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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    What is the legroom, shoulder room, hip room on a Bolt? I have sat in the Bolt, it has head room because it is sort of tall and there is knee room because the center console is small and mostly open, so those are pluses. But the Bolt is still too little of a car for me to consider, the Volt actually has less space for the driver, despite being larger. Look at the sales of 3 row crossovers, the largest growth segment in the industry. Look at Camry and Accord sales, pick up truck sales, etc. Then look at Fiat and Mini sales, because the Bolt is Mini Cooper sized.
  2. smk4565
    I read the NYT article, the two takeaways are that Mercedes is still #1 market share for vehicles over $60,000. Ford, GMC and Chevy are 2-4 which shows the huge volume of pickups and Expedition/Tahoes. When you have 70,000 F150’s sold in a month, that is more units than most car brands, so it really shows the massive volume of pickups sold in this county. It does open up the question if more brands should enter pickups, the Tundra needs an overhaul, maybe they should do a Lexus version, maybe Mercedes should bring their truck here.
  3. smk4565
    I was at the auto show today, I thought the 2018 Accord was nice, the interior is actually better designed and better laid out than the Acura’s. Acuras I think are a huge waste of money, they are basically the same as a Honda for $15k more. I am not saying a Subaru is nicer than others in that price range but they have AWD, are good on safety, pretty good on gas, so they make a good used car for a college kid, sort of the same way a used Volvo is a good safe used car. I think Mazda has nice interiors and build quality for their price. I actually like the Impala for a full size sedan, Malibu and Fusion I am not impressed with. VW’s are blah and boring, I feel like there is a lot of low rent plastic in every VW also.
  4. smk4565
    I'd like to see C/D test other Mercedes or someone else test a CLA. I have read the European spec CLA rates a little lower on drag that the American market car, but .30 seems way too high. I came across a an E-class coupe wind tunnel test where it registered a .24 which is in line with what they claim.
  5. smk4565
    Right, I could make a flying car that ran on cheez wiz and if there was only one of them hand built in my garage it wouldn't do any good. Tesla needs to figure out how to get the stuff they design to actual buyers.
  6. smk4565
    But the Bolt is small, for people that only want an EV no matter what, then it is fine. But if I were in the market for a mid-size sedan or RAV4 sized crossover or 3 row crossover, as most shoppers are, then I would not be looking at a Bolt. The Bolt isn't as fast as a Model 3 either. Now if they make a 220 mile range EV Malibu or Equinox for $37k, then game on.
  7. smk4565
    Not trolling, I had a 10 year old GM Northstar derived engine that burned oil, and my friend had the same car and it burned oil. Although Audi 2.0T engines burn it way faster. And I happen to think Mazda and Subaru build a pretty good vehicle, and the Mazda 6 or Legacy new or used would be be good options here. And as I mentioned used Hyundai Genesis are cheap and pretty nice, the Optima I think is pretty good and not too expensive either. The 2018 Accord is nice, but that would be higher than the budget I think for this case.
  8. smk4565
    Why would Mercedes make up cD numbers? No one is buying cars based on them, they aren't used in any marketing, other than a stat line on a web page after about 50 other measurements and specs are listed. And nose shape has very little to do with drag, there are a lot of ways to improve or hurt aero. There are pointy noise cars with bad drag coefficients too. And the drag efficient of the AMG GT sedan doesn't matter, what does matter is it will be faster than an E63 which can already beat an M5.
  9. smk4565
    The CLA, S-class and E-class have .23 or .24 drag coefficients. But what is more important is the potential 800 hp under the hood of that car, and the aluminum and carbon fiber to save weight.
  10. smk4565
    Cadillac can go up market, the XT4 will be sized and priced like Ann a Envision or Terrain Denali, which just gives GM 3 vehicles in the same space. Granted it is the sweet sport of the market and Cadillac needs a small SUV. Total mystery to me as to why Cadillac doesn’t have a crossover with a CTS-V engine or an electric crossover. GM is the Bolt, why can’t they scale that up to a mid-size SUV with double the motors for Cadillac?
