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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    If other Cadillacs had word names and some bolder styling, then the Escalade wouldn't seem so much like the outsider of the brand. And Johan can't be against using a Chevy chassis, because the XT5, XTS, ELR, and whatever they build XT3 or XT4 on are Chevy/Buick platforms. There is platform share everywhere else, what is the difference if Escalade does it too. In regards to the dealer that said the import buyers aren't afraid to buy an Escalade, that is for 2 reasons. One is does have name recognition, people know they are expensive and you must have some money if you drive one. Secondly, there is only 1 other competitive full size SUV and that is the Mercedes GL. The Infiniti QX and Lexus LX are extremely dated, and they were build off inferior Nissan and Toyota pick up truck chassis to begin with. The Navigator is tired and dated now, they haven't kept it fresh in the past 5-10 years. BMW, Audi, Acura don't make an SUV of that size, and the Range Rover is a mid-size. I think you leave the Escalade alone for now, should buyers demand better fuel economy from it, that is when you put a plug-in hybrid powertrain or something in there. If CAFE and regulations become a concern, or buyers quit buying monster SUVs, then you move the Escalade to Omega as a last resort, and that might be beyond 2025 if things really change. Cadillac has a lot of other problems to worry about before worrying about the Escalade.
  2. smk4565
    I think there should be a Malibu hybrid, as others in the segment have it, and the Mazda 6 does not but it has the i-e-loop thing with capacitors that acts as a mild hybrid system. That actually makes the most sense for fuel economy gain in a cheap fashion without adding much weight either. Ford, Toyota, Hyundai have hybrids, so Chevy needs one too. I just don't think it is anything to be excited about. Let's see 30 mpg city on the Silverado, that is something to get excited about since it is their number 1 selling vehicle and it would actually help the push to meet CAFE and trump the F150.
  3. smk4565
    Why not make some crossover hybrids since they get worse fuel economy to start, they could use the bump, and it would give a bigger advantage. If the Equinox got 36 mpg city vs 23 for the other guys that is a huge advantage. The other guys have hybrid sedans already, and they don't sell. 5-10% take rate on the Malibu hybrid, that doesn't really move the needle too much. And probably half that 5-10% would have bought a Malibu anyway. I think all wheel drive would bring in more buyers than a hybrid would.
  4. smk4565
    With a couple options the Malibu hybrid is going to be over $30k. I think size creep hurts a lot of these sedans. The Cruze is now like 185 inches long, Malibu like 193, they keep getting bigger and the price keeps going up. The Cruze is now sized and priced like a Malibu was 10-15 years ago. I don't get why car makers always try to push cars up market. Cadillac did it with the CTS, the establish "CTS" as entry level, then all of a sudden they want it to be mid-level. Buyers don't want to pay mid-level price for and entry level name plate. Chevy should dump the "Spark" name, rename it Sonic, the gamma platform car becomes the Cruze, Delta platform becomes Malibu, and Epsilon car becomes Impala. That way you are charging like $15-22k for a Cruze, $19-27k for a Malibu, $26-33k for an Impala. Those are good values for the name plate. The size creep that happens will make the next gen Epsion car like 195 inches long anyway. You don't need a 200 inch long Impala at that point and you have the Lacrosse for a full size car.
  5. smk4565
    The Camry Hybrid runs a 10-12% take rate, and Toyota is the #1 hybrid brand. Given that number, I would be surprised if the Malibu Hybrid has more than 10% take rate. The majority of buyers are still not willing to pay a premium for hybrid or electric technology since gas is so cheap and most mid size sedans are in the 30s in mpg anyway. What makes Tesla different is it is a performance car. You can buy a Tesla SUV (after sitting on the waiting list) that can accelerate as fast as a Corvette Z06. Think about that for minute. Tesla works because not only do you never have to go to a gas station, you have Ferrari level acceleration as well. And for all the concerns of it takes 1 hour to recharge if on a trip, a lot of people don't take long car trips. Plus think of how much time is spend by people in gas stations (and driving to them) even at 10 minutes a week, that is 520 minutes a year, nearly 10 hours of time standing in a gas station, vs plugging your car in to the garage outlet. A Tesla provides convenience of never having to go to a gas station.
