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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I don't think Tesla has $100k car interiors, or even $65k car interiors, but it isn't like the glorified Fusions and Escapes that Lincoln has are setting any new standard. Even the Continental is pretty weak inside. The CT6 is nicer than a Model S on the inside. I do think Tesla needs to improve their interiors, but they are competitive with other American luxury car interiors, maybe just not the top Cadillacs, but the lower Cadillacs.
  2. smk4565
    Telsa sells $100k sedans, something Lincoln or Cadillac are not capable of. Tesla also makes a car much faster than any Lincoln or Cadillac. Based on performance and price point, and brand image, they mop the floor with Lincoln or Cadillac. I don't think Tesla interiors are the end all be all, but they are on par or better than any Lincoln for sure, and I'd say better than most at Cadillac.
  3. smk4565
    Even if Tesla sells 200k cars and not 500k they are the top American luxury brand.
  4. smk4565
    I think the pricing is good, it is a little more than a Toyota, Chevy or Mazda, but you expect that, GMC is positioned a little higher. GMC needs a vehicle below the Terrain like in the Jeep Renegade segment.
  5. smk4565
    I just read a survey that 30 million people say their next car will be electric. Might take years for those 30 million to buy cars but they are coming. It is actually very possible that Tesla overtakes Lincoln and Cadillac in 2022 to become the top selling American luxury brand.
  6. smk4565
    Except for the gas mileage part of it.
  7. smk4565
    I think Chevy could get a crossover in between Trax and Equinox, and another in between Equinox and Traverse. Not sure if they could go below the Trax with a Spark based crossover. They could give Buick a 4th crossover. There seems to be no saturation point with these things.
  8. smk4565
    Lots of people. They could sell an ADX below the CDX if they wanted. Lexus is building a crossover below the NX. The Rav4 and CRV have grown, they need vehicles a size class below that which opens the door to smaller than NX and smaller than RDX crossovers. And they could probably go a size below that to what the Encore is. I bet Lincoln has a version of the Ford Ecosport within 2 years for $29,900.
  9. smk4565
    XT5 had a great month, anything over 5,000 in that $40-50k lux SUV segment is strong as most sell more like 3500 a month. The Q5 topped 5,000 last month, that is where you want to be in this segment. CTS is supposed to be a direct competitor to the 5 series and it has an $8000 price advantage that is a fair sales comparison. Cadillac's sedans just don't get the job done in sales and I think they will only consolidate them as times goes on. Will be interesting to see what happens to XT5 sales when a cheaper XT4 is available.
  10. smk4565
    Reanault-Nissan-Mitsu is larger than GM. If they centralize EV production to Mitsu and make it the discount Tesla they could sell enough volume to make It work. I thought this brand should have closed years ago but if they are looking for a way to stay relevant then EV is about all they can do since that is the next wave.
  11. smk4565
    Nissan sedan sales are down, coupe sales nearly non-existent. Putting 2 sedans and a coupe on sale as Mitsubishi's is sales suicide. They won't sell a thing. Nissan (and Toyota, Honda, and Chevy) should be offering all wheel drive on sedans, that is an easy $2,000 option to sell. If not the EV path, then the only other viable path for Mitsubishi is to be a commercial truck brand. They have commercial trucks already (in medium duty), they could move the Nissan NV vans to Mitsu, give them a pick up for fleet sales to Comcast, give them a fleet version of the Titan even. Too small of a car. Needs to be a Lancer size and look but EV at $25k to work. And I would do an Outlander crossover EV at $30k.
  12. smk4565
    The Bolt is a $38,000 compact, if Mitsu undercut them by $13,000 it would sell.
  13. smk4565
    $35k for a mid-size crossover, and that still undercuts the Bolt which is a compact car. I think Mitsubishi could do a small electric sedan/crossover for $25k. Mitsubishi's current products have pretty basic interiors, they aren't really well equipped cars. If you kept the interiors plain jane basic, and put the money into a 150 mile range battery and a 200 hp electric motor they could undercut the Leaf and Bolt easily. Putting more money into gas powered Mitsubishi's is a waste of money, the brand will close on their current path, might as well close it now if that is their plan to keep the Lancer and Outlander going as is, and to spend money turing a Rogue or Murano into an Eclipse crossover coupe that won't sell. More valuable than GM or Ford. Tesla I think has some potential weaknesses, namely making zero profit, but they are ahead of the game on where the industry is going. If someone can leap frog them, that is the risk they have.
  14. smk4565
    Ouch on the Impala, that segment is dying fast, by 2020 we won't have large sedans, other than the luxury ones. The S-class outsold every Cadillac sedan despite costing double. I wouldn't celebrate Cadillac's success just yet. Plus Cadillac is going to bring cheaper stuff than the X1 and CLA and A3 type cars. interesting that the big SUVs were down a lot seems like crossovers sales are going smaller too.
  15. smk4565
    Still #1 selling luxury brand, but the GLC's sales surprise me. Not only is it down it gets outsold by the dated and more expensive GLE. GLC with all 3 engines and the coupe online now should do a little better I think. Their sedans are holding on when most are disappearing.
