Jump to content
News
Reviews
Discussons
Activity
Create New...
Close

smk4565

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13,726

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    11

 Content Type 

Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I don't get why they keep pushing the Camaro farther and farther up market. This is why you have the Corvette and Cadillac. Cadillac should be building GM's best sports cars, not Chevy. But I guess if they can get some fool to pay $100,000 for a Camaro, more power to them. If they continue this plan though, and want to push Corvette up market, then the Corvette might as well start around $89,000 for the base model, $139,000 for Z06 and $200,000 for ZR-1.
  2. smk4565
    Hellcat is probably 5% of Challenger sales. Coupes tend not to sell much, full size cars don't sell and cars built on 90s platforms don't sell, and the Challenger is all 3 of those. I can only imagine they just discount the heck out of them.
  3. smk4565
    So long sedan sales. I truly believe they could sell the CTS for the exact same price as an Equinox and the Equinox would outsell it 2 to 1. Hell Lexus could sell the LS460 for $25,000 and the RAV4 would still outsell it. People want crossovers. Sadly.
  4. smk4565
    GLS and GLE are doing well for vehicles at the end of the life cycle. I am surprised the GLC isn't doing more damage in the lower end, it is a far superior product than the majority of $40-50k crossovers. And the sedans are still selling, something most others can't say.
  5. smk4565
    How does the Challenger sell over six hundred units a month? Who buys that thing?
  6. smk4565
    What a joke. If Honda was so focused on value they wouldn't price this thing like a 3-series. An EV with an 80 mile range should be like $22,000, that would be value for the customer. These people with their 100 mile over priced, no power electrics are fools. You have to build more power than gas for equal money to get people to buy it.
  7. smk4565
    Audi E-tron SUV will turn into a Bentley to spread out the cost. It's how they roll over there at VW.
  8. smk4565
    Mercedes thinks 20% of their global sales will be EV in 2025. So they will be ready in case it happens. Just like they were ready for the crossover boom since they have been building them since the 90s.
  9. smk4565
    Speaking of Volume, found this news article from this month. Seems that Ghosn could overtake GM this year, especially when Opel drops off GM. Nissan was going to be bankrupt before him. If he merges these 3 into one big company he might steer this ship to #1 in the world with VW in decline. "Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. combined delivered 9.96 million vehicles last year, the alliance said in an emailed statement. The three automakers chaired by Ghosn finished fewer than 4,000 cars and trucks short of GM’s deliveries in 2016 and within about 350,000 units of new worldwide leader Volkswagen AG." Here is the link. http://www.autonews.com/article/20170208/OEM01/170209830/renault-nissan-nears-gm-global-sales-after-mitsubishi-rescue Is Chevy going to have 10 EV's by 2025? Mercedes plans to. And we know Tesla will never have 10 models. Takes them 4 years to come up with 1. You do have to look long term, that is why when you look at the big R&D spenders you have a good idea of who will have the leading products of the future.
  10. smk4565
    I do think there will be more mergers or some brands going away as time goes on. Most industries have consolidation, especially once such as auto manufacturing. However, Nissan made $3.7 billion in profit first 3 quarters last year, which puts them on pace for about $5 billion for the year, and Renault made $3.74 billion in profit for all of 2016. So together they are pulling in near $9 billion a year in profit. GM in 2016 posted a $9.43 billion profit for the year. Ghosn's alliance is doing well, although I think they'd be better off fully merged and dumping Mitsubishi car line and using them only has commercial trucks and the Electric business. Mitsubishi lost money last year. Daimler did $9.28 billion in profit last year, so they don't really need a partner to survive, even more so since they just said they are going to sacrifice profit to spend more on R&D. Ford with all their volume only did $7.4 billion.
  11. smk4565
    It has 680 hp, that is quite a lot.
  12. smk4565
    Nissan and Renault are making multi-billion a year profits now, compared to out of business that is a pretty big turn around in 15 years. Especially when most auto makers needed a bailout in 2009. I am not saying Nissan-Renault is the gold standard, but they would be with Saturn, Oldsmobile, Saab and Plymouth without Ghosn.
  13. smk4565
    Nissan would have been bankrupt and possibly out of business if not for him though. In the 90s their fate was looking really bleak. He might eventually merge these companies into one, especially if PSA buys Opel and gets a stronger hold in Europe, he might want to consolidate his own operation. Nissan already owns 34% of Mitsubishi, in time maybe they will buy the rest out.
