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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I like it, looks like they tried to copy Maserati styling too much from the back, but over all looks good. Good power and rear drive is a plus. I wonder how big it is and what it will cost, that is sort of the key thing here.
  2. smk4565
    But rental companies are offering classes of vehicles, not specific cars. This is only V-series and Platinum cars which is like 4 cars. If they allot 300 cars for 200 members I am sure there will be no problem getting what you want, but that is a lot of cars to tie up to this program that they have to garage and maintain and insure. It is an out of the box idea, I think it is good to try something different, but I don't think it will work, mainly due to the price.
  3. smk4565
    I still think it is a lot of money to borrow or ride share or whatever you want to call it a car. It is $18,000 a year to drive a Cadillac and car insurance is like $1,000 a year, even if maintenance is $1,000 (unlikely on a brand new car) we are talking $16,000 for payments to a car you don't own. The other thing with this program, say 200 people sign up, are they going to have 200 CTS-V available, 200 Escalades available? I am guessing you aren't always going to have your choice of car, and will have to wait for the car you want.
  4. smk4565
    I think the program is a good idea at a lower price. I don't see them getting enough people to sign up for it to keep it viable. Maybe at $1,100 a month. The other thing is this lets them get cars off dealer lots and after a car is in service a year I wonder if they could still sell it as new since it would never have been sold or titled. for fun, an Escalade 4wd ESV Platinum is $98,790. A base S550 4matic is $99,600.
  5. smk4565
    Where it may make sense is for a celebrity or business person who is in NYC for a month or two for work and not staying and needs a car for a short period of time. An NYC resident can lease an Escalade and have $650 a month left over. Car insurance is less than $100 a month, and it doesn't cost $500 a month for maintenance.
  6. smk4565
    I can't see that working at that price. You can lease and Escalade for $850 a month, I don't get why you would pay $1,500 to drive one. You could get an S-class lease with insurance and prepaid maintenance for under $1,500 a month, and it's an S-class.
  7. smk4565
    Continental looks like a mid-size Kia. It is bland and forgettable. Buick and Cadillac are becoming SUV brands, but Cadillac doesn't have enough crossovers. The sedans at both brands are in the tank, I don't think Buick will ever get sedan sales back, LaCrosse is the only car they need for the "traditional" Buick buyer. The crossovers across the board are going gang busters, I feel like the government could put a 20% sales tax on all crossovers and sales wouldn't drop one bit.
  8. smk4565
    FCA is going in the sales tank, and the 200 and Dart are still on sale, and the 300/Charger aren't getting an update for 4 more years. I think the Caravan is still on sale too, and about to go away.
  9. smk4565
    The Best Ever, or Nothing yet again. Although Mercedes cars were down 1% for the year so the headline is a bit misleading, however they still won the luxury sales crown, Lexus was down, BMW down 9.5%. Would be nice to see E-class sales rise with the new coupe and E43 models. The GLE outsold the E-class in 2016, 20 years ago Mercedes didn't even have an SUV, that is a pretty big market shift.
  10. smk4565
    Would make sense if they are developing the engine for race use that a version is made for road use. Spread out the cost on it. Most 100 hp per liter naturally aspirated engines aren't high on torque, usually they are high revvers, I could see it revving to 7,000 rpm, unless the race series has a limit.
  11. smk4565
    No one will miss that. People want a 3-series to be sporty or they want an X3 to fit some "active lifestyle" that they don't have. They don't want whatever that wagon-hatch high rider is.
  12. smk4565
    To OldsHurst, I was talking more about these SL's No the SLR or SLS or anything like that. Not exactly the Nurburgring killers there, they are touring cars. Mercedes has won three F1 championships in a row, their racing legacy is in pretty good shape. They build the fastest race car in the world, nothing can beat a W07 Hybrid around a track.
  13. smk4565
    It ain't broke so they don't fix it. Although there is an all new G-wagen coming for 2018, I guess they figured 40 years was enough time. And I think they had to get weight out and downsize the engine since 12 mpg or whatever it gets doesn't really work anymore.
  14. smk4565
    The Corvette has been front engine, rear drive and 2 seats since 1953. It has had a pushrod V8 since 1955 (save for a couple years of ZR1 in the early 90s). They used a 5.7 liter V8 from 1972 to 2005. The Corvette is the poster child of sticking to the formula. And it is a formula that works.
  15. smk4565
    I was comparing VW to GM, as VW doesn't try to sell premium vehicles through VW brand anymore because they have luxury brands. GM has luxury brands, use them for premium products. As we talked about Corvette has a 60 year heritage as a front engine car. If you make it mid-engine it isn't a Corvette, just like if you make the Porsche 911 front engine, it isn't a 911 anymore. And I don't want Corvette to be a Cadillac, Corvette is a Chevy. I want Cadillac to build a performance car above Corvette and the Corvette to continue being a mostly $50-80k sports car save for the special versions that hit near $100k. And I agree that we don't know what they'll do with the new 6.2 DOHC V8, they might scale it out to GMC and Cadillac to cut costs, but I imagine that won't be a CAFE friendly engine, so I don't think it will be wide spread. I still favor a 4.0 turbo V8 based on the 2.0 turbo 4, because they could share probably 75% of the parts among both engines and they already have scale with the 2.0.
