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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    But if GM is going to move toward EV cars, why make a Volt and Bolt? Why not just make a Pure EV Malibu, Pure EV Cruze and cancel the Volt and Bolt right now. Mercedes is doing nothing different than Nissan did with the Leaf, or Chevy did with Bolt. Mercedes is making a new model that is electric only. Probably by 2025 every Mercedes will be a plug-in hybrid, and then I'd guess there will be pure electric versions of E-class, S-class, etc as technology changes. I am thinking in 2050 Mercedes and most car companies might just have electric cars. But that is a long way from now, EVs are still a niche product.
  2. smk4565
    Mercedes used "Unlike Any Other" and "Engineered like no other car" for a lot of the 80s and 90s as their slogans. I did put my line up, I am not opposed to multiple body styles on one name, I think Eldorado is iconic for Cadillac as a 2-door, so I would make that a unique offering as their top end coupe in a mid-size vehicle. Cars: Calais: compact sedan/hatchback Lasalle: small sedan/coupe/convertible Seville: mid-size sedan Eldorado: mid-size coupe/convertible Fleetwood: full size sedan SUV/Crossover: Avignon: small crossover Alicante: mid-size crossover Imaj: large crossover Escalade: large SUV
  3. smk4565
    But the electric cars are also not E-class or S-class cars. These are brand new models, new chassis, new interior, etc. Mercedes has 3 plug in hybrids now with 7 more coming. The C300e and S550e are already on sale, they can't make a 2nd and totoly different car with that same name. This isn't Hyundai Genesis sedan and coupe with 2 products and 1 name. The EQS would have less in common with an S-class than a GLS does with an S-class.
  4. smk4565
    Perhaps they leave numbers off the electric car names. And just make EQE, EQS, etc and then just put a number on the trunk for battery pack size. Like Tesla puts 70, 85, 90 on the trunk, but they are all just called Model S. Or like how a lot of cars will have a 2.0t or 3.0t badge on the trunk, but the model name is the same, or an Accord might say EX or LX on the trunk.
  5. smk4565
    Cadillac loves French and Spanish names. Cars: Calais: compact sedan/hatchback Lasalle: small sedan/coupe/convertible Seville: mid-size sedan Eldorado: mid-size coupe/convertible Fleetwood: full size sedan I'd skip a full size coupe since that is such a tiny segment, and position Eldorado about $5-10k above the Seville. SUV/Crossover: Avignon: small crossover Alicante: mid-size crossover Imaj: large crossover Escalade: large SUV For a slogan I would go with "Since 1902" it is doesn't have clever marketing speak, but it reminds people they have been around a really long time. Problem with the slogan:
  6. smk4565
    None of those CUVs, that they get the bulk of their sales from these days, have the "heritage" you speak of yet I couldn't help but notice that you skipped over that part. I'm with Balth btw. The letter schemes being used by car companies these days is just too generic and lacks identity. My point to you is that if it is a knock on Cadillac, then it is also a knock on Mercedes. Mercedes first SUV was the G, all their SUVs now have G in the name. And hard for a GLK or GLC to have heritage when it came out in 2009. But they have kept the naming nomenclature similar , and it is consistent across the line.
  7. smk4565
    But they already have a C350e, GLE550e, and S550e on sale right now so they can't just add an e to the end of existing names. They have to do something new unless they go 1930s style and go with names like 540k or 770k and use a number for kilowatt power of the motor. But then how do you differentiate body styles with the same power. EQE or EQS at least lets them segment their electric cars to the existing line. I don't really like the Q. Might as well just do EV-E, EV-S, etc.
  8. smk4565
    Next BMW i8 is supposed to have 750 HP and be all electric with a 300 mile range. So I applaud them for that because the current 420 HP $150,000 plug in hybrid is a rip off. Still 5 years away though.
  9. smk4565
    Mercedes has used s-class, SL, E-class, G-wagen for 40-60 years depending on the model. It has been consistent. The 10th generation E-class just went on sale, that is consistency. Cadillac's oldest nameplate is 1999, their 2nd oldest is 2002 and they are about to kill it. They threw all there heritage names in the trash for alphabet soup. That is my criticism of Cadillac names. Cadillac's oldest nameplate is also the only one with a word name and it is their most successful. Yet they don't go back to Fleetwood or Eldorado, they want to sell a CT6 instead.
