smk4565
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Everything posted by smk4565
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Agreed on the real names. And they would have to find one for MKC, Mariner maybe? Remember when the MKS came out and they staged a hill climb race pitting the MKS ecoboost against an Infiniti M, a Jaguar XF 4.2 liter, a 5-series and an E350. And the MKS of course was the fastest because it had a 50 hp and torque advantage over those cars, and it was basically all up hill where braking and handling were minimized. And they tried to claim how the MKS was better a better performance car than the Euro imports, and look how sad the MKS is now. I feel like we are going to get another half-baked effort on the Continental that they will try to say rivals a Lexus LS460, and 5 years from now Continental will be a joke like the MKS is today.
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Totals thru Nov 2015; 187446 cars, 147282 trucks/SUVs/CUVs. Yes, the Sprinter is included, it's a "mercedes" & reported on same chart, isn't it? 187446 out of 334728 is 56% cars. MB relies heavily on trucks in the U.S., and HEAVILY on fleets in Europe. It's how they pursue ever higher production goals, their #1 purpose. In 2015 YTD, 69.3% of GM sales are truck and crossover, and 30.7% sedan/coupe/convertible. Over at Ford in 2015, 68.8% of sales are trucks and utilities and 31.2% are cars. As I said, the American car companies want to sell trucks and don't care about selling cars. They haven't in years. That is why the CamCords win the family sedan sales crown and the imports win the luxury sales. That is why they make "stop gap" Continentals, because they just need a product to put in the show room, same reason we got the XTS. Notice they don't make a "stop gap" Explorer or Escape. If Ford was really committed to luxury sedans you'd see a better effort on the Continental and MKZ.
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Regarding your three paragraphs, wrong, wrong, and time will tell. Mercedes didn't sell 188,000 cars out of 308,000 total units? The YTD sales chart in the sales section says they did. CLA $32,050 GLA $32,500 C300 $38,950 GLC300 $38,950 E350 $53,100 GLE350 $51,100 CLS $66,900 GLE coupe $65,100 They can't price the sedan and crossover much closer together. In the case of the C-segment they are identical!
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Huh?? You think the Continental is "top end" as far as America goes? Seriously? No wonder I just can't take you seriously in regards to cars. It is the top Lincoln, thus the top Ford. I doubt it will be as good as a Cadillac, but "Continental" is the top luxury nameplate in Ford MoCo history. How many American cars are going to be priced above the Continental? CT6 and Corvette, and that is probably it. So the Continental is pretty much near the top for American cars. I don't think Lincoln is planning a sedan above Continental.
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60.6% of Mercedes sales in 2015 are cars, unless you count Sprinter, I only totaled the 188,000 cars out of 308,000 total passenger vehicle units. But Mercedes A/B segment car and crossover cost the same, C-segment car and crossover are the same price, their D/E-segment car and crossover are the same price, etc. Ford prices an Escape like a Fusion, an Edge like a Taurus, etc. Honda does the same, an HRV is priced like a Civic, CRV like an Accord, Pilot costs more than Accord. So of course they want to push the crossover there is more margin on it. Is there an American car that leads it's segment in sales? Other than Camaro/Mustang since there isn't really an import alternative, unless you count 370Z and Genesis Coupe. I guess a Charger or Impala would outsell the Avalon, which is the only non-luxury import close enough to full size. To me the Continental is just something to check a box. The product planners said Lincoln needs a full size sedan, so they stretched out a Fusion platform and put a turbo on a V6, and brought back the Continental name much like they brought back the Taurus name. This fills a slot in the show room and they probably don't care if it even sells, because they would rather sell a Lincoln Edge for $50k.
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And when the Americans put out a top end sedan like the Continental, it is a front driver on a Fusion platform. Not exactly world class engineering going on there. It isn't a serious effort. If Ford isn't going to take the luxury market seriously, why should buyers take Lincoln seriously?
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f@#kin a, man. f@#kin a. Seriously though, I don't know why it's so damn hard to get Americans to buy American cars now. It's been around a decade since they've been selling cars of similar quality to the Japanese automakers, but in our infinite wisdom and anti-bias, we will spend insane amounts of money propping up foreign car companies. You wont find that ANYWHERE else in the world, except maybe China but I don't know that for sure. A Toyota built in the US with domestic parts content STILL benefits Japan at least as much as it does our country. Because American car companies still priorities trucks and SUVs, and they don't push sedans as a better driving experience or a more luxurious driving experience. To use Ford as an example, the Escape outsells the Fusion. People would rather had a C-segment crossover than a D-segment sedan for the same price. And Ford can make better margins on a $29k Escape than they can on a $29k Fusion so of course they will push the Esacpe. Have to make the cars better if you want to pull people out of crossovers. If you want to look at Camry vs Fusion type comparisons, then the Americans still need higher quality and reliability. Camry has a loyal following, it still wins the consumer reports rigged tests and gets the accolades. You have to give people a reason to leave a proven commodity like the Camry. Not easy to do.