  16. smk4565
    The Mercedes SL has been around 60 years, not a track car, but a 2 seat sports car. Aston Martin DB series is over 50 years running, but the numbers change. I am a fan of long time running consistent naming, The Corvette has that reputation for sure which is a strong suit. I have always said that is a weakness of Cadillac because they rehash names all the time, they don't have a 50 year running model that is iconic. The Corvette Z07 is $98,000, the ZR1 was $130,000 and these are the cars that compete with the the $130,000 AMG GT, or the $160,000 R8 or 911 Turbos, but they don't really have a Mercedes or Audi level interior or dealership experience either. It isn't like the $58,000 base model Corvette is putting up performance numbers with the $150,000 sports cars. If you look back to a early 2000s Corvette with the 5.7 and 4-speed auto, it ran 0-60 in about 5 seconds. They could get sub 5 second 0-60 now with a 3.6 V6 and 8-speed given how little a V6 Vette would weigh and it would keep the "affordable" mission they often went for. To me the Z06 at $98k should be the ultimate, because you don't really want to sell cars over $100k at a Chevy dealer, selling stuff over $75k is already a stretch. Bringing it back to a 6.2 DOHC V8 mid engine car, now you are adding a more expensive engine to produce, plus you have to engineer it and aren't spreading development cost over 500,000 small block V8 tucks a year. Then to design and engineer and mid-engine chassis with no economies of scale it going to be expensive. They are going to end up with a $175,000 mid engine car that performs like a $200,000 Hurcan, but one will say Lamborghini on it, the other will say Chevy. Cadillac would be more profitable if they had halo cars and more image. That is why all the best products GM develops should be Cadillacs, anything expensive should be Cadillac. They should have the dealerships and sales and service infrastructure to handle selling $150,000 cars. This is why VW doesn't make a $100,000 car, they tried a $75,000 car that was an epic fail. But if VW wants to sell a super car, they have Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, Bentley, all to do that, and Bugatti.
  17. smk4565
    It probably will be quicker, but they haven't logged a test of it yet. But to be more fair, I found Red Bull Ring lap times all driven by The Stig, same driver for every car to be consistent. Lamborghini Hurcan: 1:45.4 Nissan GT-R: 1:45.5 Ferrari 458 Speciale: 1:46.0 (no longer in production) Mercedes AMG GT: 1:48.6 Corvette Z07: 1:49.1 Porsche Cayman GT4: 1:50.9 BMW i8: 1:57.7 The Z07 is fast, but it doesn't beat or dominate the $150k segment like some suggest and the Z07 is $100k itself. The Z07 puts up performance close to those cars so it is still punching above it's weight so to speak, but to go against the class above this list like the 488, F12, Aventator and McLarens, GM needs a car above Corvette. To be fair the Corvette does beat a Hurcan and GT-R by a couple tenths of a second on Willow Springs, a more favorable track for the Vette since it has less sharp corners. Interestingly enough the Cayman GT4 is cheaper than the Corvette Z07 so you can get performance per dollar value other places too. And these are really the $100-200k sort of benchmark cars. There is a whole $250-400k segment of cars, then a million dollar segment of cars above that. And a $ 2.5 million segment above that with the Chiron and soon to be Mercedes F1 car and Aston Martin - Red Bull 01. Where do they stop trying to push the Corvette? Why can't it just be a $49,000-98,000 car and do that well and sell well like it does. Make a Cadillac Cien that looks like a fighter jet if they want a super car.
  18. smk4565
    Some of the other cars on that Nurburgring list aren't 2016s either. The GT-R was 3 years ago, the Viper and LFA did those times in 2011. Unfortunately there isn't a race track out there that has the majority of cars tested on it to compare.
  19. smk4565
    I couldn't find a confirmed lap time of a 2016 Z06, the fastest Corvette lap posted is the ZR1 time. I don't know about this big jump in price. People thought the Cadillac CTS could move up in price, they rose the price $7,000 and sales tanked. The rose the price of the Camaro, sales dropped (but I think other factors are at play there, namely new Mustang and shirking coupe market). You can't push every product up market, you have to remember the market you serve.
  20. smk4565
    Should Chevy make a $150,000 Caprice sedan to compete with Bentley too? I don't get why Chevy is the brand to go into the exotic car price range, it just makes no sense. They can make a $150k Corvette all they want, it won't have a Mercedes interior, Mercedes has nothing to fear from Chevy. Mercedes even makes better commercial vans than Chevy. I still wonder how Cadillac is supposed to be "standard of the world" and compete with or beat the best in the world, but they can't even beat a Camaro or Corvette in performance, and their flagship is a fancy Tahoe. Maybe Cadillac can use this 6.2 V8 in an Omega platform SUV above Escalade.