  6. smk4565
    I bet the Hybrid has less than a 10% take rate and probably more like 6% take rate. So not a lot of sales, not going g to get people excited about a Malibu or bring them in the showroom. If fuel economy was the #1 concern of most buyers the top selling vehicles would not be pick ups and SUVs.
  7. smk4565
    This new Malibu looks sort of ugly I think. $28k for a hybrid seems reasonable, but gas is also dirt cheap right now so why bother buying it. Might as well just get the regular gas engine. Should offer all wheel drive, more people want that over hybrid tech.
  8. smk4565
    Well we don't know how a G90 drives because no one has driven it yet. All we can do now is judge by photos and the spec sheet. The question is how will Hyundai make in roads to the luxury market and will they be abel to sell more G90 and G70 than they sold Equus and Genesis. When Lexus started they had industry best reliability and quality, their V8 had more power than most, they had a well executed car, and it was much cheaper than a Mercedes. That got them noticed and let them get traction. This at a time in the early 90s when Acura, Infiniti and Audi were low volume and Lincoln and Cadillac were resting on laurels and not building the best product in the world. It was easy for Lexus to move in an capitalize. I don't think Genesis has a better car than Lexus or the Germans, so what's the hook they use to overtake those brands?
  9. smk4565
    I think Hyundai will get there in time, but this car still looks like they took styling cues from other luxury cars (and the current Genesis) and didn't come up with anything unique. Genesis brand needs to come up with some bolder styling or something that makes them stand out. And I am not saying go for Pontiac Aztek level shock value, they need to have an elegant luxury look, but they can't disappear into the market. Step two on the path to ascension is 100% all turbo line up. That 3.8 liter V6 can be found in Hyundai's and Kias, if they make the 3.3 turbo v6 the base engine for Genesis brand, it creates some separation from the Hyundai cars. And turbocharge the V8, there are turbo V6s of 400 horsepower now, a 420 hp V8 isn't all that special, especially not for a top engine, even if the turbo V8 was 460 hp, they'd have a better torque curve.
  10. smk4565
    They don't need a letter name and a word name. I think it was fine with Boxster and Cayman. Unless they wanted to go back to all numbers for cars, like the old 944, 928, 911 days, and you'd have 718 and 911. But a numeric and a word is a lot for a name. I think they should bring back the 959 and build cool cars again, not 4-cylinder boxsters an a bunch of SUVs and that fat whale of full size hatch back they make.
  11. smk4565
    I bet his other car is an Equinox LT with a Corvette LT1 engine.
  12. smk4565
    Sort of a boring car, the interior looks pretty nice though. The 3.8 V6 is underwhelming, but we may not get that engine here. Turbo V6 and V8 are good engine choices, but that V8 could use a power bump, especially for a heavy car. Overall I think it is nice, but not exciting, and why buy this over a more established luxury brand. Not enough wow factor to steal sales.
  13. smk4565
    Interesting as you have totally also described MB and BMW with all their crazy cross over of models and packages. So based on this, Cadillac has nailed the German Driving Machine of Luxury. BMW and Mercedes don't put 3 sedans in the same segment. There is overlap with the 6-series gran coupe and 7-series, but the closest Mercedes comes is E-class and CLS, but one is a sedan, one is coupe-look, and the CLS was V8 only until a couple years ago. BMW has too many 4-door coupe and SUV coupes that aren't really any different than the main product, but that is like having an ATS sedan, coupe, wagon, convertible. It is multiple body styles of one product which makes sense. The German way is take one platform and build several models on it. Cadillac has Alpha, Epsilon, and Omega sedans all in the $50-60k segment and 1 crossover on a different chassis. They are sedan heavy in a crossover market, and they don't have convertibles, or sports cars or the low volume halo models that most luxury brands have. Hard to build an imagine without the hottest body style or an attention grabber product. If not for the Escalade Cadillac would be dead right now, and luckily for them gas prices are the lowest since 2007 right now, so they can still sell those.
