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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. Looks too much like a Ford Edge and the grille looks like something off a Toyota. Doesn't look at all like a coupe, nothing here looks exciting.
  2. So I could lease an S560 4Matic for $1500 a month, or pay $3,000 a month subscription to get the same car. Sounds like a great idea. These subscription services make zero sense if they aren't a ride sharing thing with an autonomous car where 4 people can split the cost up and get robot chauffeured around for $500 a month. I think one other case this can work is for a replacement for car rental, where someone was on an extended vacation for a month or at a 2nd home in retirement, or sent on business to work in a particular city for a month, and in this case it could be cheaper to do this than to rent a car from Avis or Hertz for 4 weeks. But then if that is the purpose, you would need to do this in Florida for the retirees that go down there in the winter.
  3. I wonder about that because Mercedes uses the same architecture for the 184 inch long C-class as they do for the 212 inch long Maybach S-class. Yes it is scalable platform and they change things, But how did they do it, and FCA can’t figure it out? I think Sergio’s end goal he is build Alfa/Maserati into a semi full line luxury brand and sell it for $9 billion to the Chinese. That puts money in the Agnelli coffers and it gives him a big bonus check for retirement.
  4. Sergio has already said that the 2 and 3 row Grand Cherokee will be built on the Alfa Romeo Stelvio platform. That is a done deal. If they can put a 3 row Grand Cherokee on it, I don’t see why they couldn’t put a Charger on it, unless they plan to kill the Charger and don’t want to spend the money.
  5. What if they used the Ghibli/Quattroporte platform? The Quattroporte is the biggest Sedan FCA makes and I don’t know if it is going to the Giorgio platform or not but if it does then Giorgio can underpin anything. I think no move to a new platform mean Charger and 300 are on death row.
  6. Agreed, cars from 50 years ago were death traps. The amount of structural reinforcement in cars today in incredible. Then you look at how much sound deadening material, speakers, power heated seats, Nav systems and computers, glass roofs, which requires more bracing, etc get added. A 90s Cadillac had power, heated, leather seats, 8 speakers, and a sunroof and that made it a luxury car because the average Chevy had manual crank windows and a 4 speaker am/fm radio practically. Now a Kia Forte or Focus has a heated steering wheel, self parking, radar cruise control, etc, they have equipment you got on year 2000 S-class now on compact cars, just with a plastic dash rather than wood and leather. All that crap adds weight.
  7. I never said it was overweight, but Cubical said the 300 has to be at least 4,000 lbs as if weight was good, and if they put it on a lighter platform it would be bad. That is like saying a CT6 must add weight to be more "American." People want to praise the Cadillac chassis for cutting weight with aluminum and structural adhesive and mixed materials, then crap on the Giorgio platform which is the same thing. And the next-gen Jeep Grand Cherokee will be built on the Giorgio platform, and I bet it is lighter, faster, more fuel efficient, better braking and better handling than what they have now. The GLE and Grand Cherokee are obese because they still have too much of that 2006-2010 era chassis in them. And all the Mopar fans will say how great it is, not that the platform is from an Alfa Romeo Guilia.
  8. The Australian police car market has to be in the 100s of cars per year, and the 300 was sold in Europe. It isn't now. Dodge/Chrysler failed in the 80s, failed under Daimler, failed under Cerberus, and so why would Sergio be expected to make them prosperous? I don't think Sergio is a great CEO but his job as CEO is to satisfy the shareholders, not to save Chrysler. As long as he makes the Agnelli family money he is doing his job, and the way to make them the most money is probably to split up FCA into pieces to sell off.
  9. They aren't, but if Mercedes could make the E63 4,000 lbs vs 4,500 lbs that would be a big win. The cost would be ridiculous, but less weight is good. And yes, with 5,000 lb SUVs, a 4,000 lb car seems light. And suspensions and brake systems are better and better and can compensate for it, but weight hurts performance and fuel economy,
  10. In their current form though the 300/Charger only sell in the American market, they are useless as a global product. That might not be a problem if the full size sedan market in America wasn't tanking fast. The 30 is down 11% YTD and the Charger is down 5% YTD. Which isn't terrible, but how many of those sales are rental cars. The worst selling Jeep outsells every Dodge except the Caravan, and I imagine a solid 50-60% of those Caravan sales are fleet sales
  11. Why does it have to weigh over 4,000 lbs? Just because it has a V8 doesn't mean it has to be extra heavy, anytime you can cut weight it is a good thing. As far as Sergio hinting the 300 may not return, I would give a 5% chance at a next generation Chrysler 300 happening and a 50/50 chance of a new Dodge Charger.
  12. Jeep is adding a 3 row D-segment SUV, a 3 row Grand Cherokee and a Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. That is 4 new 3-row SUVs, they don't need the Durango anymore, or anything else from Dodge. FCA's formula will be simple, if you want a crossover, you buy a Jeep, unless you are in the Alfa-Maserati price territory. And they'll probably exit the sedan market just like Ford did, save for Alfa Romeo and Maserati luxury sedans, which who knows if they even each keep 2 sedans.
