smk4565

You don't need a V8 to be a performance car, but you need horsepower, which Mercedes has a lot of. Ferrari was a sports car and really a racing company in the 50s and 60s that also build street cars. Mercedes was a luxury sedan company with a few cruiser convertibles, they didn't compete back then. They don't really compete now either.

Haha, the 300SL was the fastest car in the world in 1955, so they didn't forget how to build performance. The 460SEL 6.9 had a 147 mph top speed in 1976, even the Corvette had a top speed of 130 mph in 1976. Oil crisis slowed down the performance in the late 70s, early 80s, but the S-class with the 5.6 liter was faster than any other luxury sedan back then, and they brought out the V12 in 1991 and a 209 mph SLR in 2003. There has always been performance and engineering. And their luxury SUVs sell just fine.

Mercedes built luxury cars in the 1920s and 1930s, this isn't new to them. ATS-V and CTS-V came long after cars like the 450SEL 6.9, or the C36/C43 of the 90s, the 500E of the early 90s, the Cosworth 190 of the 80s, the V12 SL of the 90s, etc. The 300SL was the first supercar, they have been at the performance game a long time. Cadillac has 1 sedan with a V8 and Cadillac fans want to call them a performance brand. Mercedes has coupe/sedan/convertible C-class with V8, E-class sedan/convertible/wagon with V8, S-class sedan/Coupe/convertible with V8 and V12, Maybach with V8 and V12, SL with V8 and V12, AMG GT coupe/roadster with V8, CLS with V8, etc. The XT5's success is mid-size car for small size prices, same way Lexus and Lincoln do it. Mercedes doesn't do that.

Cadillac itself is hardly a weapon against Mercedes, Mercedes is more concerned with Porsche and Tesla than they are Cadillac. I have said for years there should be an Alpha SUV, and I said the same for Omega once that platform came out. But we'll never know how one would do in driving dynamics vs an X5 or GLE because Cadillac won't build it.

Because they are smart and cover all the segments, and they had 4 SUVs in 2009 well ahead of the crossover wave that Cadillac missed.

Audi A3 starts at 199,000 RMB and an A4 starts at 299,000 RMB. So even Buick's luxury minivan is less than an A4. Buick isn't on Audi's level.

So in 5 years when large sedan segment basically disappears, you want Chevy to kill the Impala name plate and keep the Spark name? Wishing for an Omega platform Impala is nice but it isn't going to happen. GM already said they plan to kill the XTS/Lacrosse/Impala trio at the end of their life span. Ford is planning a 2 sedan line up for the USA, Focus and Fusion only. Hyundai killed Azera, the Kia Cadenza has to be in its last generation, the writing is on the wall for large sedans.

I think A6 is the number 1 selling Audi in China. If Cadillac wants to compete with the Germans then they need more models and to be in more countries. That is the price of admission to play with the big boys.

I actually would like to see Cruze, Sonic and Spark merged into one small car at about 176 inches long, then Malibu downsized to about 185 inches long, then Impala downsized to about 193 inches long, and Chevy have 3 sedans and that lets the Impala nameplate stay, rather than get killed off. This makes the Malibu a Civic competitor, and Impala an Accord/Camry competitor, which I think is a stronger play than putting Malibu against Camry, Camry wins that every day of the week. I like EV cars, I can't wait till when every car is electric and we can get off gas and we and Europe can quit buying oil from the Middle East and we won't have to have a war every 10 years over there for oil. I don't like the Bolt because it is ugly and has a cheap interior and it is incredibly small. I hope my next car is electric, there just aren't a lot of choices on the market yet, and the 1 good electric car is $100,000 which I can't afford.

Buick sells low price cars in China. Something like 80% of the Buick line in China is priced like an Audi A3 or below. Cadillac is priced in China like Audi is, and that is like a 5 to 1 sales spread between those two. Same problem though, Audi is about to have 7 SUV's in a couple years, they have convertibles, sports cars, a bunch of sedans, etc. Why doesn't Cadillac have more models? What is GM doing, when they come up with stuff like the Regal Tour X, but not a new Cadillac product? This has been a problem since like 2005, not enough Cadillac models.

The Mercedes-AMG hyper car they said today will go over 218 mph, and they also weren't worried about top speed in designing it. The fastest Ferrari ever is 217 mph.

They need to merge the Sonic and Spark into one cheap small car, sales of both are small and tanking fast.

There is a lot of Bolt inventory, they shut down the factory because there is so much.

VW is huge. Audi is huge too, they sell 50,000 cars a month in China. This brand needs more Q's for the USA, good thing Q1, Q2, Q4, Q8 are on the way. They should make an QR8 spyder that merges an R8 spyder with an off roader to make a 2 seat convertible crossover super car.

