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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    And yet BMW X3 sales are up 30% this year, X1 is up 6% and the X2 as a new entrant has added 11,000 more units. They have gone from about 53,000 units to 75,000 units from last year to this year for the first 3 quarters. It would seem demand is quite high for the smaller BMW SUVs.
  2. smk4565
    Those young female professionals want a BMW. And interior space won't really have any bearing on how well the XT4 sells because there are tons of small vehicles that sell, the Kia Soul is small, they sell bunches of those, Hyundai Kona is a foot and a half shorter than an XT4, Mazda CX-3 is a foot shorter and they sell those. Audi Q3 is smaller and they have a Q1 in other markets. Encore as mentioned has sold well and is much smaller than XT4. I'd almost be shocked if Cadillac doesn't make an XT3 in the future.
  3. smk4565
    Eventually they will hybrid all things.
  4. smk4565
    I would think who cares if it idles high, that is to be expected when you get an F1 engine, you aren't buying this car for NVH, they'll sell you a Maybach if you want that. I would have thought maybe they could get some sort of emissions exemption for how low volume this will be. They will figure it out though, and I applaud the commitment of spending all the time and money on a low volume pet project in which they are just trying to prove they can put an F1 engine into a road car. No one else has the guts to do something like that, and this is an unreal level of performance.
  5. smk4565
    Isn't the 2.7 liter made for rear drive applications? My guess is they just dial up the boost on the 2.0 turbo, especially with the displacement tax in China over 2 liters. Some sort of electrification would be the way to go, but I feel like that will get killed buy the bean counters due to cost, even though it is freaking Cadillac and they shouldn't be worried about cost. These are the people that thought $5 for a CT6 door handle was too much cost. And they better bring more than 310 hp if they want to compete with the Germans, more like 400 hp. Nope.
  6. smk4565
    They are pretty forgettable vehicles, not surprising that the public forgot to buy them.
  7. smk4565
    I will for sure see full self drive in my lifetime. There will be level 4 cars in the 2020s.
  8. smk4565
    Tesla should have a class action lawsuit against the and they should refund that $8,000 to people that bought that option. This was just a scam to get an extra $8,000 profit per car thinking they could do a software update in a couple years and make it self driving. It doesn't work like that. Mercedes has said the 2021 S-class will have Level 3 autonomous driving, and Level 5 is full self driving. The S-class been a technology leader for decades, and if they are at a Level 3 in 2021, I don't see how Tesla thinks they can get to Level 5 in the next few years. Maybe 2030 we get fully self driving cars.
  9. smk4565
    If these Germans can get out EVs that rival Tesla on price, but actually deliver it in a timely manner and not 6 months after you put a $1,000 deposit down, then I think Tesla could be in trouble.
  10. smk4565
    The V12 will probably be a $50,000 option.
  11. smk4565
    More people are willing to spend $90k on an SUV than are on a sports car.
  12. smk4565
    Benz will have a strong response and the GLS is supposed to get a Maybach trim. And we know the GLS63 will have 603 hp, they trademarked GLS73 for something above that. So I imagine BMW will have to do an 600 hp X7 M. Horsepower wars are on!
  13. smk4565
    I have to say the interior of this looks top notch. I saw some photos of the beige and blue interior and that looked quite good. The pricing is quite good too, BMW came to play here, gauntlet thrown, we'll see how Mercedes responds with the 2020 GLS.
  14. smk4565
    Dynamic Handling Package indeed. This is a vehicle they need, they have to have a big 3 row SUV, especially for the American market.
  15. smk4565
    Nah, E-class, especially the E53.
  16. smk4565
    Technically it is a re-badged Nissan Navara, which is a new truck. The Frontier we have in the USA is the 2004-2014 Navara. And the X-class was never designed for the US market, it was made for Europe, Africa and Australia. If they wanted to do an American version, I imagine there would be interior upgrades, more sound deadening, different engines, and suspension changes. And you wouldn't need a G-class platform for any of that, but they could pull suspension and differential bits from it to put on the X-class. From a CNBC article a few days ago: Mercedes-Benz, a luxury car company founded in 1926, makes an average $339 profit every second. This amounts to an average $20,310 every minute, $1,218,656 every hour and $29,247,743 every 24 hours, according to Staveley Head, a U.K.-based car insurance provider.
  17. smk4565
    I was thinking more the rear of the car, with the shape of it. And we are talking about 45 years in between designs.
  18. smk4565
    Full size truck is too big for Europe, they are becoming too big for the USA. Canyon or Colorado could work in Europe, assuming they had the dealer network, but they don’t. FCA could sell a Wrangler pick up there I bet. As far as the X-class, I think that is putting their toe in the water. If it does well they can do a mid cycle refresh and give it a new interior and make it ready for the US market. The Mercedes turbo 4 has as much torque as the V6 Colorado or Tacoma and the in-line six blows away any mid-size truck on sale here. Americans love pick ups and the money spent on them is pretty high, it is a tempting play for Mercedes to go into that market. Daimler has a lot of truck parts in the empire to pull from if needed and I imagine an X-class with the G-wagon’s suspension, locking diffs and 4-wheel drive would make an awesome off roader.
  19. smk4565
    Maybe they should just shut it down and waive the white flag to Mercedes and BMW. But VW has crazy money and can survive about anything. On another note, the new A7 looks a bit like a Jensen Interceptor which is pretty bad ass. That is a good looking car.
  20. smk4565
    What do they have to lose? Jaguar sales are pretty low, and I am sure they don't have the money to develop EVs and gas cars and build them side by side, so they probably have to pick on or the other. They might as well go all in on EV and try to get ahead of the curve.
  21. smk4565
    20 mpg city sounds decent, but 23 mpg highway rounds rather weak. You'd think a 4-cylinder engine would post better numbers. I also don't know why Toyota hasn't done a Tundra Hybrid with the Lexus LC500h powertrain, that is good for 26/35 mpg in a 4500 lb car, I imagine in a truck it would still be good for over 25 mpg.
  22. smk4565
    You can lease a Volvo XC40 T5 Momentum for $415 a month. Insurance is about $80 a month. So does Volvo believe that maintenance on a new car under warranty is $205 per month? Only way this service makes sense is it was unlimited milage and a person who travels for work or drive Uber full time and puts 40,000 miles a year on the car could abuse the heck out of the thing and hand it back after a year.
  23. smk4565
    They have a 600 hp V8, problem solved.
  24. smk4565
    SUV coupes are the way of the future. Hatchback, wagon, whatever this GT is, are all non-starters. Those aren't body styles that work. Take the Kia Stringer for example, probably will die on the sales charts and be dead in 5 years, but if it was an SUV coupe they'd have a hit.
  25. smk4565
    48% price increase in 10 years is crazy. But this is where leases and 8 year car loans come in. New car dealerships sell monthly payments, not vehicle prices. The higher the prices go, the longer the loan terms get, and you'll see the auto manufacture finance arms offering 10 year car loans one day. Which sounds like a recipe for disaster for consumers but people will sign up for it.
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