Jump to content
News
Reviews
Discussons
Activity
Create New...
Close

smk4565

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13,686

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    11

 Content Type 

Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    Lexus spent $1 billion in 1980s money to develop the LS, and they sold it at half the price of an S-class. It wasn't as good as an S-class, but it was close and far better than what Cadillac or Lincoln had in 1991. I am sure Lexus was losing money on every LS sold but they built the brand on it and look how by 2000 they had dethroned Cadillac and Lincoln. Lincoln is in bad shape, even if they lose $10,000 on every Continental and sell 40,000 a year it is $400,000,000 loss. That could be the cost of jump starting the Lincoln brand and making it relevant again. $100 million per quarter won't sink Ford, and they will spend billions in product development and advertising anyway. Cadillac isn't knocking on death's door. Cadillac also has far superior product to Lincoln. So Cadillac can undercut Lexus and the Germans slightly in price and try to compete that way to make up for image.
  2. smk4565
    Breitling needs to hire another clock maker. 4 people a year that buy that clock will want one in their Mulsanne as well. Mercedes needs a Maybach GLS with a V12 asap so we can have a comparison test.
  3. smk4565
    For a company in bankruptcy, or coming out of it, wouldn't you want to get the highest profit margin vehicles to market first? Yet look at the products they did in 2011-2013, like Regal, Volt, Impala, Malibu, Cruze, Verano. Those should have taken a back seat to pumping products into Cadillac. Let's use VW as an example. If they filed Bankruptcy in 2009, they could have put a 5 year freeze on VW product launches had Jetta and Passat sales drop to zero and it wouldn't matter because the luxury brands would make the money and save the company.
  4. smk4565
    BMW, Audi and Cadillac are all around $52k ATP. That isn't Cadillac's problem. The problem is having one crossover and crossovers didn't becomenhot last year. GM more than anyone relies on trucks and SUVs, you'd think they would have had more Cadillac product in the works. This sort of ties in with lacknof coupes for a while, XLR being the only convertible in the past 20 years, etc. Cadillac doesn't have the product they need. And that is mind boggling. VW makes 80% of its profit on luxury brands that are less than 20% of their total volume.
  5. smk4565
    If I were Lincoln I would make sure the Continaltal was nicer (more luxurious) than a Navigator (nicer than an Escalde even) and price it around $45,000. I would want to sell the crap out of it because people buy what other people buy. The Lexus RX sells because it is popular. Suzy Mcmansion bought one, therefore Suzy SoccerMom must buy one. If they can make the Continental a hot car they can revive the brand. I would make customers realize for the price of an RX350 you can get a flagship sedan and make it too good an offer to pass up. And I would be happy to lose money on every car sold to rebuild the brand.
  6. smk4565
    I agree with Drew. The Town Car was well past its prime, but they should have had the Continental ready to go 5 years ago when the cancelled the Town Car. You can get a 400 HP all wheel drive car from Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, BMW, Infiniti, Cadillac, etc. Basically Acura and Lincoln are just 5-10 years late. Hybrids and diesels have been around too. Lincoln isn't doing anything the other guys didn't do 5-10 years ago.
  7. smk4565
    What if you could have the highest ATP, highest sales volume and highest total profit. You' cover all 3 points and be a star for sure.
  8. smk4565
    The biggest fuel savings in fact comes from the internal combustion engine. 10-15 years ago the average sedan had a 3+ liter V6, now most are coming with 1.6 liter turbo 4's making the same horsepower, but getting 10 mpg more. Ford is making 2.7 liter V6 F150's and it sells better than ever with better fuel economy than ever. As more small displacement turbos and 8-10 speed transmissions get in cars, that will push fuel economy up without adding all that much cost to a car. Batteries will make cars cost more, until that price drops, plug-ins and electrics will be slow sellers. This is also why a gas guzzler tax makes more sense than CAFE. If there as a $3,000 gas guzzler tax on every pickup getting below 22 mpg city/highway combined, don't you think the big 3 would put a hybrid system on all of them to beat that $3,000 tax? I think gas guzzler tax should be universal, if a Bentley has a $3,000 gas guzzler tax, same should apply to a Toyota Tundra V8 getting the same mileage. Make the gas guzzler tax the same on all vehicles, and you'll see massive fuel economy gains. And competition will keep price down, all these car makers compete on price.
  9. smk4565
    How do we know Cadillac profits are up? Do we think the CTS is making more gross profit on 1,400 sales a month than it was on 3,800? They have been putting $6-7,000 incentives on the SRX this year, that is why the sales numbers have been good in addition to it being their only crossover in the show room. GM doesn't break the brand profit numbers out, so we don't really know if Cadillac is making money or losing it. GM's entire company turns less profit than BMW or Mercedes, if Cadillac is a profit machine on the level of the Germans, are we to believe that Chevy and Buick are losing money?
  10. smk4565
    Cadillac should use Alpha and Omega for crossovers, but they probably will go the cheaper route and just build them off the Chevy and Buicks. So we get that Chevy is the main stream. But then Buick and GMC are both supposed to be premium or entry lux crossovers, and Cadillac a luxury version? How do those not all over lap if they all have the same chassis and engines. And where are the V-series crossovers? Cadillac has aspirations of having higher performance than the Germans, yet they have 2 performance products (ATS and CTS). Shouldn't there be a 575 hp XT5 to compete with the GLE63 and X5M? A 465 hp XT3-V to compete with the coming GLC63, An Escalade-V? etc.
  11. smk4565
