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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I meant a whole size class apart, not that Regal was full size. Even Mazda has those commercials with the badges covered and people test driving one of their cars compared to an Audi, Infiniti, or Mercedes. All these brands want to compare to Mercedes and Audi, even Audi makes Mercedes comparisons in their ads. If Mercedes wasn't the top dog, all these companies wouldn't want to be like them. I do appreciate that Buick and Cadillac recently have not mentioned another car brand in their ads. I hate the Chevy ads with the blind test drives or Toyota/Ford comparisons.
  2. smk4565
    Buick doesn't have a car the size of the CLA or C-class, the Regal in ever dimension is within 1 inch of the E-class. The Mercedes of similar size to the LaCrosse is the S-class, and the Mercedes of similar size to Enclave is GLS. Buick is a far cry from Benz on those. If Buick was competing with Mercedes (Audi, BMW, Lexus too) then GM wouldn't need Cadillac. But Cadillac is better than Buick and can't topple the Germans or Lexus. I have wished for years that Cadillac was on the up, Cadillac was my favorite luxury brand until around the 2008ish time frame when the 2nd Gen CTS I didn't care for much, the STS got a watered down refresh, the XLR-V was under-powered, SRX went to front drive. And the competition kept improving. I have always liked Jaguars too, I always liked the styling and I liked the old style Jags with loads of wood trim, the new XE and XF are black plastic city inside them.
  3. smk4565
    Crossover/SUV is the number 1 selling body style and sedan is number 2. These two make up like 70% of sales with pick up, van, hatchback, convertible, coupe making up the rest. Gotta go where the volume is if you want EV sales. If Nissan made the Altima an EV for $35k it would outsell Leaf 3 to 1 easily.
  4. smk4565
    I am not mad that is just a full size class and $7,000 in price between those 2 cars. The Camry has the same size gap and about $9,000 price gap, and I don't think people are cross shopping Camrys with Mercedes either.
  5. smk4565
    How come all these EV's are hatchbacks, when that is probably the lowest selling body style outside of 2 seat convertible. Even the Mercedes EQ A is another compact hatchback. Here is a tip, make small crossovers and mid-size sedans and EV sales will explode. Tesla figured that out, has 450,000 wait list. The only reason I don't care much about the Mercedes hatchback, is because I know a crossover and small and mid-size sedans are coming right after.
  6. smk4565
    2018 Buick Regal $25,915 base MSRP Dimensions 192.9" x 73.3" x 57.3" 2018 Mercedes CLA $32,700 base MSRP Dimensions 182.3" x 70.0: x 56.6" Direct competition!!!
  7. smk4565
    It looks better than the first Leaf but Nissan has some crazy design language right now.
  8. smk4565
    Does the Toyota Avalon compete with the ATS?
  9. smk4565
    I think the pricing is quite good. They are $8,000 under the Bolt for a car larger than the Bolt and giving up 87 miles of range, when most people won't top 150 miles a day anyway. I am curious to see what the 60 kWh battery with 225 mile range costs. This is an ugly car though.
  10. smk4565
    No one wants it because you get the debt and pension and union obligations that come with it. That is why the Jeep name is worth more than the whole company. FCA has too many brands for anyone to buy it. Most car makers want 2 brands may be 3 unless you are VW. No one wants to take on 8 more brands and try to market them and feed them product.
  11. smk4565
    I thought that was a Lincoln and back then it was Continental Town Car or something, it was before they split the name into 2 models.
  12. smk4565
    Buick doesn't compete with Mercedes, they aren't even on par with Lincoln.
  13. smk4565
    The ML/GLE outsold the X5 in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2016 and 2017 YTD.
  14. smk4565
    Here is a quote from the chief engineer in charge of the Lexus project in the 1980s that became the LS400: "The car is not something that sits around, it’s something that needs to move around. So I thought. I want to build a car that beats Mercedes-Benz in the most basic function a car has, its driving performance." He also used this survey from the 80s on what Mercedes buyers find most import: Status and prestige of image High quality Resale value Performance (e.g., handling, ride, power) Safety I think at the time they thought the 250 hp V8 would beat Mercedes in performance, but Mercedes got the S-class from like 240 hp to 389 hp in top trim in about 2 years time, and then that was over. But yes, Mercedes was Lexus's original target in the 80s. Cadillac had many reasons they failed yes, mostly reliability which is what Lexus capitalized on. Even today if you ask a Lexus RX buyer why they bought it instead of a Cadillac XT5, I am sure the #1 response would be the Lexus is more reliable.