  11. smk4565
    I think every Northstar derived engine burns oil faster than they burn gasoline once they get over 100k miles.
  12. smk4565
    The Genesis G80 outsold the CTS and CT6 last year (individually not combined), I wouldn't say Cadillac is doing fine. But if you want performance and a crossover, Cadillac is missing the market, they have nothing there, while Audi, BMW, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Mercedes, Jaguar, Land Rover all do. Here is the problem with BMW and Cadillac, they thought the M5 and CTS-V were the ultimate performance sedans, the top performance car of their brands. They didn't think to make them their mid-level performance sedan, where as Mercedes has decided to go next level: And we get to see it in March! Game on if Cadillac and BMW want to step their game up. Porsche has the Panamera E-hybrid at the top of their range, but an E63 is as fast as that thing. And AMG is going to use F1 tech in their cars as they move toward electrification. The perfect item to use would be their electric motor that spins to 50,000 rpm, vs 18,000 rpm on a Tesla Model S and they are tiny, and each one makes 160 hp. One at each wheel and you have a 640 hp EV using hardly any packaging space or weight. They are going to leave Ferrari in the weeds, let alone the M5.
  13. smk4565
    A 120k mile GM car burning oil? There is a shocker. Although at least with a GM car you can buy oil buy the quart, if you own an Audi with over 100k miles, you gotta buy the whole case. So this is easy, for a sedan you look at the big 3 of depreciation, the Hyundai Genesis, Buick LaCrosse and Lincoln MKZ, all 3 of which you can pick up a 2014 model for in the $14-17k range. I would avoid a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep, those with Fiat are the 4 pillars of unreliability as the mileage climbs. For a cheap car, under $8k, there are plenty of Saturn Vue, Pontiac G6 type bankruptcy era GM cars out there, 4-5 year old Cruze and Focus are into the $8k range.
  14. smk4565
    Tesla is really good at designing cars, really good at marketing cars, terrible at producing cars. And this is Tesla's chance to cash in, they need to get that production line at full speed, before everyone else enters the market.
  15. smk4565
    In 2005 when there were 17.5 million cars sold in the US, similar to 2016 and 2017, GM sold 4.5 million cars but lost $10 billion dollars. So that was pointless. Worldwide in 2006 GM sold 8.97 million cars, vs 7.93 million last year, so down a million, but GM sold 9.6 million cars in 2014 worldwide, after dumping 4 brands. Their sales are still pretty close with half the brands that they had 10-15 years ago, and most of those brands lost money. If Cadillac is here to sell high performance luxury product, where is the product? Crossover is the #1 body style now, I don't see any performance crossovers or even high luxury ones. And they have 2 performance sedans dying on the vine, no sports cars.
  16. smk4565
    GM sold 2.2 million cars in the USA in 2010 and they sold 3.0 million in the USA in 2017. Worldwide they grew too but because China grew a ton, I used USA numbers because Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer were sold here. XT4 should rob a lot of sales off the Envision and Terrain, but that is a good thing, they will make more money on a Cadillac. But if Cadillac can’t sell more $60,0000+ vehicles than GMC, why is Cadillac still here?
  17. smk4565
    Sergio has also entered Alfa Romeo in Formula 1 this year, even though they will just lost to Mercedes just like Ferrari does, it does show Alfa is a global brand.
  18. smk4565
    I mean a Cadillac XT4 should have the same or better margins than a terrain Denali, an XT5 the same or better margin as the Acadia Denali, etc. if all these crossovers were at Cadillac GM would make more money. Instead they develop ed 2 mid-level crossover lines that overlap and starved the luxury line.
