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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    If Sergio really wants to merge with someone he should consolidate brands. The reason no one will merge with them is Jeep is all that the other car companies want. These rest actually makes them less attractive to a Honda, Toyota, Ford etc to buy. And more dealers doesn't make them look like a better buy either.
  2. smk4565
    I agree with what everyone has said. A 475 hp crossover is cool, but if it costs $65,000 are there that many people that want an expensive Dodge? Plus this is a bit of a dated vehicle now, they they are hoping putting a big engine in helps pump life into it but that usually doesn't work. FCA has no real strategy to sell to the masses, the 500 hp Alfa Romeo is fast as hell but they will sell like 50 a month. Mostly of FCA's product is designed for what the market was, not what it is or where it is going.
  3. smk4565
    They should build 380 Alfa Romeo dealerships. They spent like $6 million last night advertising a car that won't sell. The Guilia I'm sure is a good car, it gets good reviews, I just don't see them selling them in mass quantity to justify the cost to develop it and market it and distribute it.
  4. smk4565
    Daimler isn't even really mass market. They don't even operate where the bulk of car sales happen, like where Civic, Camry, Rav4, Pilot, Traverse, etc sell. Smart and Vans are a relatively small amount of Daimler's business. Mercedes-Benz cars is their #1 business segment and #2 is heavy duty tucks from Mercedes, Freightliner and Western Star. I guess Rolls-Royce must be a mass market car company too, since BMW owns Mini that sells for $22,000.
  5. smk4565
    I am actually a democrat, not that that has anything to do with car talk. I think it hard to say Mercedes competes directly with Chevy and Toyota when they don't sell $15-25,000 cars. The cheapest Merceds costs more than an Impala or Avalon, I don't see how Mercedes is mass market appealing to all buyers. Especially when the A-class line doesn't even sell much.
  6. smk4565
    They make a heck of a lot more profit than Cadillac too. The sell more $50,000+ cars than Cadillac, more $100,000+ cars than Cadillac, they make more 500 hp cars than Cadillac, they make more 600 hp cars than Cadillac, they make faster cars than Cadillac, they make more capable semi-autonomous vehicles than Cadillac. And you can replace the word Cadillac in the above paragraph with Lexus, Lincoln, BMW, or Audi as well. Saying "sales don't matter" is what dying brands say. If sales don't matter, then Alfa Romeo is the most successful car company in the world. And in September the Hypercar will be revealed with track performance that no other road car can match. I hope they crack the 6 minute mark on the Nurburgring, untouchable.
  7. smk4565
    These sell in super low quantity, something like less than 1% of total E-class sales, however the people that buy these have household incomes higher than S-class buyers. Off the top of my head I imagine this is the most powerful and fastest wagon ever made.
  8. smk4565
    Then why can't Cadillac beat them in the luxury game?
  9. smk4565
    MB sells six figure cars, and currently developing $2+ million hyper car, that they will sell out of. Here is how many cars luxury brands sold with base price over $50,000 last month: Mercedes 12,308 BMW 5,307 Cadillac 2,831 Porsche 2,642 Lexus 2,232 Audi 733
  10. smk4565
    Yep, because they are the best small and mid-size luxury sedans. The E-class outsold the 5-series, GS, and CTS combined.
  11. smk4565
    Bulk of their sales from the Ford, Chevy Toyota range? 2 of Mercedes top 3 sellers base at $52,000 and are like $70k when equipped how they really sell. In January Mercedes was a few hundred cars away form outselling Lexus and Cadillac combined, who about 15-20 years ago were the top 2 selling luxury car lines in the USA. Mercedes is launching 9 EV models by 2025, they are going to bury Cadillac and Lexus both because neither of them will be able to keep up with the product onslaught.
  12. smk4565
    BMW's sales slide still has them as the #2 luxury car maker so it isn't all doom and gloom for them. The CLA-GLA I meant are selling to non traditional Mercedes buyers, people aren't trading in e-classes on them, they are attracting different buyers and welcome to the family I say. Those CLA buyers might get an E-class next time. They won't cancel the CLA/GLA, they have European and Chinese volume plus Infiniti using that platform too so they have easy economies of scale there. Mercedes will be getting a 10-15% fuel economy bump on all gas engines with the 48 volt system starting with 2018 S-class. And that gain is V6 to I6, V8 to V8, while the new I6 could really replace the Current 4.7L V8 in most cases for bigger gain. The new S-class 4.0 V8 makes 476 hp, 516 lb-ft, I don't think they really need that much power in the base car.
