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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    700 hp and 800 lb-ft of torque is insane, that is what I love about EV's. That crushes any V8 truck. I also like the flat floor in the interior, looks very spacious and the front trunk and storage is nice too. Hopefully they are successful with this, I'd like to see more options for EVs rather than small hatchbacks.
  2. smk4565
    First off, I feel bad for the folks that are losing their jobs. These big corporations lobbied for and got the tax cuts under the guise of "we'll bring the jobs and money back to the US" but we all knew that wasn't going to happen. As far as the products go, I would be surprised for the Volt to be totally killed, I could see the Volt becoming a pure EV sedan, something bigger than the Bolt and maybe not as big as a Malibu. I think the CT6 could move production to another plant, possibly even China and import. I don't think they will totally kill that product. The LaCrosse, Impala, XTS, Cruze I think are all dead. Buick can get by with 1 sedan and they'll probably just do a Malibu clone to replace the current Regal/LaCrosse, maybe they recycle one of those name plates.
  3. smk4565
    Wasn't today, but last week I got an oil change plus state inspection and emissions inspection, and no repairs needed for $180 total at dealer prices. Not too shabby for a 10 year old German car. (granted I did replace the front brakes and an air strut this summer)
  4. smk4565
    They probably should dump Fiat. Even in the 2nd world countries, I imagine VW, Skoda, Seat, Nissan/Renault or Toyota do way better and Fiat probably doesn't even do well in counties that crave cheap small cars. I don't really see the need for Maserati either. As a high dollar car it should have good margins, but it doesn't because they can't sell enough and you still have some amount of fixed costs to cover. Really you could transform the Ghibli into a mid/large Alfa Romeo sedan then Alfa has 2 sedans, give them another SUV and they have 2, give them an 8C $100k sports car as a halo product and that makes Maserati pointless. Jaguar to some degree is in the same situation. Just because Jaguar and Maserati are storied brands, doesn't mean they are relevant today. Blockbuster Video and Sears were successful, segment leading brands are one point, irrelevant today. I don't see any path in which FCA competes with the German luxury car brands. They are too good at what they do and too far ahead.
  5. smk4565
    Their problems are 100% product and not any pairing with Alfa Romeo. Maserati cars have poor build quality, low rent interior plastics and their whole deal is supposed to be performance, and any of the Germans will sell a better performing car and at less money. Case in point, Levante Trofeo is $170,000 base and the GLE63 which is dated itself is just as fast at about $125,000. Or get a Cayenne Turbo or the new X5 M. The most powerful Ghibli has 424 hp, you can get more than that in an E53, and the top Quattroporte has 523 hp, you get 630 in the AMG GT 4-door and the AMG GT is your Nurburgring lap record holder for a 4 door car. Maserati is just a disaster, only way to fix it is better product, and clearly they don't have the money or resources or engineering know-how to do it.
  6. smk4565
    Unfortunately for GM people do look at the label. And when ever people say "we beat the label" well maybe Ford or Ram beats their label too.
  7. smk4565
    Makes sense, they need another SUV. This lets them up-size the Pilot a little and not have to make the CR-V any bigger, because it has grown a bit in the past generation to two.
  8. smk4565
    It looks good on the outside, I'd be curious to see the inside and how big it is and what the powertrains are. Could be a strong contender though in the full size segment.
  9. smk4565
    Agreed then maybe you market the V6 AWD as the TRD performance, at least it would have that going for it. The new Altima has AWD but they left it off the top engine because they said the car would cost too much, which makes sense because they probably know a $35k+ Altima is a hard sell. Same with the Camry if you put too much on it gets near $40k and then that is Lexus level.
  10. smk4565
    A million up votes. And it would seem that you can be a financial genious if you lie about the numbers.
  11. smk4565
    So zero power upgrades for a "performance" trim. Also only about 7% of Camrys are sold with a V6 anyway. I wonder how much difference the suspension makes, you still have a nose heavy front drive car, and I can't imagine suspension tweaks make it fell all that much different than a regular Camry. So this is probably mostly a body kit and wheel package.
  12. smk4565
    What is a real SUV? Is a Wrangler going to last longer than a Cherokee or Compass? Does a G-class last longer than an E-class sedan? I don’t buy into a truck lasts longer than a car so it has better resale. I think crossovers are hot and the used market isn’t flooded with them yet to where 70% of used car lot inventory is a crossover/suv which will happen.