  10. smk4565
    First production automobile with gasoline engine, patent proves it: Karl Benz invited the car, Bertha Benz was the first person ever to drive a car a distance of 100 km. They invented the car, and cross country driving. Benz invented the first gas engine with horizontally opposed cylinders in 1897 and they rear mounted it. You're welcome Porsche.
  11. smk4565
    If the Regal and XTS are all they are making, that plant looks like it is closing. XTS doesn't have much time left, the next Regal could be built where any Epsilon car is made, and they don't make that many of them to begin with. Sadly I think most sedans from the Big 3 will get built in Mexico where the labor is cheaper, and the SUVs and trucks will get made here. Unless the UAW wants to accept starting wages at $18 an hour not $29 an hour these jobs will keep leaving. All these factories offer overtime, an entry level auto worker could still make $40k a year with benefits at $18-19 an hour. UAW wants $60-70k a year wages to build cars, no wonder the Big 3 are leaving. The unions aren't doing their members any favors, and the didn't do them any favors in the 90s or 2000s either. Notice the non-union auto factories in the South are not shutting down, most of them are expanding. And I am democrat.
  12. smk4565
    What excuse? They haven't even named the car yet. Where is Cadillac's electric car? Maybe in 3 years we'll get a Cadillac Bolt with 200 front drive horses. And GM fans will say it is better than a Tesla or the Audi E-Tron or the Mercedes electric cars that can do 0-60 in 3 seconds.
  13. smk4565
    Cadillac could do better than "SRX" when Lexus sells an RX, or better than XT5 when BMW sells an X5. At least the Equus isn't on sale anymore. It seems that Mercedes will have EQE and EQS sedans, and they did trademark EQG, so maybe an electric G-wagon one day, maybe they use EQM and EQX for crossovers since they used to have an M-class, seems like that letter would make sense. They have to call it something, and I'm sure they want to relate it to the current C-E-S line they have now. Mercedes-EQ S400 with 400 hp, Mercedes-EQ S500 with 500 hp could be a way to go, just make the number the electric power or do a 400, 500, 600 like Tesla does 70, 80, 90.. They'll figure it out. The important thing to remember is Mercedes invented the car, and will reinvent it.
  14. smk4565
    In reading some auto news from the UK, it seems that Mercedes had trademarked a range of names like "EQA" "EQB "EQX" and the belief is the Mercedes electric may be called Mercedes EQS( large sedan), Mercedes EQX (crossover). Seems like it will still be Mercedes-Benz then EQ and a letter that lines up similar to what they have now or Mercedes-EQ S, Mercedes-EQ X, etc.
  15. smk4565
    All I see are excuses why it's okay for Mercedes to borrow from a mainstream pick up maker and why it's not okay for GM to do it from within the company, even though the Escalade does not share one common exterior panel or interior piece with its GM cousins. I don't think it is a problem that the Escalade is built on a truck platform because Escalade buyers want a truck. And the Escalade is the best cash cow Cadillac has, and sells very well for its price point. I wouldn't mind them seeing an Omega based SUV that isn't 6,000 lbs and could go around corners and get more than 15 mpg. One of my biggest criticisms of Cadillac has been taking the SRX (now XT5) from a CTS based vehicle to basically a Chevy Equinox based vehicle. And today all they have is a front drive crossover, when Cadillac in 2013 was saying RWD is the future of the company and we are going to focus on class leading handling and weight savings, blah blah blah. We also don't know what the Mercedes pick up is yet, it is likely a work truck for Europe and developing countries, for that purpose a Nissan chassis, with 4 cylinder gas and diesel mercedes engines, 9-speed transmission, and 4matic system are probably more than sufficient to suit that market.
  16. smk4565
    Mercedes isn't building a luxury vehicle on a Nissan pickup. They might also use the Nissan chassis, but their own suspension, engine, transmission, body panels, interior, etc. Until we see it, it is hard to judge it. Mercedes wants a commercial vehicle pick up, they traded their A-class platform for Nissan's tuck platform to make it feasible. Commercial vehicles are part of their business in Europe. It might still be the best commercial pick up there is.
  17. smk4565
    Average car is around .30 today,the best ones are around .23 or .24. Some crossovers are in the .31 to .34 range.
  18. smk4565
    The G80 would make the most sense since it is already in production, and they just need to turbocharge the 5.0 V8. A turbo V6 for the G70 or whatever the Genesis Coupe becomes would make sense, the Genesis Coupe should get the 5.0 V8 because then they can sell it to Mustang fans that love 5.0 badging.
