smk4565

But the Pentastar makes peak torque at 4,800 rpm. How often in normal driving are you at 4,800 rpm? The Giulia has 306 lb-ft at 2,000 rpm, and most people are always round 2,000 rpm, and accessing full torque. This is why the 2 liter Giulia can equal a 5.7 liter Hemi V8 Charger/300 0-60. This will be even more amplified with electric turbos that don't need exhaust pressure to spool up. The new Mercedes inline six with that can spool the turbo to 70,000 rpm in 0.3 seconds, so that is pretty quick, I doubt the Pentastar can get from 1,000 to 4,800 rpm in .3 seconds. I thought the Aurora was a really good car, it had a few thousand dollars in repairs around 100k miles, then was pretty good until I got up around 140-150k miles and it was going to need more work, and just wasn't worth keeping anymore. Silky smooth V8 in those with ash Northstar get outta my way roar. It wasn't the most powerful or fastest car, the 0-60 was like 7.4 seconds, but it sounded good. That car suffered from the 4 speed auto, even if it had a 5 speed auto it would have been a big improvement.

Yes, the Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0 that I drove for 10 years.

I've driven a 300 with the Pentastar, wasn't impressed. I'd take a Honda or Infiniti V6 over it, and the GM 3.6, and maybe the Pentastar is as good as the 3.5 V6 Ford had in the old MKZ. Here's another problem though, the Pentastar V6 still has to be used in a lot of cars who's competitors have turbo 4's making similar torque with better MPG. Even in their own company, the Alfa Romeo 4 cylinder gets better mileage with more torque.

G-wagen is one product, and they left it like that because that is what the people buying it want. The rest of their line is pretty fresh. FCA is still selling cars based off a 90s E-class. Their newest engine is the Pentastar V6 which came out 7 years ago. The Hemi in these SRT's and in the 5.7 liter form are over 10 years old. And in a way Sergio is smart for doing it. If he starves Dodge and Chrysler of new product, he milks the current stuff for every last dollar without spending any money, and in time he can kill one model after another, until nothing is left. Then he can finally get his merger with someone else because he sees Jeep and Alfa as his merger bait.

It isn't the fastest or most powerful 3 row SUV sold in America, maybe the fastest build by FCA, Ford or GM. But there are 3 row European SUVs that are faster. But this is the FCA playbook, take old dated product, drop a big engine in and hope it stirs enough excitement to get people into dealerships, then dish out the $10,000 rebates to move metal. And agreed that in a couple years these will be half the price on the used market.

Sheetz is a good place for EV charge stations, because they want people hanging out there eating anyway. I imagine a lot of people spend a half hour or so in there getting their MTO sandwich and 32 ounce sodas.

Charge at home. Problem solved. I can see battery tech offering 400-500 mile range in the 2020s, that is a solid 8 hours of non stop driving, and people just don't drive that much in a day. When gasoline sales drop to 1950s level what are all those gas stations going to do? Sheetz will be okay because they make their money on food anyway. But the rest better start selling electricity refills or they'll be out of business.

Really, the S-class is in a class of it's own. I would guess the ATP of a 5-series is rather similar to the CT6 ATP.

We aren't all that far away from the day when an electric car costs less than the gasoline car, and then gas cars are finished.

If they go to all electric then they don't really need the hybrid. I imagine they will have to offer electric and the V12 side by side for a while to see how each sells.

FCA has terrible reliability too. I get that some like a big rear drive car and they are the only game in town. But when you look at Impala, Cadenza, Avalon, Taurus sales they are tanking. FCA has no small or mid size car, ignoring the 2 largest car segments. It is a miracle called Jeep that they are even still in business.

The EU car companies are running away from ICE like it is the plague and toward EV's like it is the second coming. But i am all for it. Bring on the future.

But the 5-series outsold the CT6 4 to 1 and they cost the same. In fact the 5-series can go over $100k and has 2 V8s. Cadillac doesn't have a sedan that covers the 7-series price range, other than a loaded to the max CT6 vs a 740i. But you can load up a Camry to Cadillac ATS price, I wouldn't call them competitors either.

I am not saying Chevy should drop the Corvette or anything. But do they need a Sonic and Cruze? Or could those merge into one product? Impala is going to die just because the segment is. Personally, I would down size the Cruze and kill the Sonic, offer, a 3 door, 5 door and a sedan of it. Downsize the Malibu to about 185 inches long, cut the price to $19k base, and I would downsize the Impala to the size of the current Malibu and cut the price to $23k base.

