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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I predict a 100% chance of a Hellcat Grand Wagoneer happening, I am shocked there isn't a Hellcat Ram pick up yet. This is FCA's one trick and they'll keep playing it as long as they can. This is the only way they know how to get profit margin on a car, but eventually this will run it's course and these Hellcat V8s that get 11 mpg will be getting smoked by every electric car on the market and no one will want them anymore. Once upon a time, GM thought the way to make profit margin was to drop Northstar V8s in Bonnevilles and Lucernes, and 5.3 V8s into Impalas and Monte Carlos and throw lots of SS badging on them. No one wants those cars now, and the modern turbo 4 sedans outrun most of those beasts. The same will happen with all these Hemi vehicles, some of which are 365 hp from a 5.7 liter V8, there are 2 liter engines making more than that now.
  2. smk4565
    Well the ES is the same size as the GS, so they can just keep the IS as a small car, ES is mid-size already and the LS sticks around to sell its 500 cars a month. The LX and GX are sales dogs, I can't see them lasting much longer, LX might since Toyota will probably keep the Land Cruiser. But when you look at LX, GX, LC, LS those combined are like 30,000 units a year, there is no volume there, which is why Toyota has lets those vehicles on market for ever to die on the vine. The previous LS went nearly 10 years before a major overhaul and that is their flagship and original Lexus, now they barely pay attention to it.
  3. smk4565
    Which is how many Lexus if the GS dies like is rumored and the IS may or may not get another generation, and even if it does the majority would be 4 cylinder models. So now they are making an I-6 for the Supra, and LS500 because 80% of Lexus sales are fwd crossovers and grandpa's ES350. Lexus is stuck with the Camry platform and V6 because that is where the Toyota volume comes from. If Toyota had rear drive platforms and engines suitable for a sports car they wouldn't need BMW to do it for them. And if the Supra is priced anywhere near a Corvette they are delusional.
  4. smk4565
    A Kia Stinger starts at $31k for the turbo 4 and $43k for the V6 and it has similar horsepower to the Supra. Plus it is a larger car and we don't know what the Supra's interior is, but I imagine it isn't BMW level and is more Kia level. With that being said, I think around $31k for the base Supra and $39k for the inline six seems logical. If they go higher it won't sell.
  5. smk4565
    But Toyota doesn't make straight six and never will since they can't use it in the Camry/Highlander/Sienna, so the Toyota transverse mounted 3.5 V6 will live on another 10 years.
  6. smk4565
    I think a Z4 with a BMW nose would sell better than a Z4 with a Toyota nose. I still wonder how they will price the Supra, I feel like they will price it too high.
  7. smk4565
    Japan lost the same war. And Lexus wants to talk about F as serious performance but compared to Porsche, Ferrari, or an AMG or M car they are nothing. Mostly F-sport is just a trim level on an RX350.
  8. smk4565
    These guys don’t know how to do performance. What racing league have they ever won? I think still to this day Lexus has never made a car with 450 lb-ft of torque and that is the stuff that makes you go. When F sport has at 10 models with over 500 hp I’ll take them seriously. Right now they have zero. AMG has like 25 cars with 500+ hp.
  9. smk4565
    Seems like a very competitive price for that level of performance. I am excited for when all these EV’s hit.
  10. smk4565
    An electric van would make sense. If the City Express was a Chrysler product they would just drop a Hellcat V8 in there and sell it 2 more years.
  11. smk4565
    I would like to see what they come up with, it would be nice to have an AMG car that isn’t a $125,000 V8 car. Their board seems to approve everything else, so I don’t know what would stop them here.
  12. smk4565
    Every auto maker is dumping diesel in favor of electric cars. This breaking news is on par with news of water being wet.
  13. smk4565
    People don't want small cars, they don't need more in their line ups, so from the consumer standpoint I get not going forward with it. The bigger story here is the trade wars and tariffs. Companies are afraid to expand and put forth new investment dollars, which will slow economies and slow job growth. Because first these 2 cancel a project, then Ford does, then GM does, then VW does, etc And it becomes a huge ripple effect when they all pull back.
  14. smk4565
    They make 5 different Range Rovers so they can move it up market. But they aren't going to get it to Bentley territory. Because now you have "Range Rovers" that start under $50k, it is a bit diluted. I feel like changes are super gradual with the Range Rover though, and it takes a decade for something to change on them.
  15. smk4565
    A halo car doesn't have to be a coupe, or hatch if that is what this is, but I don't think Cadillac is building this to replace the ATS. So I am guessing they want something at the top of the range with this.
  16. smk4565
    They did have the SL in the 1970s, plus the 600 Grosser. The W123 E-class did offer a 182 hp inline six, that puts it in line with the 180 hp V8 Cadillac Seville of the late 70s and more powerful than the Lincoln Versailles of the era, even though the E-class was a much smaller car than those. The W123 E-class was a mid-size car for the day, it is like today's C-class in size, but that is 40 years of evolution.
