive cars than those 5 are.

Until the day when they ban fossil fuel powered cars, well sales of new ones anyway. EV will eventually put ICE engines out of business. Just like the car replaced the horse, natural gas and clean energy replaced coal, streaming music replaced CD's which replaced tapes, which replaced records, etc. We can have a mix now, but I feel like come 2030 the gas car will be pointless.

Can't retire Cadillac as it is supposed to be a global brand, at least it is here and in China. GMC could be retired as it is an American market product, and you pretty much have a Chevy or Buick clone of everything they sell, and you can always utilize Cadillac for more SUVs also. Originally the plan was to make Buick cars and GMC trucks and they wouldn't fight over each other in the dealership. But now that Buick is mostly an SUV brand and sedans are going away, they just overlap.

The Germans will bring the challenge to Tesla, we’ll see how it plays out. The Mercedes EQ C motors spin at a Tesla like 13,000 rpm. But the AMG One electric motors from the F1 car spin at 50,000 rpm. If they can spread that to the EQ sedan look out.

Conventional auto companies also make decisions on dollars and cents, and they saw rehashing a 2.4 liter 4 into a new crossover as easy profit. Bean counters run a lot of their decisions, where Elon Musk runs Tesla's decision making with no regard to cost or profitability analysis. He's a dreamer and knows he can market and sell those dreams to other people and he is a gambler because his previous gambles have made him super rich. He knows even if he misses on a few of these dreams, when he hits it is worth billions of dollars.

They have lost opportunities that Tesla capitalized on. But in 2022 Mercedes will have more electric cars than Tesla, they will close the gap fast. And they are realizing a full EV sedan at the same time as the new S-class (on a different platform), so any powertrain in the S-class isn't a stop gap it is one option. The consumer will have choice of hybrid gas or full battery.

Yes they are, Tesla has surpassed Audi. What will be interesting is if that was just pent up demand for the Model 3 and once those orders are filled if the sales will decline. But I think not, I think Tesla is the hot brand and people want it. Mercedes better come strong with their EV's and build a better EV than Tesla. They need to battle Tesla while battling BMW, Audi and Porsche which is a tall task because we know what happens when the Germans get stuck in a two front war. Hopefully the massive Daimler R&D budget can get them through it.

When the Navigator had a V8 the sales sucked. The V6 model is selling better than the V8 did. So the engine isn't the problem. The troubling sign for Ford is every product except for the Fiesta, GT, F-series, Police Interceptor, Expedition and Navigator were down for the year. And the GT is a specialty car with 129 sales, Fiesta is getting killed. That leaves the 3 big trucks as the only growth and a recession or gas price spike could curtail that in a hurry.

Which means they are probably abandoning ship and buying Teslas. Tesla could outsell Lexus in 2019, they are surging fast, Toyota better wake up or their "green car" buyers are going to disappear on them.

The V12 was the halo product and what made the S-class the automotive industry flagship of the 90s and 2000s and 2010s even. But times change and new technology comes along. They are supposed to retire the V12 with this generation. The plug-in hybrid V8 will take its place, no one is doing a plug-in hybrid V8, that will become the new standard of power an efficiency. They are building an all new factory to build the next S-class and the S-class will be the first to have every car drive itself off the assembly line. This is said to be the most advanced auto manufacturing plant in the world, which makes sense for the best car in the world. Audi and BMW don't stand a chance.

Prius is about $6k more than a Corolla, is smaller than a Corolla, and has less power. Prius does get about 20 mpg more, but according to fueleconomy.gov the Prius saves $400 per year in gas over a Corolla. So in 15 years it breaks even, not a good deal.

They left Lincoln in the dust decades ago. I do think dropping the short wheel base version makes sense, just build one wheelbase. The inline six mild hybrid is already in the European market S-class, no doubt that continues. They need to add that to the V8 and a plug-in hybrid V8 with 800 hp has been rumored for the S73. This upcoming generation might be the last with gas power, the next one would arrive around 2028 and I could see the S-class being only electric then.

My guess is the V6 GLS outsells the V8 GLS but that is also a by product of price. I don’t think the V6 really hurts the Navigator, plenty of expensive cars have 6 cylinder engines now. The word “Lincoln” probably hurts sales more than anything, they let the Navigator rot for 10 years being uncompetitive. Also Tesla outsold every luxury car brand except Lexus, BMW and Mercedes last year, and Tesla has no cylinders and yet is the on fire product.

Even on a bad year, Mercedes Cars were #1 selling luxury brand. They need that new GLE and GLB, SUV’s are hot and the GLC is on fire but the rest are dated.

Prius sales are awful because it is ugly, and not a good car. The Tesla Model 3 outsold the Corolla last month. That has to be concerning, they aren't even up to full capacity yet, the Model 3 could be the number 1 selling sedan in the USA in 2019, while all these other guys can't figure out how to sell a sedan.