smk4565

Compare Mercedes EV sales to Genesis, Cadillac, Lexus, Acura, Lincoln. Audi, Porsche and BMW without Mini. Of course Hyundai has decent EV volume, Genesis doesn’t though. Ola Kallenius is 7 years younger than Mary Barra and Jim Farley.

Still 4 inches more ground clearance and 2 inches more water fording depth than the 392 Rubicon. The G63 is 577 hp and 627 lb ft torque. Also the G-wagon is a luxury vehicle where Genesis, Lincoln, Cadillac, BMW, etc aren’t making an SUV as capable as a 392 Rubicon.

Mercedes sells more EVs than Genesis does. Good for Genesis for having a concept car. I am also not Anti-Genesis, I’d take a Genesis over about half the luxury brands cars.

Genesis has never sold 1 coupe or convertible. (unless you count that Hyundai Genesis coupe sports car that was killed off since that didn't sell so well). Genesis in 2022 is being outsold by Lincoln and JLR. Not sure how Genesis is winning. I think the concepts look pretty good except for the grille area, and I think they should put them into production, but I doubt they do because they won't get enough volume to make money on it if they are like $75,000. The Mercedes SL outsold the GV60 in 2022 Q3, 841 to 806. If a small crossover at the lower end of the brands pricing is doing that low of a volume, imagine what a convertible higher up in price would do, it'd be like 50-100 cars a quarter.

Mercedes makes 3 coupes and 3 convertibles right now although the C and E coupe/Convertibles are merging into the CLE. The Genesis convertible will likely never see production as they look at Lexus LC sales and must think anything they make will sell half what a Lexus does.

Genesis operates only in high volume segments with the exception of the G90 which really exists for South Korean government officials and business people that don’t want to use a European car. But despite operating in volume segments, Genesis has low volume. I don’t see how they make a business case for building a coupe or convertible that are by nature low volume.

The 4x4 squared is also $359,000 so not much points comparing it to a Wrangler. Would be like a sports car comparison of a Ferrari and a Mustang.

The G63 4x4 Squared (that i posted a picture of) is the most capable off roader. It’s the only production vehicle with portal axles. From the factory, it’s the best off roader, also the most luxurious. And sure you can get a Bronco Raptor then buy a lift kit and portal axel conversion kit and snorkel and a crap ton of aftermarket parts and build it up for less than half what a G63 4x4 costs, but I was talking factory vehicle.

But as I pointed out they make segment leaders. Cadillac and Genesis don’t make a sports car, don’t make a convertible and don’t make an off roader. Cadillac and Genesis aren’t low global volume because they are only building high end cars like Porsche, they are building small to midsize sedans and crossovers. Both those brands would like more volume, but they don’t have the distribution network or brand image to really make that happen.

Market shares of main line brands, and makes sense that Mercedes-Benz has less market share than Daimler-Chrysler did since they sold off the volume side of that business. Yet compare Mercedes global market share to Cadillac, Lincoln, Genesis, Infiniti, Acura, Lexus and it's a joke, they probably outsell all them combined. And probably because Mercedes does the best luxury car, best off roader, and hypercar, they hit all the pillars. Most of the luxury brands are crossover only or headed that way and some like Lincoln and Infiniti have basically no identity.

And yet they build the most high tech luxury car (and segment leader for 50 years) They also make he best off roader (that isn't a Unimog which they make too) And they make the Nurburgring record holder and have the best performance car No other brand even does all 3 (luxury, performance, off roader) let alone hit top of segment in all 3. And won 8 consecutive F1 championships prior to this year (even though that's a whole separate group of engineers), so I think the engineering side is on point. The EQ-line design team is where the improvement is needed.

The EV platform share could bring back more cars, plus range will be better on a car vs and SUV, which is why even these electric crossovers are fairly low in height compared to traditional SUVS. But if it's high dollar and low volume, who really cars. If Genesis builds this coupe and convertible they need to be G80 price range just like if Cadillac does a sedan/coupe/convertible EV it should be priced like a Lyriq. The most impressive EV on the market right now is actually the Chevrolet Bolt, if they even get $3750 tax credit in 2023 and keep their price the same, then you are talking like $23k-28k price range for one, which is basically what you pay for an Elantra or Civic. That's price parity and makes the Bolt a hell of a deal given the fuel savings too. If this Genesis convertible is like $125,000, they'll sell 1,000 of them over 3 years then cancel it and never do it again.

