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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    So they are fine for them picking the i3 because it has more room than a Volt but can't see why they'd pick an Explorer over an Escape?I'm just going to let you think about the fallacy of your argument before commenting further. One last thing. The fleet Explorers are nowhere close to $40K. They start at $31K. http://www.fleet.ford.com/edms/price-lists/?group=PriceList The Volt doesn't have much space at all. An Escape would have as much room in it as an i3, thus enough room for a police vehicle. I don't think they need more room than what an Escape offers. The Police interceptor Explorer might start at $31k but they are all tacking options on, the ecoboost motor alone is $3,100 if they add that. Maybe they are $35k average, but an Escape would be $10k less probably.
  2. smk4565
    The volt has the advantage of running on gas when the juice runs out though, unlike the electric only i3. And if they bought a Ford Focus hatchback Police package (if one existed) they could run it on gas, it would cost under $25,000 and have more cargo and passenger volume than a Volt. I think the LA PD wanted pure electric, the Volt is still a gas powered car. If we are going to call the i3 a waste of money, I am all for that. Look at most European police cars, they have Opel/Vauxhall Astra hatchbacks, Puegot Hatchback, Ford Mondoe (Fusion) sedans, and they function just fine. The only reason the police departments have Taurus, Explorer, V8 Chargers, and Caprice to a lesser degree, is the car makers only want to make police cars out of larger higher margin vehicles, and the police companies are using tax payer money so they don't care what it costs. Plus if you took away fleet sales, these large sedans like Taurus, Charger, etc would really be in the dump, because the retail market is drying up fast for large sedans.
  3. smk4565
    Tesla is going to be selling the 60 kWh Model S (which actually has a 75 kWh battery) for a starting price of $66,000 before any credits. That is a 200 mile range car. If they can get the batteries cheaper a Model S starting at $60k in 5 years time seems doable. Cars like the Leaf, and Mitsubishi miev-i whatever don't sell because they aren't any good. Stuff like a Soul EV or B-class, or Focus electric are too expensive compared to the gas counterpart. Once Tesla and others start building good EV's at reasonable prices, gasonline power is dead.
  4. smk4565
    I think a lot of police departments spend more than they need to on police cars. I see tons of Explorer police cars, those have to be $40k easily, when an Escape for $28k would do the same thing.
  5. smk4565
    I have driven the i3, they are torquey and have good jump off the line, for city driving they are plenty quick. Because of the squared shape and no ICE they have a lot of room in them too. Compared to a Volt the i3 has more electric range and more cargo space. The Bolt isntt on sale yet. A better comparison might be the Leaf or Kia Soul EV, since they are pure EV with a hatch back. Maybe after testing they determined the i3 the best electric car.
  6. smk4565
    They need a Z4 Gran Roadster, that could be like a 4 door roadster with a back seat. And for sure they need a i3 Gran Electric Crossover Coupe M Performance. I sort of wish Mercedes would phase out the CLS and call the 4-door coupe fad over, every other auto maker would drop this nonsense within 2 years. All of them want to look like a CLS, but none do, even the current CLS doesn't have the looks of the original.
  7. smk4565
    Sadly sedans will keep dropping in sales. Most buyers don't care about acceleration, handling, braking ability, the crossover can meet their daily needs and haul around the crap they don't need in the first place.
  8. smk4565
    The problem with the other two Gran Coupes is they look like sedans. At least make it look like a coupe. I think they should make a 3-series Gran Sedan, an X3 Gran Crossover, and X5 Gran Crossover, 7-series Grand sedan, maybe even a 6-series Gran Sedan that is s door car, shaped like a sedan.
  9. smk4565
    Wagons and hatchbacks are a useful body style, more cargo space, but the handling and performance of a car. In that regard they make a lot of sense, but consumers just don't seem to buy much of either body style. In theory, they are better than crossovers, an E-class wagon would get better gas mileage, handle better and be faster than a GLE suv, the E-class wagon probably has as much or more cargo and passenger space. Yet consumers want the crossover.
  10. smk4565
    I think the only way they could sell is if they were like a discount car brand. If they are priced the same as VW, it is pointless, no one is buying VWs. And since Hyundai and Kia want to move out of that discount area and have fancy trim levels, there is that open part of the market for a cheap car. I think they are better off just selling the Yeti as a VW, as a inexpensive crossover it would sell.
  11. smk4565
    Drew, you should get one. Smooth riding Air Matic suspension, plenty of room for hauling things. Unique too, the wagon is only a fraction of E-class sales.
  12. smk4565
    I actually like the back end styling, my guess is they wanted it to look a bit like their crossovers because crossovers are hot. The rear seat legroom looks huge, and this car does seat 7. I don't like the shiny black plastic stuff on the dash either, I don't like it in any car. It seems from the pictures that piece below the HVAC controls is the piano black regardless of what kind of wood trim or carbon fiber or aluminum trim you get. Minor annoyance on an otherwise fancy looking interior. This is one of the last of a dying breed, hard to find a luxury wagon or station wagon in general. The Subaru Outback, Audi Allrood and Volvo CrossCountry are all lifted wagons trying to be like a crossover. E-class wagon buyers have a really high income, I think even higher than S-class buyers, so that helps keep this car around. There is faithful group with a lot of money willing to pay for it.
