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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    Physical buttons are s good thing.
  2. smk4565
    I think diesel will be no more at every car brand within a few years.
  3. smk4565
    This thing sounds pretty crazy, I didn't think they could get that much hp or that kind of top speed out of the 488. This thing is going to be a track monster and I think stomp on the Huracan Performante and McLaren 720S.
  4. smk4565
    I mostly wonder how many households with 2 luxury brand cars have a pick up as a 3rd vehicle though. Because a household with a 328i and a F150 is more middle class America, than reason for Mercedes or Lexus to build a pickup to cater to them. The reason Rolls-Royce and Bentley have SUVs, is because they found the majority of their owners also own an SUV and they didn't want them spending that money on a G-wagen or a Cayenne or Range Rover. I think if Lexus or Mercedes were going to jump into pickups it would be for similar reason, demand from their own customers for it.
  5. smk4565
    Perhaps Chevrolet should take over the CTS, CT6 and XT5 since they are so good at luxury sales then. What I’d be curious to know is what percentage of Lexus/BMW/Mercedes/etc households also have a pick up truck in them. Because if these households are buying trucks then Lexus and Mercedes should jump in rather than lose sales. If 2% of their households buy a truck then don’t bother.
  6. smk4565
    Well, the Rolls-Royce Phantom is 79 inches wide, 227 inches long and 65 inches tall (1 inch less than an XT5 crossover). And that is the short model, the LWB is 236 inches long, a full foot longer than a Suburban. But unless you are buying one of those, then you are out of luck for a "full size" car.
  7. smk4565
    Correct, and that was sort of a payback for the Infiniti Q30/QX30 being built on the A-class platform. Bt to dfelt's point, yes Daimler knows how to build certain types of trucks, but they have Freightliner, Western Star, Mercedes heavy duty trucks, off road trucks like the Unimog, etc. They do have a pretty broad portfolio.
  8. smk4565
    Mercedes isn't losing anything though. Just making up numbers but if 7 years ago there were 1 million cars sold that were over $60,000 and Mercedes had 20%, and now there are 2 million cars sold that cost over $60,000 and Mercedes had 15%, they still sold 300k cars vs 200k. All this shows is people that were buying pickups in 2010 are still buying pickups and now they pay more for them, part due to inflation, part due to these high trim options. And the luxury brands aren't losing to Ford or Chevy, I don't see a $65,000 Fusion or Malibu on sale. Ford and Chevy can barely give sedans away. With pick up trucks though, buyers have 5 choices, GM ,Ford, Ram, Toyota, Nissan, and that is about it, in full size or mid-size. I feel like if Lexus, Mercedes, Infiniti, Tesla, etc all entered the luxury pick up market, then they would steal a whole lot of sales. Because why buy a Ford, when you can have a Tesla with 600 hp (assuming they can build it). Mercedes probably should dress up the X-class and use the twin turbo V6 and bring it here. I think they could take the G-wagon's frame and make a pickup if they wanted, and with the 450 hp and 603 hp V8s they have, that would squash an F150 Raptor. Daimler knows how to build trucks, they are probably the #1 truck maker in the world, but pickup hasn't been a focus.
  9. smk4565
    Not sure why they even bother, don't they sell like 48 of these per month? They'll make it look like an S-class because they think people that want an S-class will buy this instead, which is wrong, and why they sell 48 per month.
  10. smk4565
    And how many of those $60,000 F-Series are Super duty diesels that aren’t luxury but more commercial use but happen to cost $60k. Mercedes and BMW sales are rising, it isn’t like they are losing business to pickups. The pickups just got more expensive. Porsche sales are at an all time high, but because their share is down they make it seem like Porsche is struggling.
  11. smk4565
    The Bolt isn't $100,000 either. And the Bolt isn't faster than a Z06 Corvette, or Audi R8 V10+ The best comparison for the Bolt is the Leaf or maybe BMW i3, those are closer in size, price and amenities.
  12. smk4565
    So you want an S-class. What about a Cadillac DTS, although that would be going to like a 2011 car, those are big and have to be dirt cheap now, I would imagine XTS's are cheap and Impalas are roomy, although I think the Lacrosse isn't because of the center console design.
  13. smk4565
    I sat in a Bolt yesterday, the majority of the interior is plastic, like most Chevrolet product. My car does 0-60 in 4.8 seconds, anything slower than that I am not interested in. If the Bolt were better than a lot of CUVs (which it isn't a CUV, but whatever), then the Equinox, Traverse, Acadia, Envision, XT5, Terrain, etc wouldn't all outsell it. The Tesla Model S actually outsells most of its gasoline competition.
  14. smk4565
    I am fine with this, it it pollutes then you could ban them, but most Opel, Ford, Hyundai, Puegot, Citroen, Renault, Nissan cars in Europe are diesel. So you are hurting French, Japanese, British, Italian, American car companies too.
  15. smk4565
    No Chevy has doors more solid than a German car, the only think worse is a a Toyota door. And the Bolt is slow and what about skidpad and grip? The Model 3 can out perform an ATS, for ATS money, the Bolt can not. I am pro Electric vehicles, but I am not interested in econoboxes. Neither are most people. The Malibu, Implala, Tahoe, Camaro, Traverse and Equinox all outsell the Bolt. This tells me people don’t want a subcompact car, because they want a Chevy, just not a small Chevy.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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?
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