A brand like Chevy that is full line could support 6 crossovers. Crossovers outsell sedans and coupes combined and look at how many sedans and coupes Chevy has. Once they start dropping car lines, they will put more crossovers in.

I am shocked that they can still sell 6000+ Challengers a month. Even if a lot are fleet sales, who is buying a a big coupe like that. I am surprised they sell that many 300s too and that the Dart and 200 are still on sale, they stopped building them like a year ago. Really I am surprised that FCA sells over 100,000 a month, half these products shouldn't even be on the market they are so old.

Subaru has done something like double is American market sales since 2007 or 2008. They do a good job pushing the safety with all wheel drive and eye sight, and I think there is a lot of appeal with that brand to older buyers you like that sort of security.

The Atlas and Tiguan will drive growth. They could get another crossover under Tiguan. Hard to get any sales momentum with hatchbacks and small sedans, that is why VW h as struggled for so long. And Audi keeps growing because they have 5 or 6 crossovers .

I am shocked the 5-series had such a huge month. Up 40%, is a lot. Maybe since the 7-series doesn't offer much that a 5 offers, the buyers went there. Because the S-class was down, so it wasn't like most months when the S-class just whips on the 7.

Well the S-class is about to get a refresh, so there is a burn out of the 2017s, as the first 2018s started production today. In fact, the S-class today became the first car ever to drive itself off the production line and to the loading area 1 mile away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZEpeyl7VGM

Ha, the Continental costs half as much. How did the Continental do compared to the Camry?

MERCEDES-BENZ USA Sales -- June 2017 Mercedes-Benz Passenger Vehicles Jun-17 Jun-16 Monthly % YTD 2017 YTD 2016 Yearly % B-CLASS 46 44 4.5% 317 310 2.3% CLA 2,118 2,296 -7.8% 8,505 13,611 -37.5% C-CLASS 7,116 6,867 3.6% 42,552 37,305 14.1% E-CLASS/CLS 4,316 4,292 0.6% 24,759 22,458 10.2% S-CLASS 1,169 1,487 -21.4% 7,583 8,493 -10.7% SLC 201 168 19.6% 1,616 1,737 -7.0% SL 221 191 15.7% 1,450 1,798 -19.4% AMG GT 118 79 49.4% 541 679 -20.3% GLA 2,081 1,750 18.9% 10,360 12,815 -19.2% GLC 3,729 3,771 -1.1% 19,727 23,391 -15.7% GLE 4,824 4,515 6.8% 26,825 25,186 6.5% GLS 2,656 2,651 0.2% 15,530 12,880 20.6% G-CLASS 399 362 10.2% 2,195 2,114 3.8% TOTAL 28,994 28,473 1.8% 161,960 162,777 -0.5% Vans1 3,108 3,085 0.7% 15,800 15,762 0.2% smart 226 407 -44.5% 1,983 2,593 -23.5% MBUSA Combined Total Jun-17 Jun-16 Monthly % YTD 2017 YTD 2016 Yearly % GRAND TOTAL 32,328 31,965 1.1% 179,743 181,132 -0.8% They sold 2,711 AMG's in June. I still think the GLC should be able to do 5,000 a month without stealing from any other Mercedes, when you look at how much volume is in the Acura-Lincoln-XT5-RX segment there. The G-wagen is on pace for its 5th consecutive record breaking sales year.

New Traverse is on sale and on fire. I didn't realize the new one was on sale already. Chevy sedans got killed. The large sedan market is just disappearing.

Cadillac has a lack of crossovers, that kills them. Chevy needs a new Traverse and a crossover under Traverse, above Equinox. Ford, GMC, and Chevy all get big numbers from full size pick-ups and SUVs, the cost on those is pretty high, and at some point the price goes up so high that even 6-7 year car loans can't make them affordable for people who for the most part aren't seeing any pay raises but are seeing the cost of everything else go up.

FCA is hurting and there is no end in sight for that because Chrysler-Dodge-Fiat have no new product coming. Keep being down double digits several months in a row now is surprising because they have a new Compass to sell. Alfa is so small they don't matter. Good month for VW stable. Surprised that Acura is up so much when there is nothing new over there. And they don't have a great line anyway.