  17. smk4565
    I agree, it looks like something out of a Hot Wheels set that you'd slingshot down a plastic track through a loop. But it is just a patent drawing which could mean almost nothing, and who know if they will even build something like this. Although I do think they need a halo product coupe, something that attracts people to the brand.
  18. smk4565
    Excellent point. They should offer to the EU to get rid of the chicken tax and the USA drop the 2.5% tariff on imports in exchange for the EU dropping their 10% tariff. Include the UK in that since they backed out of the EU, but then everyone is on the same playing field. And if you are Germany, what are you worried about, no one in Germany is buying an American car anyway. And it would help American businesses get cheaper work trucks, because if Ford has to throw away $500 in seats, it is the customer that pays that $500, not Ford. And there are small pick ups and vans in Europe that we don't even get here because of the chicken tax. Correct, and again, good for the consumer. If the only mid-size trucks to choose from are Nissan, Toyota and GM, you get situations where the Frontier and Tacoma sit on the market untouched for 12 years because there is no other choice. If VW and Hyundai enter in with branch new trucks that are $1,000 cheaper than a Tacoma, you'll see Toyota put out an all new better Tacoma that is cheaper than the current one. And we know this is true because for 25 years if you wanted a luxury car it was Lincoln or Cadillac, and they got lazy as hell and build crap. Now Cadillac tries like crazy and undercuts their competition in price and Lincoln is finally waking up because there are 10+ luxury brands now to pick from.
  19. smk4565
    Likewise with the current and Future GLE and GLS which have a platform made specifically for SUV and couldn’t be used for a car or pickup. Unless it was a Subaru’s Baja or Holden Ute style pick up I suppose.
  20. smk4565
    Still #1 selling luxury brand in 2018. June 2017 was an all time record high sales month. And the GLE and GLS are dated and probably nearing the end of production. They have new GLE, GLS coming in 2019, plus a new 2019 GLA and a GLB which will probably be a 2020 model. People want the SUVs.
  21. smk4565
    I think initial hype of the Bolt is over, people want a crossover most, and a small-mid size sedan 2nd if they are shopping more on a budget. Build an electric SUV is you want EV sales. I do think the Blazer will add to the SUV sales, I am shocked that GM doesn't have a Wrangler (and Bronco) competitor yet. Seems logical that they could do a GMC Hummer in the style of the Maybach S-class, I imagine GM owns that name still, unless it was lost in bankruptcy. Either way, a pure off roader at GMC makes sense, something smaller than a Canyon or Acadia.
  22. smk4565
    Fiat and Chrysler brand are dead. They might as well close up shop with those. Dodge is a rental car brand, which is fine, they probably make money doing it so there is a business case there. What happened at Genesis? Other than they need SUVs and a small car bad, because if you only sell big sedans, I guess you see a 50% drop as that market is tanking. As far as Buick goes, you have Encore and Envision have been around a little while, and Buick has a large sedan with LaCrosse that is tanking also. Case in point, Land Rover up 20%, Jaguar down 20% and that is with Jaguar now having 2 SUVs for sale, people just want these SUVs, not cars sadly.
  23. smk4565
    You can lease a C43 or CLA45 and buy a lot of gas and insurance and still be cheaper than this S60. Or you could get a Tesla Model S for that kind of money. Plus there are only 20 of these Volvos available for the whole year which makes it about 10 times more rare than an Audi R8. More rare than an AMG hyper car. Plus I believe the subscriber ida does not work unless it is done as a ride share on autonomous cars.
  24. smk4565
    When Toyota ran that plant it they could make 500,000 cars a year easily, 10,000 per week was no sweat. So the capacity and size is there. This was a nice little accomplishment for Tesla, but can they do it every week and with quality. Toyota produced more than this and at quality with no problem, and that was 10+ years ago, with better technology today, Tesla should be able to do that. And hopefully they do.
  25. smk4565
    I see this making sense for Hyundai if Sergio can shut down at least Chrysler and maybe Dodge also. The Pacifica as a product would be a good fit to rebadge to Hyundai and Kia. Chrysler/Dodge have nothing else that Hyundai needs, they already have the Genesis cars for rear drive luxury, they have the Stinger as a performance sedan, which is way better than any Dodge. Maybe you could argue a Challenger/Charger are full size rear drivers, but that is a dying market. Ram trucks and Jeep make perfect sense for Hyundai, they have no overlap as it is with those brands. Hyundai can pick and chose between the 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engines they have and FCA has to power such products. Alfa Romeo and Maserati give them that high end luxury car, that Genesis will never be. They can try as much as they want with Genesis, but it will always come across as a fancy Hyundai just like Acura comes across as a fancy Honda. But the other option could be for Hyundai to buy all of FCA, and then sell Alfa and Maserati to the Chinese and get a quick $5-10 billion in cash.
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