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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    This won't have a Maybach variant but the long standing rumor has been that the GLS will get a Maybach version. They also trademarked GLS73, among with other "73" models which is believed to be the 800 hp hybrid V8 to replace the V12.
  2. smk4565
    How much maintenance is there on a Lexus during the first 20,000 miles when they claim how low maintenance their cars are? And I assume the insurance is based on a group average, so if you are good driver without accidents you are paying more for insurance than you would on open market.
  3. smk4565
    They will price it too high, I don't even need to see what they will charge to know it won't be worth it. They are leasing NX's at $339 a month, plus it has a warranty that covers repairs, although not routine maintenance, but that is basically oil changes on a brand new car. And the NX is larger and nicer than the UX, I bet the UX has $299 a month lease deals and they will try to sell a subscription to it for $600 a month.
  4. smk4565
    No plastic body cladding on this trim, so I am glad there is the option to get rid of it.
  5. smk4565
    In the 70s-90s V8’s were rather common though. The V8 of then also made in the 250-305 hp range for a lot of those years. Those are V6 numbers now, or even turbo 4 numbers now. V8’s today are not that common, mostly only in high dollar luxury sedans or sports cars and full size trucks which is changing quickly. Back in the 80s every Cadillac (minus the Cimarron) had a V8, now most Cadillacs are V6 and they sell more 4’s than 8’s. Times changed and the Camaro is stuck in the past trying to be a V8 car but a V8 car of today is super expensive which is not what the Camaro should be.
  6. smk4565
    Diesel is just dead, PR has killed it, no auto maker wants to try to sell it.
  7. smk4565
    It is cost savings yes, but inline six is the smoothest engine there is and this one here makes 362 hp/369 lb-ft and they will put a 429 hp/384 lb-ft version in the GLE53. It is quite the combo of power and fuel economy. Really, GM could do the same thing, what do they need V6's for? If the XT5 was on a rear drive chassis they could put an I-6 in it, and all GM's trucks, the Cadillac CT4, CT5, CT6, and Corvette and Camaro are rear drive. The only place they "need" a V6 is on the Lambda SUVs, but you could do turbo 4 with electric assist or hybrid there if you had to, especially in the 2020s when the engine downsizing really hits. The Impala and LaCrosse will probably be dead by then, if they are still here a turbo 4 is enough there too.
  8. smk4565
    "What's happening in the sport car segment, there's a lot more volume in the low-to-mid part of the market. We do a phenomenal job with our loaded SS's, and it's great business for us, but the reality is there's an awful lot of people who just want a great looking sports car somewhere in that $30,000 range, and that's what we're going to deliver," said Steve Majoros Yeah, no sh!t sherlock. The Camaro used to be about being an affordable sports car, then they wanted it to be about putting 500-600 hp V8s in there and charging $70,000 for it, but that is what the Corvette is for. The Camaro's focus should have always been $25-50k price range, they lost focus. Nothing they do will help Camaro sales unless they totally redesign the car to give it more interior room and windows you can see out of. The Camaro has a disproportionate number of male buyers )or potential buyers), mostly older male buyers, which means you have a lot of larger people trying to fit in this car. Every year at the auto show I see guys in their 50s and 60s saying the Cadillac CTS is too small, not enough head room, too hard to get in and out of, etc. Compare that to a Camaro. If people can't fit in it or can't see out of it, doesn't matter what the price is.
  9. smk4565
    The shape is 100% GLE, easily recognizable. Looks like they went a little heavy on the plastic body cladding though, not sure about that because the current GLE doesn't have that. It would be have been nice to have the 48 volt on the 4-cylinder where that electric boost would help, but the inline six is the engine to get anyway. The air suspension and new tech sound awesome, and the interior is awesome. 3rd row seat now which I think they really needed as an option.
