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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    It won't whoop up on an E63 S, and AMG has several offerings above the E-class with the 65 series cars and the GT series. Plus they have the Project 1 Hyper car that will beat everything, LaFerrari included, however at a crazy price.
  2. smk4565
    By high end I mean cars with base price of $80 or even 100k. CTS-V is like a $90k car but based on a $46k car. it is still a mid size luxury segment car. Cadillac lacks the S-class, SL, Porsche 911, Audi R8, BMW i8, M760iL sort of cars in the $100-200k range.
  3. smk4565
    I could see Police departments going to Edge and Acadia size vehicles, even Escape and Equinox for city use when you don't really need highway acceleration power. Even an Explorer is pretty large and thirsty; Police cars will downsize in time just like every thing else. Holden could be gone soon too. EV will rise, it hasn't hit that tipping point yet. EV is still too expensive, but when the price eventually drops, it could replace gas cars in a hurry, so car makers have to be ready. All the more reason for Cadillac to be on board with EV's and this product plan doesn't include any.
  4. smk4565
    That is an interesting take, it probably would spur sales a lot, but would be a different direction for Cadillac. There is a good argument for that plan, or you could argue raising prices by $10,000 across the board and putting in more content and power. Even the current price structure undercuts BMW and Mercedes, so undercutting by a little clearly doesn't work.
  5. smk4565
    They don't have anything high end except the Escalade though. That has always been a struggle since the Allante in the 80s, they can't crack into that top tier of high end cars.
  6. smk4565
    But if they can make $4000 profit on a Cadillac Traxx vs $700 profit on a Chevy Traxx, what do you think GM will want to do? Cadillac needs more volume because selling 1 Cadillac can make as much money as selling 5 Chevy and GM wants profit at the bottom line. That was said about luxury sedans in the 80s and 90s also. Front drive was better in snow, etc, and by the time Cadillac switched to a rear drive heavy line up aroun 2004 it was too late.
  7. smk4565
    Tesla Model S sold like 25k units in the USA last year, 50k world wide. The Model S is also a mid size car, with a starting price $30,000 below the S-class before the $7500 tax credit. But Mercedes recognizes the threat of Tesla for sure, that is why they are launching this 10 model assault aimed directly at Tesla.
  8. smk4565
    And the CT6 range topper engine is 116 lb-ft shy of the S-class's base engine. They should have developed a CT6 exclusive V8 and made the 3.0TT the base engine for livery and rental spec cars. They brought a knife to a gun fight.
  9. smk4565
    In 2016 (in usa) Mercedes sold 158,600 SUV and 181,637 cars. Cars still make up the majority of their business. I didn't add all BMW and Audi's full year sales, but Audi puts a new SUV on sale every 6 months, and any car they make above A4 doesn't sell here. Regardless, C, E, and S class are all #1 seller in their segments, so it makes perfect sense to make electric cars of equal size, because they know how to sell sedans in those segments, and they want the Tesla Model S and Model 3 business. People buy the Tesla because it was the new thing and nothing else is like it, when Mercedes sells Tesla performance with a Mercedes interior and build quality, goodnight Tesla. And that is what this push is half about, half is about the European Eco-mentalist green movement and the other half is about taking out Tesla.
  10. smk4565
    I hope they start using Omega in a big way, however what I am seeing here is Front wheel drive XT2, XT4, XT5 and XT7, and a front drive CT2. It will be interesting to see the course they go. But Johan has been there a while, Alpha platform is 5 years old, and yet XT5 and XT4 are coming out front drive, I think Cadillac wants front drive so they can just platform share with Chevy and cut cost. It is "old GM" at it's finest. What I am not seeing in this list of new products are any coupes, convertibles, sports cars or electric cars. Shouldn't they have EV's? Shouldn't they make a sports car if they are a top tier brand? Shouldn't they make 1 freaking convertible if they are an aspirational brand?
  11. smk4565
    I agree, I don't like the names either, never did. And I will believe a CT8 when I see it in the showroom. Here is the problem with a S-class fighter, it will cost then $3 billion to do it right, that is probably more than the Silverado and Sierra's development budget and Cadillac will just never get that kind of budget. It won't happen.
  12. smk4565
    Because they need volume, and their dealers want product to sell. And GM sees dollar signs by taking a Chevy Traxx and making it a Cadillac and selling it for $30,900.
  13. smk4565
    Mercedes I believe is the only luxury brand that sells more cars than they do SUVs other than Bentley or Rolls, so they still have a large sedan business. C and E class can total over 700,000 a year globally. Making C, E, and S class sized EV sedans makes a lot of sense. Especially if they use the EV platform then put the same basic interior of the gas car in there. What Tesla lacks is cash, R&D budget and production facilities. Mercedes has all that, they can build these electric cars in any of their existing factories. And especially with electric cars, once you have a scalable platform you can build a ton of body styles rather easily because you don't have to work around the engine, drive shaft, exhaust, etc.