  21. smk4565
    I think we should look at whether or not the Corvette really beats cars costing way more, That has long been said, but isn't really true. Here are some 0-60 times, we'll skip the hyper cars like the Porsche 918: Lamborghini Hurcan: 2.5 seconds Audi R8 V10 Plus: 2.6 seconds Lamborghini Aventator: 2.6 seconds Tesla Model S: 2.6 seconds Porsche 911 turbo 2.7 seconds McLaren 650S/675LT: 2.7 seconds Nissan GT-R: 2.7 seconds Acura NSX: 2.7 seconds Ferrari F12: 2.7 seconds Ferrari 488: 2.9 seconds Corvettte Z07: 3.0 seconds Mercedes-AMG GT S 3.0 seconds And the same cars in 1/4 mile times: McLaren 650S/675LT: 10.4 seconds Lamborghini Aventator: 10.4 seconds Porsche 911 turbo 10.5 seconds Lamborghini Hurcan: 10.6 seconds Audi R8 V10 Plus: 10.6 seconds Ferrari 488: 10.6 seconds Tesla Model S: 10.8 seconds Nissan GT-R: 10.8 seconds Acura NSX: 10.8 seconds Ferrari F12: 10.8 seconds Corvettte Z07: 10.9 seconds Mercedes-AMG GT S: 11.2 seconds Nurburgring lap times I skipped the track cars like Gumpert and Radical: Lamborghini Aventador: 6:59.7 Nissan GT-R Nismo: 7:08.7 Mercedes-AMG GT R 7:10.9 Dodge Viper ACR: 7:12.1 Lexus LFA: 7:14.6 Porsche 911 GT2 RS: 7:18 Corvette ZR1: 7:19.6 (with track tires) Corvette ZR1: 7:26.4 (with stock tires) Ferrari 488: 7:21 Lamborghini Hurcan 7:28 BMW M4 GTS 7:28 Audi R8 V10 Plus 7:32 The Corvette is definitely punching well above its price class, but it isn't beating the elites. And you can't push the Corvette into the elite performance territory without really jacking up the price, which would just make the Corvette a $175,000 car that is as fast as other $200,000 cars.
  22. smk4565
    The Corvette is a great performance car and offers tremendous performance per dollar, it always has, and it always should. But the Corvette should be a $50-95,000 car, sort of like Porsche Boxster/Cayman price, and I still think a lighter weight Corvette with a base V6 could be done at like $49k. People praise the CT6 with a 2 liter 4, why couldn't the Corvette have a downsized engine and less front end weight too? And it would keep it affordable, the hallmark of a Corvette. I 100% support GM making a mid-engine super car or a $200k sports car but it shouldn't be a Corvette, it should be a Cadillac. The Corvette is not a Ferrari, McLaren or Lamborghini fighter. Ford GT in the 2004-2006 version was comparable to the Italian exotics in price and performance, but that was 10 years ago, and the new GT is really just so they can race it, they are going to sell a road version. I give Ford credit for doing the GT, it is a good exotic car with a storied past. But Ford isn't consistent, they have 3 years of GT production since 1970 and after that the Mustang is their only sports car, and Lincoln never had a performance car or CTS-V like product. GM's 3.6 V6 isn't torque heavy, I don't see how an NA V8 will be any different. No way will they get over 600 lb-ft of torque at under 2,500 rpm from an NA V8. Can't be done without turbos.
  23. smk4565
    Bentley is the #1 most profitable car company in the world, Porsche is #2, Audi isn't far behind them. BMW-Rolls has a healthy margin, Lamborghini and Ferrari, also hugely profitable. They actually all make a lot of money, and they all survive in Europe that has tougher emissions and fuel economy requirements than we do. They will all push electrics and hybrids too, and at their price point can do it easily. I think it is going to be harder for mainstream cars to hit CAFE than exotics. You have Tesla selling electric cars with ease because it is toy for rich people. You don't see an electric car taking on the Camry for $29,000 because it can't be done without losing massive amounts of money.
  24. smk4565
    The LaFerrari has their standard V12 cranked up to rev higher with KERS added on. It has virtually nothing from F1 on their car other than the KERS system. An F1 car would destroy a LaFerrari, they have as much power and less than half the weight and more downforce and traction. Mercedes is taking the 1.6 liter bi-turbo V6, MGU-K and MGU-H energy recovery systems, batteries and electric motors, the whole deal off the F1 car putting it in a road car that is 1,000 lbs lighter than a LaFerrari. It will be bad ass for sure. And how much torque does this GM 6.2 liter V8 make if it is naturally aspirated? GM's other DOHC NA engines don't make a lot of torque and most make peak torque around 5,000 rpm or more. Given that GM has a 2 liter 4 and 3 liter V6 with turbos, I'd rather see them do a 4 liter turbo V8 and 6 liter turbo v12. They already have the blocks and parts basically there, they can share all those parts for economies of scale.
  25. smk4565
    Mercedes doesn't sell a car for the price of a Nissan Sentra. Audi has the R8, Porsche has 911, Pretty much every Aston, McLaren, Lamborghini and Ferrari are in that $150,000 or more sports car or super car territory. Bentley and Rolls have luxury sedans, coupes convertibles, now even SUVs. America isn't even trying. We think Corvette and Escalade are the end all be all, but they aren't even close to those other cars. Although at least GM sort of tries, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai are hopeless when it comes to performance and luxury.
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