  10. smk4565
    It is a bust and in part because they have a V6 from the now cancelled Azera and a V8 from the 2012 Genesis, which is just an enlarged displacement version of the 2009 V8. That is a 10 year old engine in a segment that wants new tech. And the interior switch gear is from a Hyundai and the exterior styling looks like a copy cat of other luxury brands. I don’t know what draws the average consumer to Genesis, there is nothing to pull them in. And a low slung EV that no one will see on the road won’t drive any showroom traffic either.
  11. smk4565
    The Passat is pretty boring and mundane, I would have to agree with Car and Driver on that. As far as a V6 goes, no surprise, moving forward I think if you want a V6 it will only be found in luxury cars and full size SUVs. The Altima is dropping it's V6 also.
  12. smk4565
    They think a low slung coupe with a hefty price tag will do very well? Genesis needs crossovers, that is what does well. It would be cool if they made this an electric car, but I feel like it will end up with a 3.3 liter turbo V6 like every other Genesis. Bolting a turbo onto a 2012 Azera engine hasn't worked for the rest of their line up, but they seem to keep going back to that well one more time.
  13. smk4565
    It does look a lot like an Edge, but all these crossovers look similar. I do miss the 80s-90s era Mercedes a bit that looked like nothing else. This is also electric car number 1, they have an small hatchback and a full size sedan prototype in testing now, once they get a full line up out there, the revolution starts to happen. Also keep in mind a GLC43 which has similar performance to the EQC starts at $56k but with LED lighting, leather, heated/cooled seats, and multimedia packages it jumps up to $63k, and all that comes on the EQC, so I think $70k would be a fair price.
  14. smk4565
    81,000 F150's!!! Holy crap that is a lot. But Ford is killing off about 30,000 of their 209,000 sales from the month. And those people aren't going to buy an F150, but I guess Ford doesn't care if they lose those customers.
  15. smk4565
    Huge gain by the X3. Special lease offer on those or something? It seems like the X3 is the only BMW selling, the rest were dropping like crazy. The sad thing here is I remember when the 3-series sold over 10,000 a month easily, even on bad months. Now the 3/4-series were outsold by the X3. Sport sedans and the fun to drive stuff is just rapidly losing ground to crossovers, which means in time automakers won't have sedans or sports cars, except the exotics that they make money on.
  16. smk4565
    I think that Kona will sell like hot cakes the more people see it and inventories are built up. The Genesis brand is in a sad state of affairs. Those things aren't selling at all.
  17. smk4565
    This is another brutal month, especially with the bloodbath on passenger cars. The new G-wagon isn't on sale, I get why that is down 50% plus they sell 400 a month which isn't a big deal. They blamed this on no inventory, and there is pent up demand and people waiting for the inventory to arrive. So now they have set themselves up that they better have a huge month in September, because they can't use that excuse every month. Keep in mind, Year to Date, Mercedes is the #1 selling luxury brand in the USA, but they better put in a strong close to the year when the 2019s hit.
  18. smk4565
    Nailed it. I like the classic Mercedes multi-slat grille, that is how a Mercedes should look. It looks like a crossover and mid-size crossovers are what sell in the market. Odd-ball looking cars like the i3 and Leaf don't sell, the Jaguar iPace looks a mess, etc. People will like the looks inside and out, and they will like the 0-60 in 4.9 seconds. I hope this starts around $70,000, if so I think they can sell a lot of them.
  19. smk4565
    No doubt they will do 3 SUV’s and they have a 600+ hp V6 hybrid in the works which I bet finds its way into the larger one. Maybe 4 cylinder hybrid on the small one.