  19. smk4565
    AMG is more than just a trim level. TechnicallyAMG is their own company that is an wholely owned subsidiary of Daimler. AMG has 1,400 employees and a CEO and they do their own engineering work on the AMG models. Yes they AMG-ify every model Mercedes makes, but they do modifactions to the transmission, build their own V8 and V12 engines, there are modifcations to the body and underpinnings of the car and so on. The C63 AMG is actually 4 inches longer than a C300, because AMG put a longer hood on it to fit the V8. It isn't like they just drop a more powerful engine and fancy wheels and call it a day.
  20. smk4565
    Why doesn't Cadillac build the CT6 off the Escalade platform? They are about the same size. Oh right, different purpose for the vehicle and building a CT6 on a 5,900 lb truck chassis would make it slow and thirsty with bad handling, the opposite of what they are trying to achieve. Maybe the Cruze and Corvette shoudl share one platform since they are both Chevy's of similar size. Tesla doesn't build cars on a gas powered car platform. They have a flat floor, more leg room for passengers and the rear middle seat is actually usable and more front console space since you don't have to build around a tunnel. The Volt was always dogged for poor interior room and gen 1 was a 4 passenger car because of the tunnel of batteries running down the middle. Obviously Mercedes wishes to build the "Best" EV platform there is, so they want to start from scratch and not use the MRA platform or load 500 lbs of batteries under the hood of an S-class. They know what they are doing when it comes to building cars. The sub-brand is where I am not sold, because they can make an EV sedan faster than an E63, or faster than an AMG GT, so that should be an AMG model. Or how awesome would a 600 hp electric Maybach be that has no engine noise.
  21. smk4565
    The new Prius is god awful ugly. When you see it in person there are so many angles, and weird cut lines.
  22. smk4565
    Daimler has a partnership agreement with Renault-Nissan. The smallest Infiniti crossover is built on a GLA chassis with a GLA engine. There is some shared engineering on front drive product to save on costs. Nissan has also outsold the Colorado over the past 10-15 years or however you want to measure it, they aren't some loser when it comes to pickups, and we still don't know anything about the Mercedes pickup, or if it will even be sold in the USA. Saturn was not a sub-brand nor was Scion. Those are brands. Mercedes-AMG is a sub-brand. These 4 products could be called Mercedes-EV rather than Mercedes-Benz. But it will start with Mercedes and have a 3 point star. And making a pure EV E-class would be a dumb idea since you have huge hood space to accommodate a V and a center tunnel for drive shaft and exhaust, both of which an EV doesn't need, you don't need a huge firewall behind the engine block. An EV needs a place for batteries, and can have a flat floor, more space, more open dash board, etc. The B-class EV is an example of the wrong way to build an EV, but they made it for compliance purposes. Mercedes will have 10 plug-in hybrids, so if you want some electric drive capability on a C-class, GLE, E-class, etc, they are selling that option. If you want a Tesla style car, they will have that option too. Luckily Mercedes is not limited to $12 billion over 5 years for new product. And they won't build stupid stuff like a plug-in hybrid sports car that costs $150,000 that is slower than other $150,000 sports cars, or an ugly looking box on 3 inch wide tires.
  23. smk4565
    Should have a way better aero number than .32. The Bolt isn't really a great looking car, tall hatchbacks tend not to look that good, so it isn't like they had to sacrifice aero in terms of great looks. Part of keeping EV range up is also cutting down drag.
  24. smk4565
    And yet Cadillac's flagship product is built on a Chevy pick up chassis. Mercedes has their chassis right on. Fwd car, C/E-class share, S-class is a modified bigger version of that, GLE/GLS share a crossover chassis, SLC/SL share. All 4 electrics can share one platform. They are spending $8 billion in the next 2 years on plug in and electric cars, so yes it is expensive but they don't operate on a shoe string budget like some luxury car makers.
  25. smk4565
    They sell AMG on the same lot, this is no different. I don't think they will looks stupid like BMW's EVs. There are supposed to be 2 sedans, one could be $100-200k, I'd imagine the small one they would want to be closer to E-class money. And they have 2 crossovers coming. As long as it doesn't look like that F2015 concept car and looks like the Vision Gran Turismo thing they will be in good shape.
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