  15. smk4565
    That is my point, the XT5 and GLE have the same length and width, it is the same footprint. The Equinox is 183" x 73" x 65" which is pretty spot on to a GLC, and I imagine the Cadillac XT4 will be pretty spot on size wise to the Equinox. So the XT4 will be sized identical to a GLC, but they can't price it like a GLC, because the XT5 is priced there, so that forces XT4 downmarket to the price of the sub-compact euros. Benz isn't raping anyone on price, they sell a small SUV at the price range of a C-class, and a mid-size SUV at the price of an E-class. I don't see Cadillac selling the CTS at $38,950 so it is E-class size at C-class prices, that was a complaint for years by many here.
  16. smk4565
    When Toyota decided to launch the Lexus brand, the basis was Mercedes-Benz. That was know as the benchmark luxury car of the 80s, they used surveys of what Mercedes owners found most important in their purchase decisions, they took the LS400 to the Autobahn, the whole point of the project was to out-Mercedes, Mercedes. Where Lexus has done well is quality and reliability, they are the best in reliability and that is what they built their reputation on. The reason Lexus took a lot of business off American luxury car companies, is the same reason Toyota took business off Chevy and Ford, reliability.
  17. smk4565
    I never drove an NSX, but it was $75,000 in 90s money for a 270 hp version of the Accord V6. More money than a Porsche 911 and nearly double the price of a Corvette, even though the C4 Corvette wasn't that good, it was still faster at half the price. Nothing with an Accord engine is worth 911 money.
  18. smk4565
    Why would I compare Mercedes to GM? Cadillac who makes up less than 5% of GM's global volume is the only GM brand competing with Mercedes and they only do it in 2 markets. Comparing GM to VW, Toyota, or Renault-Nissan makes sense. And I originally said that Mercedes wasn't worried about Cadillac, they seem more concerned with Tesla and AMG has their sights set on Porsche. The consumer can compare whatever they want. Mercedes is worried about the future and how quickly EV's will take over, how much ride-sharing makes an impact, how quickly the EU says no more ICE engines, etc.
  19. smk4565
    Not replace ICE, Add 10 EV's to the existing line of ICE vehicles. No ICE cars are getting dropped, except the SLC which would get dropped anyway due to slow sales and they have other convertibles. Post 2030 they might not even make a gas or diesel engine, and post 2040 they won't for sure, so they have to start the transition.
  20. smk4565
    The 1993 SL had a V12 too.
  21. smk4565
    More than Lincoln, Cadillac, Infiniti, Lexus, and Acura combined.
  22. smk4565
    Maybe Mercedes preferred front engine cars, they still do. And Mercedes had a 400 hp V12 at the time that 270 hp NSX went on sale. Honda knows nothing about performance, the McLaren Honda has defaulted half the F1 races this year Mercedes has 435 points to McLaren/Honda's 11 points this year.
  23. smk4565
    I think the price and gas mileage are really good, but it doesn't quite look like an SUV, and I think that is why the sales are a little lack luster.
  24. smk4565
    Hey look, a super car with less torque than a 1996 Buick LeSabre! That 90s NSX is still the most overpriced car ever.
  25. smk4565
    I do know that performance is more than acceleration, it is about braking, ride quality, handling, sound deadening, etc. Mercedes does all that, they have like 25 AMG models to 2 V-series, 2 Lexus F models and zilch at Infiniti. The XT5 and Lexus RX are the size of a GLE, not GLC. The XT4 should be $40k and the size of an Equinox, an XT5 should be like $50-85k. Then the XT3 in the $30s. This is no brainer stuff. Even the number on the car XT3-4-5 can help people know that it is $30,000, $40,000 and $50,000 starting price since Cadillac likes that sort of sequential order.
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