  20. smk4565
    I have said for years that Cadillac should leverage their history and use word names for cars and dump the alpha-numerics. Cadillac has been trying to copy BMW and Mercedes for the past 15 years and it hasn't worked, plus Cadillac basically wants you to forget they even made cars before year 2000, as if they are some new brand like Tesla. They don't even want you to remember the Catera which they made into the early 2000s, let alone products like the Eldorado or Fleetwood. I say this is all a mistake. And I bet every Cadillac fan out there wishes they had more models. Who doesn't want a CTS coupe, CTS convertible, a mid-engine Cadillac sports car, V-series SUV's, etc. And they absolutely still need an SUV between XT5 and Escalade, I think there is room for an SUV above the Escalade. Also why only 1 engine option in an XT5 and 1 in the Escalade? The GLC has 4 engine options counting the hybrid, the GLE has 4 powertrains, GLS has 3 and is rumored to get a 4th, etc A luxury brand should have choices, Chevrolet gives you more engine options in their SUVs than Cadillac does in theirs.
  21. smk4565
    As I said, I think the CLA and CLS are pointless because I think the sedan version of both looks better, and there is an E-class 2 door coupe. But even more so they don't need the SLC because there is just really no market for that sort of car, I think a more track based sports car at that price point would work better. Besides that, Mercedes-Benz Cars did 94.7 billion Euros in revenue in 2017 with 9.2 billion euros in EBIT and a 9.7% margin. All improvements over 2016. Daimler as a whole did 164.3 billion euro in revenue and 14.7 billion euros in EBIT. 62.5% of their earnings are from the cars division on 59% of the company revenue. Cars is their strongest, most profitable division.
  22. smk4565
    Where is the overlap other than SL and AMG GT ? which are basically the same size and price, but one is a luxury car the other is a sports car. There is $55,000 between an E400 coupe/convertible and an S560 coupe/convertible , that is spread apart pretty well. You can argue CLA and CLS are pointless but they are just body styles of the A and E class. Especially when the AMG GT sedan has an inline six option, you might as well get that over a CLS53. And people buy those coupe SUV’s, my friend bought a GLE coupe because he liked that body style, and he had 2 BMW’s before that. Mercedes still has the highest ATP of any full line luxury brand, they aren’t hurting there. I think in 10 years they will be stronger because of their electric cars. Mercedes is going to put a hurt on Tesla because 80% of electric Mercedes won’t need to go down a re-work line or leave the factory with miss-matched door trim, etc.
  23. smk4565
    As far as Mercedes goes, I think they can kill the CLA because they have the A-class sedan which looks better and is more functional. They can also kill the SLC because compact roadster is a pretty tiny segment, they could probably sell that buyer a C-class convertible. But the rest of those cars they need, because they sell wagons in other parts of the world and they sell a lot of S-classes globally and that is their #1 margin car. And like ccap said, having all those choices is good for the consumer. I will say I think the new CLS is ugly, the E-class looks better and the AMG sedan looks better so that CLS is pointless but someone will buy it and it isn’t costing them much to re-body an existing car. Perhaps Chevy could make the Impala a mid-size electric sedan to carry on with the name plate. An electric sedan with external dimensions of a Malibu would have interior dimensions of an Impala, if not more.
  24. smk4565
    Chevy needs to clean up Spark, Sonic, Cruze, Malibu, Impala. 5 cars is too many when they should probably have 3 and make those 3 really good. And those 5 are especially too many when you have Volt and Bolt also, I feel like they could do a plug-in hybrid Cruze and Malibu on the next generation and retire the Volt, or make the Volt a mid-size EV sedan or something.
  25. smk4565
    It is near 4,700 lbs? Holy crap, this weighs more than an AWD V6 S-class and the S-class is a lot bigger car. The real problem with the G80 is the price tag , $57,000 is way too much for that interior. What I don't get about these sort of upstart luxury brands like Genesis, or even some others that have been around, is why don't they make a good interior? Has anyone at Genesis ever sat in an Audi A4? Because I have sat in the G80 and the A4, and the A4 is a nicer car with better build quality. And Genesis is the upstart, they are trying to win people over, they should be offering more for less money. The G70 has a weak interior also, really if this G80 was the $35,000 G70's interior, then they have an argument against the Germans. But you have to fix the interiors, Lincoln is sort of figuring that out now, but they have horrible underpinnings and horrible brand image to overcome.
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