    I am not saying badge job a Mustang. The Mustang is bigger than a 3-series though. Mustang has a 107 inch wheelbase, are Ford engineers not smart enough to put a 3-4 inch stretch on that wheel base to make it 110 inch and make a small rear drive sedan that is a 185 inches long? Engines are no problem you have the 2.3 turbo 4 that Lincoln already uses, you could use the 2.7 turbo V6. Lincoln's problem is everything they make is a Ford chassis and they even share some body panels and hard points on the interior. How about Lincoln create a car from scratch?
  12. smk4565
    The door slabs seem really high, there is hardly any glass to the side windows. Although that is plaguing many cars now. I can't wait to see what the 2018 Audis look like, so I know what Lincoln's new design language will be for 2020.
  13. smk4565
    You could argue that the last good Lincoln was made in 1963. I'd listen to that argument that the Continental Mark V was a good looking car. Jock Ewing had one after all. Since 1980 Lincoln has pretty much been making lackluster product.
  14. smk4565
    XT1 on Gamma, XT3 on Delta and XT7 on the next gen Lambda platform. Clone all those Chevy and Buick crossovers into Cadillacs so they can be like Lincoln. Sounds like a viable plan.
  15. smk4565
    Agreed on 2 new products by 2020. Some luxury makers put out 2-3 new products per year. I bet one of the new products is a Lincon version of the Explorer. That will be the the 3 row crossover bigger than MKX. Then Lincoln will have an Escape, Edge, Explorer and Navigator clone. Which will help with their mission to distance themselves from Ford. The 2nd product I bet is a Focus based Lincoln sedan that they will try to call a 3-series competitor. When you look at luxury market sales, 3-series is by far the #1 seller, C-class and Lexus IS are up there too. Still shocked as to why there isn't a rear drive Lincoln using the Mustang platform.
  16. smk4565
    I'd rather try to market a 4-cylinder and electric hybrid in a $35,000 pick up than a $90,000 performance-luxury sedan. Plus if you figure the take rate on the plug-in hybrid rate of either product might be 5%. Even if 5% of Silverado buyers pick the hybrid, that is 30,000 units a year. If 5% of CT6 buyers take the hybrid that might be 500 cars a year. You aren't getting much return on investment out of 500 units. If you scale it to 50,000 vehicles of year, you drive the cost down.
  17. smk4565
    CAFE is stupid because it factors in footprint. They should remove that out of the equation and go strictly on miles per gallon, regardless of vehicle size. That would force auto makers to make all vehicles more efficient and demand for pickups and SUVs is huge. If people want a pick-up bad enough they will pay an extra $5,000 for it. And manufacturers will also cut margins on pick ups to keep the volume up. Just as they have cut margins on family sedans due to competition. If the CT6 can get 65 mpg-e, I don't see why the same technology couldn't yield 40 mpg-e on a Silverado or Escalade, and near 30 on gas-hybrid combo.
  18. smk4565
    Even that new MKZ has a ton of plastic on the dash, you can tell it is a Fusion underneath. A 400 hp twin turbo V6 is great, but without a rear drive chassis it is wasted.
  19. smk4565
    You could argue that top to bottom, Mazda has the best car line up of any manufacturer. There isn't a bad or dated product in their entire line up. It is too bad more people don't buy their cars, because the 3 is probably the best in the compact segment, the 6 probably the best mid-sizer. And this CX-9 looks well done also.
  20. smk4565
    I think it is a pretty good refresh. New powertrains and updated styling and interior. Some refreshes they barely do anything, Ford did a lot for it just being a mid-cycle refresh. But surprisingly (or maybe not) this is the #2 selling Ford behind the F150, so obviously they are going to keep it competitive.
  21. smk4565
    I like the Miata more. I don't think the Fiat really looks all that good, and it doesn't really scream Fiat to me other than the grille opening. But they need product to keep the dealerships open.
  22. smk4565
    Well obviously they won't be making a diesel now.
  23. smk4565
    The reason it wouldn't, in my opinion, is to push the technology out there to more people and then the little better CAFE score if they sell more as well. As small of a bump it would be...a better score is a better score. Which imagine the CAFE help if it was applied to SUVs and trucks. Rather than a low volume Cadillac. They could put a 15 mpg V12 in the CT6 as the base engine and sell it for $60k, they'd still only sell 3% the volume of what the Silverado sells. Cadillac shouldn't have to pay the CAFE piper at GM, let Chevy do that.
  24. smk4565
    If it is more than the 3.0TT it won't sell. Luxury buyers are going to want performance and smooth power delivery over fuel savings. So you are asking buyers to pay more money for less horsepower to get fuel savings. It won't work. If you price it the same as a 3.0TT, then at least you offer the choice or power or economy at the same price. I know there is battery cost, but a 2.0T engine you can find in $25k cars, it can't cost that much to make one of those. This is why I think this technology is better on a Silverado or Escalade that might only get 18 mpg, you can push it to 30 mpg, which is a huge fuel savings.
  25. smk4565
    The 2-mode hybrid Silverados and Tahoes didn't add enough mpg because it was still a V8 (and batteries are getting batter). By switching out a 5.3 liter V8 with a 2.0T 4-cylinder and electric model you could probably cut fuel consumption in half. And the highest margin vehicles GM makes are Escalade, Tahoe, and Silverado and the GMC counterparts. So you can hide the cost better in those. Plus it is a vehicle that could use the fuel economy push. You could push the Silverado to 30 mpg, to me that makes more sense than something like a Malibu hybrid when the Malibu is lower margin and already gets decent fuel economy.
×
×
  • Create New...

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

I've whitelisted
Continue without support

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search