  16. smk4565
    Cutting CAFE won't matter when Europe and China are ramping up their standards. Most of these cars are engineered to sell in 100 countries. So they have to meet all these standards anyway, and consumers want more and more, and Trump floated the idea of a $1 a gallon national gas tax. I prefer a gas tax to CAFE, that is a better way to cut fuel consumption or motivate people to buy more fuel efficient cars, but I doubt they will ever pass that. Ride Sharing is what is going to change things in 5-10 years. People won't buy cars, they will share them, that cuts their cost and still gets them from point A to point B, especially when autonomy arrives.
  17. smk4565
    The current ES shares platform and wheelbase with the Avalon, shares powertrain too. So they are now more closely related than it is to the Camry, even though it shared all that with the Camry V6 from the 90s until 2012. The Camry platform underpins the Avalon, Highlander, Sienna, ES, and RX, and Venza which I think is now dead. So they get a lot out of that one platform. I hadn't looked at Lexus sales recently so I just did, the ES is their number 1 selling sedan and outsells the Avalon. So actually they could dump the Avalon and just push more sales to the ES350. And the Avalon isn't much bigger than a Camry, anyone Avalon shopping that doesn't want to pay Lexus money can get a Camry.
  18. smk4565
    No MB-Tex in my car, Nappa leather upgrade in mine. They already have the Meev-i whatever. They could do a small-mid EV sedan, like a Lancer EV. Offer a 2 crossovers, one like Bolt small and one Outlander size. These would only need like 150 mile range, it would be basic EV transport for $25-35k before any rebates. The current Mitsubishi isn't a viable car brand, I don't see how a radical change could be any worse than the extinction they are facing. I think there are people that would like an EV too, but can't afford a Tesla.
  19. smk4565
    Tesla is an all electric brand and worth more money than GM or Ford. Not that Mitsubishi would rise to that level. But they are uncompetitive with anything Toyota or Honda make now, and it would take billions and billions to compete there. Might as well put their billion dollars into a couple EV's which are the future anyway.
  20. smk4565
    What this brand should be is an EV brand. Nissan/Renault have loads of brands that are all basically in the same price point. Mitsubishi Electric is a huge world wide division, why not build Electric cars, and cheap ones. Like a city car, a small sedan, a small people mover box thing, and operate in the $20-35k space. At least they would be different. Taking a Sentra or Altima and turning into an Eclipse or Galant isn't going to do squat.
  21. smk4565
    Lexus interior aren't even attractive. The early to mid 2000s Lexus interior were at least un-offensive, they were pretty straight forward, buttons were easy to find, yes the switcher was right out of a Camry, but they gave you some soft leather and wood trim to forget about it. The current Lexus interiors have so many angles and lines, they are overly busy and annoying. And a lot of plastic, when the rest of the industry has moved on. Even if they got their interiors up to par, I don't seem them offering performance in their Crossovers or Sedans to really stand out. This is why their sedan sales are in the tank, sub-par performance on top of ugly styling. Why buy them? They already said the GS is dying, the ES could be next and that was a big seller for a lot of years for them. But they don't need and IS and an ES at the same price, and how long will the Avalon last? If the Avalon goes away, bye bye ES.
  22. smk4565
    Problem with Lexus sedans is they don't drive great and they are ugly on the outside and have Toyota level interiors inside. Lexus doesn't make good sedans, crossover buyers aren't as worried about driving dynamics they buy what they know and they know the RX. But you can't make sedans with sloping roof lines less head room, less cargo space, etc, that is why people are leaving sedans. You need to keep space in sedans, a liftback like the 4-series has vs a traditional trunk might help with cargo capacity for example.
  23. smk4565
    That sums up the whole country. Wages are flat for most, the rich get richer, the masses do not. Cost of goods goes up, people buy less goods, economy slows. All we are missing is a bubble to burst. Looking at it only from a product perspective, every car model keeps going up market with more features. Chevy used to sell a crap ton of Cavaliers because they were cheap. Then they moved the Cobalt up, moved the Cruze up market even more so. Kia and Hyundai are going up market, no one is introducing a low priced basic car. For a while the car makers got by with 6 and even 7 year loans but now that has run its course and the prices keep rising.
  24. smk4565
    I didn't even mention 0-60, I said "about every performance metric." That could be 0-60, it is also 30-50 acceleration, 50-70 passing power, fuel economy, NVH, winter driving, or downhill braking where the transmission is going to downshift automatically and provide some engine braking. The Automatic is just all around better, the human can't react or process as fast as a computer. I get that some want to shift their own gears and be in control, and that is totally fine too, but that is a striking amount of buyers. So for a carmaker to spend two hundred million or so on a manual transmission, that is a big waste of money if they sell 2,000 cars a year with it. Eventually the self driving cars are going to overtake us even driving. There are about 35,000 deaths a year due to auto accidents and about 5 million car accidents per year, costing $871 Billion according to USA Today. This is why there is a push for autonomy, once these self driving cars are level 5, the accidents and deaths basically go away.
  25. smk4565
    That is kind of shocking. They must need CAFE help, but I can't imagine that little volume helping much.
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