  13. Mercedes conquers BMW again to remain the reigning, defending, universal champion. Mans yes manufacturing and slowing car sales can be sign of a recession, same with rising credit card debt which I think is an all time high right now.
  14. I find it hard to believe that they are bleeding money on Maseratis that cost $80-125,000 and haven’t been redesigned in forever, no matter how poorly they sell. I looked at the product roadmap they put out for both, there is nothing in there to scare the German brands but I understand why FCA is trying, they see margin potential on high end cars.
  15. What makes sense is to pull Fiat from the USA, build only the 500 and Panda for emerging markets like eastern Europe or South America. Dodge and Chrysler I wouldn't put a dime into, and let the vehicles run out their current life cycle. They could move the Pacifica to Ram and do cargo and passenger versions if they want to keep that van around. I can see them getting rid of Dodge and Chrysler in 2022, they aren't global brands. And if you chop FCA down to Jeep, Ram and Alfa/Maserati you are left with high margin product.
  16. Exactly, I don't see Trump and his family driving Chevrolets. Trump has had Rolls Royces for decades and England isn't buying many American cars either, and Rolls is now German owned. If he puts a tariff on just cars made in Germany, the GLE and GLS are made in the USA, so doesn't affect those Mercedes, BMW builds SUVs in South Carolina, doesn't affect those. And then what if Mercedes takes Chinese built E-classes and imports them to the USA, and sends the German built E-classes to China. Is he going to tax all Chinese made cars too? The major problem here is you have a president that wants to pick winners and losers, which is more like North Korean communism, and not capitalism. What if the next president decides there should be a 50% sales tax on Trump hotels and a 0% sales tax on Marriott Hotels? And tries to pick which companies make money and which ones go out of business. They could have a 0% tariff on American cars, Europeans aren't buying them because the only good American cars are big trucks that are too thirsty and too large to sell over there. Likewise for China with the displacement taxes. If GM wants to make a Malibu with Cadillac CT6 level build quality that gets 55 mpg then game on in international markets, but that current car is hopeless.
  17. That isn’t how it works, it is commonly know that every sedan made by every manufacturer in the past 20 years loses money and every crossover makes at least $10,000 profit. This statement hangs on the wall of auto execs around the world.
  18. That is correct, plus a luxury brand with another 14 crossovers that are 2 inches apart. The car buying public will not be satisfied until Toyota/Lexus has 50 crossovers to pick from. As far as the Corolla goes, this looks pretty ugly, the sedan looks better, and the sedan isn't winning any design awards either.
  19. Here is another problem with this tariff idea or attacking China, more than 50% of GM's business is now in China. If China kicked them out, GM would be a shell of what they are today. Likewise with Ford if the EU struck back against them. So all this isolationist stuff is ridiculous, that is the economic strategy of North Korea or communist Russia. And I don't care what car Trump drives, if he wants to buy 10 Rolls-Royces, more power to him. People are entitled to buy what they want. But I don't agree with how he wants to decide what other people buy.
  20. 5-7 years ago there were more sedans on the used market, now we are going to see more used SUVs on the market than used sedans.
  21. Pick up trucks and things like a Corvette, convertibles, Jeep Wranglers, etc always have some value because there will always be someone that wants a truck or a convertible to drive on the weekend. I think crossovers have had high resale recently but once the used market is saturated with millions of off lease crossovers they will have the same resale as sedans.
  22. I did a 500 mile each on car gurus and there were no V8 E-classes from 2003-2005. Sure it will still depreciate, but it has a 3 point star on it, so it will always be worth something.
  23. Not sure what the difference between an S500, S520, S550, S560 can be. I think they just trademarked everything to have it. EQ C is a crossover, EQ A is a small hatchback, EQ S is a full size sedan, EQ E must be a sedan, not sure what EQ B is, but they need more crossovers in this EV line, and at some point everything will be EV and they will have to merge the gas and EV lines back together.
  24. It is made in America with 78% American made parts. GM made over 300,000 pickups (all crew cabs) in Mexico last year, Ram made 246,000, Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ are made there too. So if this goes through, the tariff goes on the Silverado, Sierra and Ram, but not the Camry, Pilot, Ridgeline, Sienna, etc. Nissan builds a lot in Mexico also, so really this move against NAFTA production just hurts the Detroit 3. Even if the tariff hits the S-class and Porsche 911, the people buying those won't care, they have crazy money anyway. 25% tariff on a Ram or Silverado makes that $40k truck a $50k truck, and the Toyota Tundra is American made, go ahead and give a $10,000 price advantage, that really helps American business. That is true, people like a lot of the imported cars, they have good performance cars, good luxury cars, most of the Japanese brand cars are made in the USA anyway. Will there be a tax on ties and dress shirts made in China?
  25. Foreigners aren’t taking auto jobs, robots are. Also the Camry is the most American car, a lot of “domestic” cars are made in Mexico or Canada so who does this hurt besides the consumer that will get hit with higher prices? And if you tariff all these cars and sales drop, profits drop, etc these car companies will just make more cuts. Mid you really want to boost American jobs, manufacturing and wages put a 90% income tax on corporate profits over $5 billion, then all of a sudden these companies will pay higher wages and invest back into the company rather than try to post record profits to inflate their stock price.
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