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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. smk4565
    I bet they are 90% fleet sales.
  10. 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.
  11. 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
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. smk4565
    That B-class EV probably loses money, so they probably prefer that it doesn't sell. A new E-class could sell 5-6,000 a month that reverses that, and the C-class coupe is hitting dealers, maybe that helps there. I do think they need to sell an S450 with a $87,000 price to steal some of the sales off the 7-series and A8. It is tough to sell sedans anymore though, people want crossovers.
  19. smk4565
    They only sell the B-class in California because state law says they have to sell an electric car. They need to new E-class to turn around sedan sales. Good thing they have 5 crossovers/SUVs to capitalize on consumer preferences.
  20. smk4565
    The CTS once started at $29,900. CLA with destination is now $33k, what it was in the past doesn't really matter today. And yes they do want to play in the low end of the luxury market because they want to win in every segment. Just like they won the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, and the AMG GT3 had a historic victory 1-2-3-4 finish at the 24 hours of the Nurburgring over the weekend, leaving BMW, Audi, Bentley and Porsche in the dust. We are not talking about a 13 year old CTS. We are talking about a $29K Mercedes sold two years ago that is the EXACT same car as the one they are asking more money for now so don't try to come off like they are not trying to compete with Buick and Lincoln with cars like that and then backpedal and say $h! like you just said in your last post.So at least you have finally confirmed what you have long denied. The CLA is a Buick/Lincoln competitor so you said they are trying to compete in the lower end market now. Except Lincoln's smallest sedan is larger than an E-class, and Buick's CLA sized sedan was $21,000, and is now dead. I would doubt the CLA and LaCrosse are cross shopped at all, so I don't think the CLA competes with Lincoln or Buick. CLA is here to compete with Golf GTI's, A3's. 1/2-series, Volvo V40, maybe S60, Acura TLX maybe. There you go, cherry picking as usual. The Verano is not "CLA sized". That would be the $27K Regal you would be thinking of, the same one that beat that CLA. Funny how you keep forgetting that. Again, according to a few publications, the CLA most certainly does compete with the Buick. It just doesn't beat it in a comparo. You know that already but are too damn fanboy blind and stubborn to acknowledge that simple little fact. Go look up the length, width, height and weight of a CLA and compare that to a Verano. Regal still isn't selling even though it finished ahead of a CLA in one comparison.
  21. smk4565
    The E63 S does 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, an 11.6 second 1/4 mile at 121.8 mph. Stops form 60 mph in 106 feet, which is 6 better than a CTS-V. CTS-V does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and 11.6 seconds 1/4 mile at 126 mph, so it would pull ahead after the 1/4 mile with the higher speed. A Tesla Model S can do 0-60 in 2.8 seconds and a 11.2 second 1/4 mile. The current E-class is in its 7th model year too, so I am curious to see what they do with the new one. I don't think it will be faster, but it should handle better as the current car is overly heavy. Hard to find a place where you can drive above 150 mph. I'd rather have a car that is quick at speeds under 75 mph that is more usable, top end speed you can't even use on a race track, unless there is like a 2 mile straight away.
  22. smk4565
    186 mph on an E63 S. The AMG GT is faster than an E63, and they have a 570 hp R version coming that would be faster still. I am still hoping Mercedes makes a sports car above the GT that is a rival to Lamborghini and Ferrari. Tobias Moers seems to want one, and it would be a mid-engine V6 hybrid like the Formula 1 car. The McLaren Mercedes SLR could do like 212 mph and that car came out 10 years ago. They need something today that hits that level, I think 193 is their fastest today.
  23. smk4565
    The CTS-V never caught the Model S in the 3 way race, the runway wasn't long enough. I did find videos of the Model S blowing away the E63 and Nissan GT-R as well. This is why Mercedes knows they need an electric car, the E63 was beat and how much faster can they make it with a V8? They know part of the AMG equation after 2020 is electric power, whether is is pure EV or a hybrid. I don't think the P90D will get cut in half any time soon, but in 10 years maybe a Model S P85 that can do 0-60 in 3.5 is $60k. Maybe not, but batteries will get cheaper, gasoline engines are getting more expensive.
  24. smk4565
    What is wrong with being the American Buick? Why do they have to be Audi? Oldsmobile was American, didn't try to copy imports, they had the contemporary stealth bomber theme styling, but they gave you a little more performance than a Chevy, a little better ride and handling. That was a good formula, even though that brand is dead. People buy crossovers in droves for roominess, they like comfort, a smooth ride, some interior space, they like the safety of all wheel drive (or perceived safety).
  25. smk4565
    Tesla is flat out awesome. They are my 2nd favorite car brand. The current E63 is actually quicker than the 640 hp CTS-V. I am looking forward to the new E63 to see what they can get it to do. Motor Trend picked the E63 over the M5, but M5 is also fat.
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