  14. smk4565
    That should shut down Tesla's 4 model line up. I bet an all electric SL turns up around 2020 for the new generation and that would be epic.
  15. smk4565
    Yawn, it is still an Accord, it certainly is not "precision crafted performance" because it has no performance. I just read the other week how the MDX hybrid is the most powerful Acura SUV ever and it has like 315 hp. That is a joke.
  16. smk4565
    Subaru sales have doubled I think in the past 10 years. They'll sell a bunch of these, because people want crossovers. And how long have they been selling sedans and wagons to people that now have bigger families and need more space. They used to lose those customers, now they can keep them It will probably look boring, but they need a 3 row crossover badly, and not a disaster like the B9 Tribeca was.
  17. smk4565
    I gaurentee they lose money on the B-class EV. But without it they couldn't sell cars in California which is not an option. So they have to sell it. That B-class will be dead the day the EQ crossover goes on sale. As far as China goes, Mercedes has passed BMW and is closing in on Audi. So they are doing pretty well there.
  18. smk4565
    Following AMG in product planning, as is BMW. In a couple years there will be M versions of X 2 through 7 and RS versions of Q 3 through 8. Performance crossover is the next hot market but you don't have to wait til 2019 for these guys to do it, AMG will sell you one today.
  19. smk4565
    Good point about the early 2000s Even can add the Celica and MR2 and Supra in that time frame and Camry Solara and Monte Carlo later. Honda S2000, Sky and Soltice all dead. 2 door cars are disappearing at an alarming rate the past 20 years. I think E-class coupe and convertible are safe, the E-class line does a lot of volume, and it sits right in the middle of their line up. What can keep the S-class convertible around is profit margin, those range $125-250,000, hard to cut something you can sell for that much money and potentially make $50,000 per car sold. What it comes down to is what does the consumer want? I think Dieter's point when they introduced the E-class convertible was if you buy them, we will keep building them. But if people only want crossovers, it becomes hard to justify building convertibles just because it is fun.
  20. smk4565
    But they already build the car, doesn't cost them more money to sell the CLA and GLA here. Why give up 3,000 units a month, especially when they are to new buyers to the brand.
  21. smk4565
    The A/B class totaled 425,000 sales last year. Hardly a flop. Mercedes never said their model line is out of control, Dieter said that the convertibles and coupes are niche models, and it is hard to make the business case for all of them as China wants sedans (and not convertibles with their dirty air) and most of the world wants crossovers. He did say there would always be coupes and convertibles offered, maybe they don't have 6 or 8 of each but they aren't all going away. Their electric SUV has 400 hp and 300 mile range which on the surface is quite appealing, the price will be a big factor.
  22. smk4565
    Smart isn't a Mercedes, they'd probably like more sales there, that is a brand they need to rethink, maybe make them an EV city car. They have global Smart sales, they need CAFE help in the USA, they actually need more volume from Smart in that regard. B-class exists because California state law says they have to sell an electric car. They can't stop making it until the electric SUV goes on sale in 2019. And I don't think they care if they sell 300 G-class a month, they were going to kill it in 2006 but the fans wanted them to keep it, so they did. They sell about 14,000 G-class a year globally, and most are AMG. The upgrade price from a G63 to a G65 is $79,000! The profit margin on a $220,000 truck with body and chassis paid for decades ago for has to be obscene.
  23. smk4565
    Under 1,000 a month in USA would only cut SLC, G-wagen, SL and AMG GT. The last 3 of those are mostly $100-200k cars with big margins and the SL and G-Wagen are never going anywhere. SLC they could kill and no one will miss it. Plus remember global volume of these; Mercedes sold 1.8 million cars outside of the USA last year. S-class can sell 100k units a year globally far more than any othe car of that price.
  24. smk4565
    Mercedes has 6 convertibles right now, they can drop the GT convertible since they have the SL, and they can drop the SLC since they have very little volume and are a unique line. C-class gives them an entry level convertible, i think they can sell enough to justify it. BMW can cut the Grand coupes and Grand turismo hatchbacks and go back to regular coupe and sedan and unleash more crossovers. BMW wants the sales crown back from Mercedes though and in releasing 40 new models by 2019.
  25. smk4565
    What is the take rate on ATS-V and CTS-V? What is the take rate on an SQ5 or GLC43 vs the base model. I don't really know, but it must be enough to build them.
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