  14. smk4565
    Cadillac does have a Platinum trim, the problem is they are going against other luxury brands, where GMC is probably being looked at by a lot of people that aren't looking at Range Rover, Mercedes, Audi or Porsche. GMC is catering more to the American truck buyer you wants extra. Even machine gun fire, sniper rifles and grenades and can't penetrate Benz armor.
  15. smk4565
    So basically he is still in charge of everything.
  16. smk4565
    China taxes displacement over 2 liters so they have to build a 2.0t version anyway might as well sell it here for the base. Even Lincoln has turbo V6 options in their crossovers. Cadillac has to go that route.
  17. smk4565
    Well written review. The 3.6L does need shown the door, peak torque at 5,000 RPM is like 90s Honda VTEC sort of numbers, it is just way too high in the rev range to do anything with. This vehicle would be better served with the 2.0T base and 3.0T V6 as an option and make the turbo V6 standard on Platinum trim. Skip the 20 inch wheels and save $2,000 if buying. And that goes for any car, every car seems to ride worse with 20" or larger.
  18. smk4565
    Escalade has moved up, but CTS moved up only because it replaced the STS. Plus you have inflation. In 2006 an SRX was $36,270, STS $41,020, DTS $41,195 Adjusted for inflation the SRX is $44,495, STS would be $50,322, and DTS would be $50,537. The XT5, CTS, and XTS are cheaper now compared to the SRX, STS, and DTS then. They are still basically selling cars in the same market space as they were 10 years ago.
  19. smk4565
    Perhaps in China, the Avista line will have more play and drive some profit there. But GM has Cadillac for a reason. If you want more than a Buick, GMC, Corvette or whatever, you go to Cadillac. GM in the past 10 years has been trying to push Corvette, Buick and GMC up market, Cadillac hasn't made a move. The thought of a $100,000 XT5 would be laughable, it is more than an Escalade, but there are competitors selling small and mid-size crossovers at that price point. If Cadillac doesn't get up there, and sits in the $35-70k range, I don't really see the point of pushing Buick and GMC up market on top of them.
  20. smk4565
    A Buick luxury trim doesn't make too much sense because that is what Cadillac is. Just like Chevy doesn't have a luxury Traverse because Buick builds one. If Buick can charge $10,000 extra for an Avista trim Lacrosse more power to them. They should do and take the money and run. But look at the Reserve and Balck label Lincolns, they aren't really doing anything. i think Cadillac would love to have higher trim cars and be able to option cars the way Porsche does, but I don't think they know how to get there. $100,000 XT5's is a big reach but you can run a Porsche Macan to that price and their customers are happy to pay it. Probably why Mercedes is so hell bent on going after Porsche.
  21. smk4565
    If it makes you feel better, the 2018 S550 will have 476 hp.
  22. smk4565
    All these "Range Rovers" make no sense. There is only one Range Rover in my mind and that is the big one that is a hard core off roader with lambs wool carpeting. All these watered down things should be called Land Rover Evoque or Velar. The F-Pace shares its aluminum chassis with the Jag XE, so this might be a sporty vehicle.
  23. smk4565
    On the Yukon Denali there is a powertrain upgrade, but there is not on the Terrain or Acadia, which is why I suggested those two. Acadia Denali has the same engine as a base Traverse. On Maybach there is no powertrain upgrade from the S550 and S600, but they lengthened the body of the car and raised the roof height and upgraded the inside, and the base car had a V12, not a lot of room to upgrade, plus it is a chauffuer driven car anyway.
  24. smk4565
    Agreed that the curvy look keeps it different from the Chevy and GMC and we know there will be a Cadillac version too. For sure there will be a 2.0t for China because of the displacement tax, so maybe it will be sold here too.
  25. smk4565
    I agree with Hyper, it isn't for me but more power to them to sell a Tahoe with wheel and trim upgrades for $70k. You charge what people are willing to pay. Of course it is huge money maker. It is like Porsche charging $750 for painted air vents or $1,500 to have a 911 logo painted on the door. People pay for that crap and it is pure profit. And agreed again with Hyper on there being some powertrain upgrade, like maybe a turbo or hybrid system on the Terrain and Acadia Denali trims that other wise are mechanical twins to the Chevy.
×
×
  • Create New...

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

I've whitelisted
Continue without support

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search