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The price spread doesn't bother me the LaCrosse starting at $31 with the Regal starting at $28k and the Impala at $28k does. An Impala LT is like a LaCrosse base model in price. I am saying start the LaCrosse at the same price point of an Impala LTZ to spread them out more. Price the LaCrosse $35-49k. Impala and Regal would be $28-37k. XTS dies after a couple more years and that takes away LaCrosse competition at the top end.
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But the new Lacrosse has a standard V6. Pay $20,000 more for a Cadillac CT6 and you get a 4-cylinder. This is why Cadillac sedans don't sell. BMW is making a 4-cylinder 7-series for China and the 2 liter displacement. I think they are nuts, that car should have a 3 liter six at the bottom. But I just fixed Buick's lineup in 5 minutes in my previous post.
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So why offer a rental grade trim to cheapen the name plate if the take rate on the top trim is so high? And what is the take rate on a Lexus ES or MKZ mid-level trim? LaCrosse should be $35k base, move it up market already. Put it where the Aurora and Park Avenue where, those started in the mid 30s fifteen years ago. At least then there would be a window at $28-35k for the Regal. Although I still like my plan to name the midsize Buick LaCrosse and the full size one Avenir or Invicta. Rename the Verano to Regal. Dump the Verano name plate. Buck has so many good name plates in their history and they come up with crap like Verano. If anything the Convertible should be called Verano for Summer.
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How long will it take? Cadillac has been in business since 1902. Even if you want to call a reset after bankruptcy in 2009, they have had 6-7 years now. You can develop products in that time frame. Cadillac also just released their full size sedan and priced it like an E-class. Where is this up market move? If Buick is waiting for the Cadillac up market move it isn't going to happen. Buick also has a small, medium and large sedan, at a $5,000 premium over the Chevy of similar size, so they pretty much have sedans covered. With Envision they will have compact, small, and large crossover, which pretty much covers that since I'd assume the Terrain will be the mid-size crossover at the dealership. Cascada gives Buick a unique, personal convertible type car, since there are very few convertibles on market, that is a good product to have. It brings a different buyer into the show room. I don't think Chevy can sustain Spark, Sonic, Cruze, Malibu, Impala car line up. 5 sedan/hatches is a lot, plus Camaro and Corvette and Volt. I would dump the cheapest one (Spark), and slide the others down a bit. People don't see the Regal as a luxury or sports car, it was a mid-size family car for a long time. If anything the 2016 LaCrosse should be called Avenir and priced at $35k base, then rename the Regal to Lacrosse and price it at $29k. You raise the price $2,000 on the same car, but the perception is they are getting a LaCrosse which is better than a Regal.
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The LaCrosse starts in the low 30s, the Cadillac ATS around $33-34k. So a Buick Regal is supposed to cost as much as a Cadillac ATS? If they want to charge $34k for a Regal, a LaCrosse or ATS should be $40k base, and at that price those cars wouldn't sell. The ATS hardly sells now, the 3-series, IS, A4, C-class, all outsell it. I think a Regal with a 250 hp turbo 4, all wheel drive, 8-speed, leather, power accessories, etc should be like $29k. You can get that stuff in a Fusion, Subaru, or a more powerful Accord or Camry V6 (minus awd) for that money. This is why the Regal doesn't sell well. There are 10 cars with just as good a powertrain and performance for under $30k. I think the LaCrosse should go up in price to $34,995 base model. I would actually make the Sonic smaller and kill the Spark off. Then I'd downsize and down price the Cruze and Malibu so that the Regal and Impala have a place in the market. They keep wanting to make the Cruze and Malibu bigger and more expensive, and all that does is squeeze the Regal and Impala out of the market. There are already rumors that this is the last generation of Impala. So they put the Sonic in the Cavalier/Cobalt slot, introduce Cruze, move the Malibu up-market and kill Impala. Then you are still left with a 4 car line up, but you killed the best name plate off. Makes no sense.
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They just lowered the price of the Regal to $27 or $28k a year ago because it didn't sell. So making a more expensive Regal is the answer? Plus the current Lacrosse starts at $31k even if they make it $35k base, $30k is the Regal's sweet spot. I think the Regal is just a dead product though, making it a wagon doesn't make it cooler or more desirable. It probably does the opposite.