  13. smk4565
    I wonder how crossover resale value will be in a couple years when used car lots are flooded with them and Ford and FCA have quit on sedans. There is also a consumer falacy that an SUV is more rugged and longer lasted than a car is, when a Fusion/Edge or Camry/Highlander are basically the same chassis and power trains coming out of the same factories.
  14. smk4565
    GM’s marketing is bad across the board. The Chevy focus group guy is annoying and the ads are terrible, and how did they find people to be in these focus groups that have not watched TV in the past 5 years to know it is the Chevy guy conducting the focus group. “That’s not a Buick” ads are fired and played out and weren’t that good to begin wih, they are literally admitting that people have no idea what their cars looks like or stand for. Cadillac hasn’t had a good ad in about 10 years. Subaru does car advertising right, they are on point and on message and look what their sales have done over the past 10 years.
  15. smk4565
    So does every other expensive car. I like a car with strong acceleration and 0-60 is jus the best measure of that. In general I see plug in hybrid as low appeal. A hybrid or mild hybrid that can add some performance or fuel economy without adding a lot of weight or cost I like. But after that you might as well go full electric and get 0-60 in 3 seconds.
  16. smk4565
    4 cylinder hybrid is going to have a low take rate on any luxury car. People in the upper price ranges aren't going to care a lot about fuel economy, so electrification needs to be more about a performance play. And turbo 4 in a full size car isn't performance. Plus they priced this high, I remember when the CT6 came out thinking the hybrid was too expensive, they wanted close to turbo V6 money for it.
  17. smk4565
    I don’t think this is a Mercedes platform but all Aston Martin V8s are from Mercedes and so are their Nav-Infotainment systems I think.
  18. smk4565
    I can't wait for the big 4 SUV comparison of Lamborghini vs Ferrari vs Aston Martin vs McLaren and who sets the best lap times around some F1 circuit or Laguna Seca.
  19. smk4565
    This will be impressive if they pull it off. This is also the sort of thing that would get EV’s mainstream.
  20. smk4565
    I think Toyota has 5 of the top 10 highest domestic parts content cars. Camry, Highlander, Tundra and Sienna for sure are up there.
  21. smk4565
    Making the TT a sedan makes no sense. They already have A3, A4, A6, A8 sedans and a 4-door A5 and a 4-door A7. That is six 4-door cars! And yes Mercedes has six 4-doors but I feel like they can kill the CLA or CLS and not miss a beat. This is a move that just reaks of stupidity.
  22. smk4565
    Lexus GS can die off, the German sedans crush it, and Lexus has the ES which is a midsized car for less money than a GS and their buyers are fine with it. RC is a coupe of an existing model, so I don't know if that is so much it's own model, they could call it IS coupe if they wanted. The Avalon they can do without because the top trim Camry is about as nice as an Avalon, and if you want a car a little bit nicer than a Camry they have the Lexus ES which shares a platform and drivetrain with the Avalon. They need something below the Corolla I think, and if the Yaris is built by Mazda or shared however they do it, that may not really be costing Toyota much.
  23. smk4565
    And I personally have never seen an Escalade, Navigator or GLS with a trailer behind it. Although I also don't do cross country driving in the midwest where that may happen. But I feel like tow rating is about 50th on the list of considerations for which of these 3 to buy.
  24. smk4565
    The AMG has a 7500 lb tow rating. So in fact, a GLS63 could probably tow a Navigator and go 0-60 faster than a Navigator can get itself from 0-60. As far as what ballers drive, it is this because it has side pipe exhaust: And it is body on frame and tows more than a Navigator. Some other towing capacities: Mercedes GLE: 7200 lbs Cadillac XT5: 3500 lbs Lincoln Nautilis: 3000 lbs Why are Lincoln and Cadillac so far behind if they are so focused on towing needs of Americans?
  25. smk4565
    The GLS has the most torque in that segment, what is not to trust? And the G63 has as 627 lb-ft and that engine/transmission combo will go into the 2020 GLS. I also suspect towing capability is rather low on the priority list of luxury SUV buyers. The Infiniti QX56 tows 8,500 lbs, how does that thing sell?
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