I don't think so. Hopefully when every Mercedes is EV, the classic design theme wins out and the EQ design theme is tossed in the trash.

I can imagine it, but don’t see them doing it.

Mercedes engineers aren’t the problem, they engineer the best cars. The problem is in the EQ design studio. And the S-class has a .22 drag coefficient and doesn’t look like soap so it’s possible. Yeah names that make sense, like Eldorado.

19,500 stores, 800 EV delivery cars. Way to go all in. Their pizza is terrible anyway, they should try to fix that.

The upside down triangle front grille looks stupid on the coupe and convertible but the rest of the design looks really good. Hopefully they make both but the bean counters may only approve SUVs for production. Imagine if Cadillac did an Eldorado coupe and convertible like this rather than the Musiq, Lyriq, Majestiq, Fantastiq, Elastiq, line of crossovers thru have coming.

It looks boring. All the new Hondas look boring, there are no body lines or styling cues, they just look super generic. Might as well call this Government Sedan and the CRV Government SUV and give a year supply of government cheese with every new purchase to entice buyers.

It is also "predicted reliability" their guess versus what past performance really is. And they also tested 2 models. Not surprised that Toyota-Lexus lead the way. Also what do these even mean? Like I can buy a BMW M5 and have more reliability and less maintenance costs than a Honda Civic?

Mega improvement, the current car is the ugliest Prius ever, this one is by far the best looking. I think it looks good, horsepower is now adequate or even more so with the Prime, I've seen 0-60 times over 10 seconds for past Priuses, this one around 7 seconds is probably quicker than most small sedans or subcompact crossovers and it gets 57 mpg. They should sell a crap ton of these.

Of this group I'd have to say the Miata. Not having driven any of them or having any experience with them, the Miata is the one that is still here so I assume is the best and most desirable. Although I'd think the Toyota MR2 or Supra are better than this group. And there is the Fox body Mustang, unless we are calling that pony car and not sports car.

But 40-50 years ago, there was a BMW 3-series, a Mercedes 450SEL now an S450, but they have always used that naming scheme. Buick never sold B1, B2, B3, or E1, E2, E3. The problem Buick, Lincoln, Cadillac all got into is they keep throwing away heritage (because of all the baggage they have) but when you keep reinventing yourself and reinventing naming schemes you keep throwing away any brand equity you had to begin with. Infiniti did the same thing. The Corolla is the #1 selling car in the world because it has been on sale for 60 years and has a reputation, you know what you get with it. The S-class, the 911, the Corvette, these are vehicles with 50+ years of reputation and you know what it is. Kia EV6, Buick Electra E5, that's just a hodgepodge of nothingness with no soul, no emotion, might as well be a refrigerator or washing machine at that point.

E1, E2, E3, etc is about as lifeless and boring as it gets. Use real names! That’s what Buick’s history and DNA is.

BYD is making electric buses and school busses in California. There has been talk of their cars coming here for a while, eventually they will. They are #2 in the world in EV sales, #1 in the world in EV + plug-in hybrid sales. All these companies talk about orders and reservations, but how many of those are just people looking to flip it for profit if they get an early one, and once that opportunity goes away they can just cancel the reservation. I'd rather see actual sales, the Cybertruk at one point had 1 million reservations, but they have sold zero o f them so who really cares until they actually sell them.

BYD will come eventually, and other Chinese cars will likely follow. If GM gets up to scale in 2024 and is rolling they can make a big impact. And since Cybertruck really won't be hitting volume until 2024, if GM can build their pickups at a faster volume they can block that threat off. And Ford can build a gas F150 every 52 seconds, but they can't make EV's at that rate. That's why this is all up for grabs. Whoever can make EVs that are actually affordable and not $100k sports sedans or $100k trucks, but run of the mill $35k crossovers that you can sell 400,000 a year of is going to be a big winner.