Year to date Mercedes 118,272 cars 134,949 SUVs That isn't too bad compared to other luxury brands. Especially when Cadillac's whole line up has 98,316 sold

But Mercedes sells more sedans than any other luxury car maker, probably more coupes and convertibles too. Cadillac is on pace to be an CUV/SUV brand, they would have more sales if they killed ATS, CTS, CT6 and replaced them with XT3, XT4, XT7 front drive crossovers. Frankfurt Auto show is this month, Mercedes will get a lot of press from that and get the mojo going, they are only down 2.9% for the year on a record high year in the USA. And USA is their 3rd most important market.

MERCEDES-BENZ USA Sales -- August 2017 Mercedes-Benz Passenger Vehicles Aug-17 Aug-16 Monthly % YTD 2017 YTD 2016 Yearly % B-CLASS 58 57 1.8 % 456 417 9.4 % CLA 1,972 1,811 8.9 % 12,658 17,706 -28.5 % C-CLASS 5,304 6,125 -13.4 % 52,755 49,734 6.1 % E-CLASS/CLS 3,710 5,069 -26.8 % 32,345 32,752 -1.2 % S-CLASS 567 1,698 -66.6 % 9,620 11,974 -19.7 % SLC 178 346 -48.6 % 1,993 2,321 -14.1 % SL 210 443 -52.6 % 1,814 2,520 -28.0 % AMG GT 120 112 7.1 % 840 848 -0.9 % GLA 1,994 1,058 88.5 % 14,577 15,375 -5.2 % GLC 4,498 4,715 -4.6 % 28,227 31,517 -10.4 % GLE 3,750 3,756 -0.2 % 34,458 33,354 3.3 % GLS 2,610 2,912 -10.4 % 20,539 18,462 11.3 % G-CLASS 402 302 33.1 % 2,960 2,724 8.7 % TOTAL 25,373 28,404 -10.7 % 213,242 219,704 -2.9 % Vans 1 3,581 3,152 13.6 % 22,139 22,186 -0.2 % smart 229 353 -35.1 % 2,394 3,439 -30.4 % MBUSA Combined Total Aug-17 Aug-16 Monthly % YTD 2017 YTD 2016 Yearly % GRAND TOTAL 29,183 31,909 -8.5 % 237,775 245,329 -3.1 % The problem is the E-class is down a good bit, and the Coupe, Wagon and E63 should be at dealers, a new E400 sedan is coming which should help, but the E-class should be over 4,000. S-class is on a MCE change over, that number will probably shoot up next month because there is an S450 and a new 4.0 V8 to replace the 4.7. The GLE and GLS are dated, they are in their final year, and still hanging on okay, YTD they are both up. Sort of concerning that the SL is down and not moving many units, there will be another SL, but a lot of sports cars sell in lousy numbers, eventually manufactures will stop making them.

Mustn't have had a big fleet order on Savanas. The Impala having one last gasp before the curtain closes on fulll size sedans. Equinox could be GM's #2 seller behind Silverado this year.

The outgoing GT is way long in the tooth, this has a same as it ever was look, although it is improved, I like the larger grille, if you have a Bentley or Rolls, you want a big old school grille. I do like the inside and the W12 seems to be cranking out a lot of power and they'll have a Speed version with 700 hp I am sure.

The Pagani has an AMG engine, and the Lambroghini is owned by Germans. The LaFerrari will be no match for the Mercedes hyper car the LaFerrari is too heavy, too weak. But I suspect Ferrari will up their game and it will be game on. BMW and Audi aren't going to get to that level.

The A8 is in an un-winnable battle with the best car in the world, they can pump as much money as they want in, it isn't going to matter. BMW talked about a hyper car also but says it isn't in their budget. If you want a hyper car look to Mercedes.

They might as well focus on turbo V6 crossovers or an overboosted 4 banger with a 48 volt hybrid system for Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, whatever. They have the R8 because of Lamborghini, an why would they want to step on Lamborghini and Porsche's toes? And sure everyone wants a hypercar, most don't have the know how or guts to pour the money into making it.

That little performance boost is nice and all, but what is the range? I also think if you want to sell electric cars, don't make them look like quirky odd ball cars. Make it look bland like a Honda Accord and watch the sales take off.

It looks a lot like a Macan, maybe that is a good thing since it is sleeker than before, but I feel like it doesn't look all that special either, since it looks like the lower end SUV. Inside looks mostly good, pretty clean, simplistic design, no doubt has the Porsche build quality. Doesn't really look fancy enough for $83k, but Porsche doesn't really do fancy, and their buyers seem to like it. Where is the V8? The $66,750 Cayenne has the exact same 0-60 time as the $67,750 Mercedes GLE43. But an all new GLE comes next year, so game on in Stuttgart.

From November 2015 Autoblog story "According to NADA data cited by AN, trade-in prices for a 2012 FJ Cruiser are holding at over $25,000, compared to their $27,840 sticker price when new. That amounts to a rather incredible 90.8 percent resale value. Some low-mileage examples are even listing for upwards of $50,000; compare that to a Wrangler from the same year that holds a trade-in value of 68.1 percent of its original list price." And Forbes Magazine rated the FJ cruiser as the #1 resale value car in 2015 also.