  13. smk4565
    Not larger than an Escalade, more expensive. Mercedes most expensive SUV is not their largest, Audi's Q8 is smaller than a Q7. They could make some sort of V-series high performance 4 seat crossover that costs more than an Escalade. Sort of the Corvette of SUVs if you will. It could be electric even.
  14. smk4565
    Not only did the C-class outsell the 3-series, which almost never happens, but the E-class outsold the 3-series. That might be a first ever. I never saw 5-series under 1,000 either, I guess model change over is to blame.
  15. smk4565
    GLA and CLA don't appeal to Mercedes customer base. The reason they are there is to compete with Audi, Acura, Volvo, etc. Their purpose is to get people that otherwise aren't Mercedes buyers, I don't think Mercedes ever expected a lot of sales out of them, most of their sales come from the middle of the line up, which is always has. The CLA and GLA help their CAFE situation too. Mercedes outsold BMW by over 7,000 cars in January, and BMW was the #2 luxury maker by a comfortable margin.
  16. smk4565
    Gotta make performance SUVs now. All wheel drive coupes and sedans may slow the Crossover take over rate, but automakers got people convinced that they need AWD and that they need a 40 cubic foot area to haul a gym bag and 2 bags of groceries. If you have all wheel drive Camaros and Mustangs, maybe that gets buyers in the snow belt to keep buying, but it is hard to stop the crossover.
  17. smk4565
    1. Mercedes 25,500 2. BMW 18,100 3. Lexus 15,500
  18. smk4565
    Well Cadillac is for sure getting versions of the Equinox and Traverse, that is already confirmed. I'd like to see Alpha and/or Omega SUVs. They could always do an XT9 or something above Escalade in the $125-175,000 space. Tesla Range Rover, GLS, G, Cayenne are already there, you have Bentley and soon to be Rolls and Lamborghini above that. BMW may have an X7 M with a V12 at $150k, that upper end market is filling up, but they wouldn't all go there if there wasn't profit to be had.
  19. smk4565
    No Verano anymore, Regal sales were never strong to begin with and are bottoming out, Lacrosse operates in a dying segment. Impala was way down too, full size sedans just don't sell anymore. What is sort of shocking is Malibu down 43% because that segment isn't small or going away. Cadillac sedans had a brutal month, but people want crossovers.
  20. smk4565
    XTS could have a Town Car like life span. The markets it caters to don't care if it is old or front drive, as long as they are roomy and relatively cheap. The Town Car went 13 years with basically no improvements and the livery market still bought it. The current XTS could last until 2022 easily caring to fleet and livery buyers.
  21. smk4565
    Couldn't Cadillac build the Escalade, XT5, and an Alpha platform crossover and an Omega platform crossover? And an XT3 or XT2 compact crossover. They could easily support 5 SUVs.
  22. smk4565
    The CT6 is admittedly compromised by Casa, if they took out the compromises and add the optional V8 we know is coming and make a crossover out of it, I don't know why it wouldn't be better than an Escalade. Omega is a heck of a lot better platform than what the Silverado rides on, and GM does crossovers better than they do sedans. No reason to believe that a CT6 based crossover without the penny pinching wouldn't be the best SUV/Crossover in GM history.
  23. smk4565
    Yeah, I wouldn't back off the 54 mpg CAFE number though and I'd make crossovers the same as cars. People buy RAV4 as a replacement for a Camry, they should be treated the same with CAFE. Something like a Transit or F150 I can see under a truck standard.
  24. smk4565
    A delay to 2030 could help them. By then I'd imagine electric will be in a lot of powertrains, whether full EV or plug in hybrid of some sort. I see no reason to lower the CAFE number, but perhaps give them another 5 years to get there, and get cost down to where the market will buy these hybrids.
  25. smk4565
    I still don't get why Cadillac doesn't have a full size SUV on Omega that is like 4900 lbs with the 3.0TT V6 base and a 4.2TT V8 optional. But then it would be better than the Escalade, so they won't make it.
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