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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    Daimler has set their R&D budget to $8.8 billion for 2017 and 2018. Divided by 365 days is $24.11 million per day, which is over $1 million per hour. EV's are less than 5% of the market place, Mercedes has to sell gas cars. They have a plan to spend $10.8 billion to produce 10 EVs by 2022. Tesla spent $834 million on R&D last year. Mercedes is coming for Tesla, but they also have to have the market ready for electric cars.
  2. smk4565
    No alternator drain, since there is no alternator, saves some weight too. The electric motor gives a boost from start, lowering rpm on the gas engine, makes the start/stop system smoother, regen braking powers the battery. Not sure if it will be on all engines, but Mercedes is using an electric turbo on their hyper car, I think they can E-turbo with 48 Volt. Audi A6, A7, A8 are going to 48 volt too
  3. smk4565
    Mercedes laughs at their $5.9 billion in R&D spend. Mercedes spends over $1 million per hour on R&D. The other thing Mercedes does that is smart, is no manual transmissions, no more diesel in the US, and once they get the inline 6, that will share 75% of the parts with the inline 4, and they already cut out the 5.5 NA V8, the 6.3 V8, the 5.5 turbo V8 is next to go, they will only have the 4.0 V8 by next year. They already cut down the number of engines they use. BMW has too many configurations of cars. No one will care if they drop a 2-series manual, or if the 5-series offers 1 diesel instead of 4. And 0% of buyers will miss a manual 5-series, it is big luxury sedan in 2017.
  4. smk4565
    I love the idea of the 48 volt with the inline engine, this is supposed to be 15-20% more efficient than the current 3.0 V6 which gets 18/25 mpg in the middle weight E-class. So we are probably looking at 22/29 mpg on a 475 hp sedan. They are adding this to the 4 cylinder too, which will be really good for the mainstream stuff. As far as naming scheme goes, I always thought they could keep it simple with 300, 400, 500. But then you run into a problem were an E500 has a 3 liter turbo 6 and an S500 has a V8. So the AMG 63 and 53 thing sort of makes sense. 48 volt will be standard on all Mercedes. Plug in Hybrid and EV will have some sort of EQ Power badging.
  5. smk4565
    Never mind on the R-class, the seem to be picking up G-wagen like resale, a 2007 R63 is $35-40k and 7-10 year old R350s with are going for $10-20,000 even with over 100k miles. I wouldn't buy any FCA product, they all are unreliable. My dad has a Dodge Caravan with the Pentastar and has spent like $4,000 this year on maintenance and had another $2200 repair that was covered by warranty.
  6. smk4565
    Somewhere out there is a Mercedes R550 with adjustable height air suspension with your name on it. I haven't looked at prices but they have to be practically giving them away. Or get an R63 AMG and you can out run Stingers and Mustangs and the like.
  7. smk4565
    They need a scalable EV architecture that can be used for sedan, coupe, crossover, etc. It is almost easier because you can put all the batteries in the floor pan and a couple electric motors. The packaging is better, so multiple body styles should be easy.
  8. smk4565
    Would be better to have a platform designed from the ground up for EVs, such as their competitor from Stuttgart is doing. You wonder why they don't just take the i3 chassis and make a sedan out of it and call that the 3-series EV. I would they could make it look like a regular 3-series.
  9. smk4565
    What I am saying is that it is the same size as a Camaro or Mustang with similar performance and price to those 2 but with way more practicality. Kia should be targeting sports car buyers you want more a more practical car. Not targeting 3-series drivers who won't consider a Kia and who are going to buy an X3 anyway because they want to get out of a sedan and into an SUV for more practicality.
  10. smk4565
    The Camaro is 188-190 inches long, the Mustang 188.4 and the Stinger is 190. So it is sized right there with those cars has turbo 4 base, probably priced the same, it just has 4 doors.
