smk4565
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Everything posted by smk4565
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Yep, because they are the best small and mid-size luxury sedans. The E-class outsold the 5-series, GS, and CTS combined.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sales: Sales Figure Ticker: January 2017
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Sales Figure Ticker
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. -
Sales: Sales Figure Ticker: January 2017
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Sales Figure Ticker
1. Mercedes 25,500 2. BMW 18,100 3. Lexus 15,500 -
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Not only Benz, as I said Alfa Romeo's SUV has 505 hp from a 2.9 liter engine. Tesla's SUV has like 650 lb-ft or torque and can do 0-60 in less than 3 seconds, BMW has a plug in hybrid X5. If you go back to 2010 the Mercedes GL had 4.7 and 5.5 liter natural aspirated V8s while the Escalade had a 403 hp 6.2 V8. The GL went to 3.0 and 4.7 liter biturbo engines and in 2019 will have a new inline 6 and 4.0 V8. That is 2 generations of new engines, the Slade will still have the same engine.
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The CT6 in the comparison was $70k so it is hardly a base car. And I suspect even a Platinum CT6 is going to lose an interior battle with a lot of cars in the $70-90k range. But why is the CT6 so compromised in the first place? Why did they have to cut corners at all? This is just Cadillac mentality on display. They cut corners on the bones of the XT5, it is just the Cadillac way to take shortcuts.
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But they don't even sell the Escalade in China, so they have no sales at all. I do hope in 2022 Cadillac is still pushing the Escalade with a 6.2 liter V8 pumping out 420 hp at 5,800 lbs getting 15/20 mpg. Makes it easier for the GLS to win since they keep advancing with new powertrains. At some point I'd expect Cadillac to make an Omega based SUV, or some sort of performance SUV. They can't just sit around and let Porsche, BMW, Audi, Jaguar and Mercedes rack up profits on performance crossovers, even Alfa Romeo and Maserati are getting in that space, and they'll get some sales. The Stelvio has 505 hp from a 2.9 liter V6, sort of makes the Escalade's 6.2 V8 look weak and out dated.
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But the Audi, BMW and Mercedes six cylinder engines are all like 2.99 liters, so they are under 3, the Audi and Mercedes V8s are 3.99 liter so they are under 4. A GLS450 is taxed at the 2-3 liter rate. So that is like 8% vs 20% on an Escalade. Plus they have an annual displacement tax. I found a tax table for annual taxes. 2400 RMB is $349 per year the 5,400 RMB for over 4 liter is $785 per year tax. And this is why they don't sell any Cadillacs with an engine larger than 3 liters in China.
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A V8 Escalade is 5,520 lbs, a V6 should be a little less. The GLS450 has a V6 and is 5,335 lbs and does 0-60 in 6.5 seconds, so the physics must be possible. And that is with a 362 hp engine, when 400 hp is possible from a V6. And they have a new GLS about 1-2 years away with more power and less weight.
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When I first saw the comparo in the magazine, I thought it was a CTS, but I guess they went with the CT6 since it is newer. Given the CT6 has more room and equipment than the CTS, that should have helped it. And the CT6 was the middle priced car of the 3 and they made it a 4 cylinder comparison. They could put an E43 in a comparo with a CT6 3.0 and same result would happen as it did with the 4 cylinder engines. The CTS would have done worse than the CT6, the interior and fit and finish and build quality were the biggest reasons the CT6 was in last place, and the CTS is worse than the CT6 in all of those categories.
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The Escalade isn't sold in China, the Mercedes GLS and Audi Q7 are. So in world's largest auto market the Escalade doesn't even compete. All the more reason Cadillac needs an XT7 and more crossovers. And an 8% tax difference to go from 3 liter to 4 liter is a lot on a $150,000 car which is about what the GLS sells for in China, that is $12,000 tax. To be clear, I think the Escalade should always have a V8 option, but they could easily make the base engine a 3.0TT V6. If we aren't concerned about 0-60 SUV times, a V6 Escalade that does 0-60 in 6.5 seconds will sell just as well as a V8 model doing 0-60 in 5.9 seconds. This is part of Cadillac's problem for the past 30 years though, they are stuck in the past, and don't adapt to the market changes fast enough. Always a step behind, always playing catch up.
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China (which happens to be the world's #1 auto market) taxes displacement every 0.5 liters, anything over 2 liters is taxed heavily, over 4 liters it is taxed a lot. An S400 V6 in China costs $181,366, but an S500 with a 3.996 liter V8 is $290,360. On the E-class going from the 2 liter four to the V6 adds $19,000. A GLS V6 Luxury trim to a V8 is $31,000 increase with all other equipment being the same. Crazy taxes! Eventually they'll make a Q9 3 row SUV and sell 37 of those. The X7 and Maybach GLS are going to bring the competition.
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German luxury sedans are the only ones that sell. The Escalade should impact CAFE, the F150 will. Large trucks have to be 23 mpg EPA sticker by 2025. But if they want to continue to offer 15/20 mpg with 420 hp while Mercedes I-6 offers 408 hp with way better mileage, they can go ahead. BMW X7 and Audi Q8 are on the way too, the Euros are going to attack that segment with lighter, better handling, better braking, faster, better equipped SUVs the the Escalade is. They can't live on name forever.