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Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
But a Fiat 500x probably seems safer than a Fiat 500 or a Mazda 3 or Chevy Sonic. The 500x could be a death trap but I bet 90% of the buying public thinks it is safer than a Focus simply because it is is a crossover. -
Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
Although with a lot of these crossovers, I think perceived safety, size and engine power helps gets sales. If you buy an SRX or RX350 or Lincoln MKX you get a 300ish horsepower V6. Go buy $45k luxury sedan and you'll probably get a turbo 4 engine. Even the Lexus GS has a turbo 4 now. So buyers will think more size + more power = better. -
Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
PT Cruiser was sort of low, but the Soul, HHR and Scion you don't really sit down into, you climb up or at least move across to get in them if that makes any sense. The seating position on those is higher than in a car. But there is a lot of gray area with those sort of vehicles. -
Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
Look at Cadillac, there are months when the SRX outsells the ATS, XTS, and CTS combined, and the SRX is their oldest model. Sadly the people want boxes on wheels rather than rear drive sport sedans. Give me a rear drive car any day of the week and twice on Sunday, but the buying public thinks otherwise. Lexus is similar, the RX is their #1 product, the GS is a sales dud, the ES sells because Camry buyers had to go somewhere when they turned 70. -
I still think a Regal wagon is a waste of money, when the sedan has poor sales results. GM is better off putting that money into a Cadillac crossover. Trying to make the Regal a $35k Subaru Outback isn't going to work. I could see them making the Regal and standard to differentiate it from Malibu and give a more premium feel and position in the market.
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A wagon won't sell. Just make more crossovers for the sheeple.
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Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
I count SUV/CUV as the same thing, pretty much anything tall with a 2 box design I lump in together. With big volume coming from that segment, van and pickups, they'll have to push mileage up on them. CAFE might be a reason to look at an Omega Escalade, but it still has to be big, clingy and have a V8, as that is what makes it popular. -
1976 W123: 186.0 inches long (190.9 with US market bumpers) 1985 W124: 187.2 inches long 1996 W210: 189.7 inches long 2007 W211: 190.0 inches long 2015 W212: 192.1 inches long That isn't that much growth, if you use the US version it grew 1.2 inches in 40 years. Look at how much most cars grow, like an 80s Accord to what it is now.
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Can you give me the next powerball numbers too? The EClass is not some great handler...its big and heavy and soft... Which is absolutely fine for the demographic who buys it. Car and Driver drove the prototype and said it was nimble, although still had the ride quality you'd expect. The E-class is the bread and butter of the Mercedes line-up, I am excited to see the final version because they put a lot into this car. Tobias Moers said the 2017 E63 has the biggest driving dynamics leap from one generation to the next of any product they have ever done.
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Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
Crossovers are NOT outselling sedans. Market penetration by vehicle type for 2014 : SUV and CUV : 36.5% sedan : 35.4% coupe : 3.4 hatchback : 5.5% wagon : 1.2% convertible : 1% SMK's analysis : "No one wants sedans anymore". Another hole in one, Arnold!! As usual, media has overhyped the numbers in desperation to sound 'hip' with the 'new trends'. Further, cars (IE sedans, coupes, convs, hatches & wagons) are 46.5%. CUVs are probably around 25%. - - - - - Rounding out the breakdown, pickups are 13.1% of the market. But roll that forward to 2020. Sedans, coupes and convertibles are on the decline. Personally I don't like SUVs or CUVs, I wish cars sold better. But Toyota thinks the Rav4 may overtake the Camry in sales in the net 5-10 years, The Escape outsells the Fusion, the Honda Fit is basically dead because the HR-V replaced it. Cadillac plans on offer 3 more crossovers, Buick and Chevy want more, etc, etc. There are rumors that the Taurus and Impala will both die after this generation since the Fusion and Malibu have grown in size and large sedan sales are declining. Car markers are adding CUVs and removing cars from their line ups. -
Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
I criticize base 4 cylinder and no V8 in the CT6. A big Cadillac should be a special car, really a mid-range Cadillac should be a special car. The Lacrosse has a V6, you could put a turbo 4 in there, base V6 in the CT6, and the LaCrosse has higher sales volume, thus bigger CAFE impact. You could put a 2.0T in a Traverse, and V6 in the Acadia and Enclave to make them premium over the Chevy. Etc, etc. My main problem with GM is they are putting V6s standard in Chevys and Buicks, then turbo 4's in Cadillacs. That doesn't make sense. I think you could even make a V6 standard in an Omega platform Escalade, but I think you have to offer a V8 option still. Corvette and big Cadillacs will still have to offer a V8, even in 2025. Probably any car above $30-40k will have some electrification help to it. But on an $80,000 Cadillac you can do a V8 with some batteries or capacitors and an electric motor, and you don't need a 6 liter V8, maybe it is 3.5 liter V8 in the future. We have 1.5 liter 4-cylinders, why not a 3.0 liter V8. -
There are a lot of other better options out there for that money. Even if the NSX is fast and handles well, it doesn't look that cool. An Aston Martin might be slower, but it will sound a hell of a lot better with the throaty V8 or V12 exhaust, and you'll look like James Bond in it. $150,000-200,000 for a V6 and the honda/acura corporate face is just a big ask.