  11. smk4565
    I give them credit for putting that much power in an XE, but it looks a little too Fast and Furious (1st movie) for my liking. But it is good to see Jaguar putting out products now, after years of having a 2-3 car line up of dated product.
  12. smk4565
    Pricing seems right, it is priced below Envision but it like a class above in terms of size. I don't think it will sell much though just because wagons struggle.
  13. smk4565
    Which is why the Stinger shouldn't be super high performance and 60 grand. I read in South Korea it might start at like $27k, which if it is priced like that in the USA, it is incredible value. The Stinger needs to target the Camaro and Mustang (and Challenger/Charger), go after the sports car buyer who wants more practicality, but doesn't want to give up the performance. The Stinger is only 2 inches longer than a Camaro or Mustang. That is Kia's formula for success with this car. Going after luxury sedans is suicide, when you have sales of a lot of luxury sedans down 20% as buyers go to crossovers.
  14. smk4565
    I like the Stinger, but it's appeal is the value play. If it costs as much as a German car that appeal is gone. The V6 Stinger does 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, same as a $56,000 BMW 540i. Good value, but I can't see Kia putting a twin turbo V8 in the Stinger and then having to charge way more money.
  15. smk4565
    The ZL1 has a really good time, anything under 7:30 is really fast, under 7 minutes is insane fast. It was mentioned that Mercedes doesn't have the record, I just said what their fastest time is. And they are going to beat the P1, it is as good as done. @A Horse With No Name good thing Mercedes isn't Ferrari or McLaren or they'd be losing
  16. smk4565
    So if they bring out a V8 Stinger for $65,000 is anyone going to buy it? Or will they just buy a BMW or Audi instead.
  17. smk4565
    The fastest Benz time at the Nurburgring is 7:10 for the AMG GT R. But I suspect the Project One car will beat the P1, and even the P1 LM which they only made 6 of.
  18. smk4565
    The Pacifica doesn't have rear wheel drive for racing pedigree.
  19. smk4565
    The Metris is pretty sweet. You can get power heated seats, blind spot monitoring, active lane keep assist, radar cruise control, rain sense wipers, Sat-Nav turbo, 7-speed, alloy wheels for like $33k.
  20. smk4565
    The problem with just doing a more powerful version is the price point. A $50,000 or $60,000 Kia isn't going to sell. The K900 proves that, the Cadenza is a sales did also. Their path to success here is Optima level interior with with rear drive and turbo 4 and 6 cylinder engines priced $30-40k.
  21. smk4565
    Agreed with Cubical, the Polo wouldn't sell here. They need a CUV smaller and cheaper than the Tiguan, which I know they have on the way.
  22. smk4565
    There is a Jaguar E-Pace going on sale later in the year too in the small crossover market. And then an I-Pace electric crossover that I think goes on sale next year.
  23. smk4565
    The new X3 is up to 186 inches long, sort of long since a GLC is 183 inches. But they want an X2 and an X1 below it, so they probably figure they can make the X3 grow. The Cherokee is actually only 182 inches long, I thought it was a little bigger. Jeep actually has 3 crossovers smaller than an Equinox, it goes to show how much opportunity there is in that small crossover segment, and how much Jeep needs something bigger than Grand Cherokee, which I know is coming.
  24. smk4565
    The C-class is a very well executed car, but it is also $5-7,000 more than some of its competitors and it outsells them all, since BMW split the 3 and 4 series up. If the CLA was the only way Mercedes got sales then the C-class outsell the CLA 4 to 1 and the GLE wouldn't be the #2 seller at the brand. You can't say the CLA hurts the brand, when the rest of the brand is doing well. The GLE is priced like a CT6. If the CT6 had GLE volume, Mary Barra and Johan DeNysschen would be throwing wheel barrows of cash off the top floor of Renaissance Center and dancing in the streets because they wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
  25. smk4565
    But yet their ATP is higher than Cadillac, GASP! And they sell more $100,000 cars than anyone else in the world, Double GASP!
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