  13. smk4565
    I think they are waiting on new Dodge and Chrysler product because they don't have the money to develop new ones. Furthermore, we know Sergio wants to sell the company or merge it with somebody. The past 3 years FCA spend around $3 billion on R&D according to their income statement, but the past 2 years they had net income of $410 million and $765 million. If they spend another $500 million a year on R&D they go from profitable to money loser, and Sergio has to show the company as making money. Also consider their revenues are around $115-120 billion a year, yet they have around $0.5 billion profit, they are operating at less than .5% margin. If we assume Jeep runs a typical 5% margin, every other vehicle they make loses money. They have to give huge discounts to move Chrysler and Dodge products, and they have since the 1990s, buyers now expect 20% of sticker when buying a Dodge/Chrysler. I think they will hold off until 2020, and if a buyer or merger can't be found by then, Dodge and Chrsyler will go away, the Pacifica will be due for a refresh and be the only semi-current product left, they can rebadge it to Fiat or Alfa or both. Then they will have a Fiat-Jeep-Alfa-Maserati set up, and Ram trucks as well.
  14. smk4565
    I would be curious to drive the CT6 to see what it is like. You can tell by all the fingerprints and smudges on the NAV screen, that touch screens in cars are a bad idea, thus why Mercedes doesn't use them. The CT6 to me seems like it will just take away sales from people that would have otherwise bought a V6 CTS or higher trim XTS. It is priced too close to those 2 cars. XT5 will sell because it is in the sweet spot of mid-size crossover at entry lux pricing. They do for sure need an XT3 and XT7 as well. I don't think M-B or BMW are scared buy either auto, Lincoln or Lexus might have more concern with the XT5. But a BMW X5 is about $15,000 more than an XT5, so they aren't even in the same segment.
  15. smk4565
    Auto makers have a huge amount of fixed costs. A big drop in volume can be very damaging, that is what hurt them all in 2008 and 2009. A company like GM probably needs to produce 6-7 million vehicles just to make payroll and keep the lights on. All that factory capacity costs a lot of money, when it isn't utilized, that is when a company loses money. Dropping 18% in on month no big deal, especially coming off a record sales year. But if they are down 18% all year, then maybe there is cause for alarm.
  16. smk4565
    FCA proving they don't need 3 mainstream car brands. Their car sales are all in the tank, and they don't even have any replacements lined up for most of their products they have on sale now. I do like the Jeep Renegade, Jeep is all this company has, the rest is bankruptcy in waiting if gas prices spike or the economy tanks.
  17. smk4565
    I bet they are 90% fleet sales.
  18. smk4565
    2015 had record sales, things are leveling off and may even drop some, but even if sales drop industry wide 10% this year, they are still more total sales out there than there were in 2010 or 2012. There were 17.5 million cars sold in 2015, go back to 2009 and that was like 9 or 10 million. Sales volumes as a total industry are pretty good, important to look at what segments are growing or shirking or what models are losing share.
  19. smk4565
    I am sure there is a way, but Mercedes is not making profit on EVs, Tesla has never turned a profit. I would guess Nissan isn't making profit on the Leaf, and GM isn't making money on the Volt. Eventually EV's will be profitable, probably none are right now
  20. smk4565
    i think they could charge for Supercharger use on every car, and probably eventually they will. Gas stations aren't giving away unlimited free gas, if it costs $5 at the Supercharger station to fill up no big deal. And you can charge at home.
  21. smk4565
    I am glad to see the 8-series return, I thought that was one of the best BMWs ever, I liked the 90s 8-series, I hope they make the new car similar to that. The 6-series should be a 5-series coupe/converable that is $55k, not whatever the hell it is now. A 6-series Gran Coupe (which s 5-series based) is more expensive than a 7-series. That makes no sense. If they think they can make a 6-series compete with a 911 they are delirious. The 6-series should compete with E-class coupe/convertible, and be like 190 inches long, so for those that think a 435i coupe is too small, they can get a 635i for $5,000-10,000 more.
  22. smk4565
    I think 3 sedans is enough for Cadillac, you can add a coupe or convertible body style to any of those 3 lines. Sedans are a striking segment, crossovers are the growth, so it would make sense to have 4-5 CUV/SUV and only 3 sedans.
  23. smk4565
    Dieter Zetsche has said electric cars are not profitable, they are losing money on their electric cars. I am sure they would rather sell a GLC that makes money rather than a B-class that doesn't. For whatever it is worth the B-class range is going to be increased to 200-250 miles in the next few years.
  24. smk4565
    ATS down 30.7%, CTS down 39.6%, XTS down 29.3% That is why I said Cadillac needs 3 more crossovers. CTS is on pace for 14,000 sales this year, that is worse than the STS did and they killed the STS. LaCrosse down 57.3%, Impala down 54.4%. Full size sedans are really hurting, that whole segment could disappear in about 5 years time. Chevy should make Impala their Camry fighter and Malibu should become a Civic/Corolla fighter, Cruze would replace both Spark and Sonic as a compact car. At least that way they get to preserve the Impala name plate.
  25. smk4565
    Agreed and the Camaro is really hard to see out of and rather cramped on the inside. The Mustang feels more usable and easier to see out of to me. Plus it is a coupe, coupes don't sell in volume, especially when the price keeps going up.
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