  19. smk4565
    GM closed Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer and is selling more cars with 4 brands than they did with 8. If GMC was gone, some sales would go away but a lot would stay at GM. But if the argument is the more GMC Denali GM sells the better because it is a cash cow, the same needs to hold true for Cadillac. Because in theory, a base model Cadillac should have the same profit margin as a Denali. But to the point of this article about trucks getting a bigger share of $60k plus sales that is mostly due to inflation. You could say Toyota has a bigger share of $30k plus sales than they did 10 years ago, and they didn’t move up market, cars just got crazy expensive.
  20. smk4565
    I was also thinking Jeep should build a Wagoneer 3 row suv in the $35k range to compete with the Ascent, Atlas, Explorer, etc with Cherokee level interior and features. Then they need a Grand Wagoneer that is in the $60k range to compete with Yukon and Land Cruiser.
  21. smk4565
    As I said, I would never buy an Alfa, I wouldn't trust them unless they had 15 year bumper to bumper 150,000 mile warranty on it. But it is a global brand, Dodge and Chrysler are not. And Fiat had the money to buy Chrysler so Fiat is the one in charge, and really Sergio shouldn't spend 1 dollar on Dodge or Chrysler product, he should only spend it on Ram pickups and Jeeps because that is what makes profit. Alfa and Maserati should make profit due to the price, but they have zero in sales, but his goal might just be to sell one or both of those brands for a quick cash grab.
  22. smk4565
    But GMC doesn't really add 550,000 new sales, it just takes 550,000 sales off Chevy, which is why Ford outsells Chevy. Granted it takes 550,000 Chevy sales and ups the transaction price which is a profit maker. But what if Cadillac had another 250,000 sales (assuming you take out the pickups and vans at GMC) if they could move those people up to Cadillac and get even bigger prices. GM actually does a really good job with the GMC-Buick sales channel, moving people up from Chevy to there, because I suspect a lot of Buick/GMC buyers are long time GMers that want something nicer than their old Malibu or Equinox but aren't going to buy a luxury brand, and GM has always been a strong SUV company. Where it falls down is getting those Buick-GMC people into Cadillac or getting people from Chevy to Cadillac. A Cadillac should be head and shoulders better than any Denali product, those Denali buyers should dream of having a Cadillac, heck Corvette buyers should want to upgrade to a Cadillac sports car. Daimler doesn't need another brand, they have the Maybach and AMG sub-brands like Denali is, and they can go from entry lux to and move people all the way up to $200,000+ vehicles and million dollar hyper car.
  23. smk4565
    But it does have that Italian flair, and it doesn't have as much baggage as say Lincoln or Cadillac. Although regardless of how fast this thing goes round the Nurburgring, I'd buy a German SUV over this, because I know they are built well, and this thing is a big question mark of reliability and fit and finish.
  24. smk4565
    GMC sells 29% Denali, so that would be 162,000 in 2017. If you factor out Sierra's let's just say it is 100,000 SUVs. That is 100,000 SUVs that could have been sold as a Cadillac at a $5-10,000 premium over what they got for a Denali. I did during bankruptcy think if GMC didn't go the commercial route, they should go 100% Denali, and that Denali should be their standard car to distance itself from Chevy, so a Terrain would base at $35k, Acadia base at $45k, and Yukon be priced equal to Escalade at $80k base and then you can offer an Ultimate package or something to jack the price up more. Or make Denali trim and price the standard, and offer a performance trim like V-series, and get a Corvette V8 in the Terrain, because the Germans will sell you a 500 hp V8 in an SUV the size of the Terrain.
  25. smk4565
    Alfa probably makes more profit than Chrysler and Dodge. Those are fleet sale brands that rely on huge discounts and only sell in North America. Alfa for sure is more valuable if they just tried to sell the brand off to a highest bidder, Chrysler and Dodge are basically worthless, Alfa could fetch a several billion if they sold it. Although I don't know why you would by this over a V8 GLC63, that will actually work and no break down all the time.
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