  14. smk4565
    But the XTS is still here like 3 more model years. So there is still an overlap problem for a while, and the XTS has a base V6, the other 2 do not. It is just weird how they planned their sedans. But at any rate, a challenge for Cadillac (and other luxury makers) is to get people to buy sedans. Cadillac makes a good handling, fun to drive sedan, yet no one buys it. And GM, Ford Toyota, etc are selling $40-50,000 crossovers and SUVs. The average new car price is like $34k. So people are out there spending money on vehicles, Cadillac has to convince more people to look at and ATS, or CTS. I don't think it is as simple as try to steal sales from the German sedan buyers, I think they have to get people to think why pay $45k on some Ford or Chevy crossover when they can get a Cadillac instead. Some how they need to make sedans cool again, because the crossover is killing the sedan.
  15. smk4565
    The CTS pricing is bizarre, and combine that with the overlap of CT6 plus overlap with XTS. XTS and CT6 have a lot of price overlap too. So Cadillac has 3 sedans all overlapping in some regard, in a crossover heavy market. Product planning is not a quick fix, they can't pull 2 more crossovers out of thin air for 2017 model year. However they can sort out options, trim packages and pricing on their sedans. I think if they want to be a performance brand they could make the 3.6 V6 base on the CTS and CT6, at least then a $47 CTS has a 335 hp V6 base so there is some performance value there. Make the turbo V6s mid-level, and you can change the content on trim levels to separate the cars more.
  16. smk4565
    Would make more sense if Equinox and Envision were small segment and Terrain was mid-size along with mid-size XT5. The Equinox is like a foot longer than an Ford Escape, and the small SUV segment is really hot and were a lot of female buyers are going. The Equinox and Envision should be the footprint of a Cruze, but at Malibu and Regal money. Then Terrain and a possible Blazer would be mid-size vs the Highlander, Edge, Sante Fe type crossovers, and Lambdas as full size. And if there was no Blazer at least the Terrain would be sized differently than the Equinox and Envision so there would be less overlap.
  17. smk4565
  18. smk4565
    I don't think the GX is too expensive, I just think it sucks. It is body on frame, has a 4.6 liter V8 making a whopping 301 hp, and gets 15/20 mpg. I didn't even realize how bad it was until I looked up some of the specs on it. 5,128 lbs, and it is only 192 inches long which is about the size of a GLE. The 3rd row looks like 2 fold away chairs you'd have kids sit in on the beach. And can I say again a 4.6 liter V8 making 301 horsepower!!! That is 1998 level stuff. I am not saying there is anything wrong with buying American. But from the Toyota/Lexus point of view, if you have a customer that wants something bigger (or more expensive or more luxurious) than the RX350, Lexus doesn't have it. The GX and LX are dinosaurs, the LS sedan is a dinosaur. Obviously a lot of RX buyers buy another RX, but the ones that don't are going to leave the Lexus brand most likely. Poor strategy on Lexus's part.
  19. smk4565
    Pontiac Aztek.
  20. smk4565
    Mercedes makes no bland crossovers. Ford and Honda do that.
  21. smk4565
    Probably a preview of the Cadillac XT3 once they can get a North American factory to start making these. They can swap out some sheet metal and the grille, throw in CUE. Then GM can get 4 crossovers on this platform.
  22. smk4565
    Maybe the i5 should be a bland looking crossover. They will sell 100,000 per year.
  23. smk4565
    2008 Mercedes E550, the dealer changes the oil with Mobil 1 0W-40. My car has a 13,000 mile oil change interval or once per year, I drive about 8,000 miles a year and change it once per year. I let them do it because the car take 9.5 quarts of oil. By the time I buy and 10 quarts of oil and filter I'd be in it for $100. They charge like $130 to change the oil.
  24. smk4565
    Well based on photos, I like the design and layout of the S90 interior more than what is in a lot of other luxury cars.
  25. smk4565
    Pricing will be interesting. If this thing is high 40s base and like $65k for the hybrid, do people really want to pay $65k for a Volvo sedan?
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