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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I don't think it has so much to do with body on frame or solid rear axle (although those aren't ideal for handling), as it does size and weight. Cadillac fans praise how light the CTS or ATS are, yet call the S-class a fat pig at 4,700 lbs. The Escalade is 5,800 lbs before you put a supercharger, bigger brakes, stiffening rods etc on, you are going to have a 6,000+ lb vehicle. I believe an Escalade V-sport makes a lot of sense, you bolt a supercharger on to the V8, put a body kit on, upgrade the brakes and suspension a bit and raise the governor to 140 mph and you could charge and extra $20k for it, and that is probably like $10-15k of extra equipment and development cost per vehicle. That gives Cadillac $5k extra profit margin on a vehicle that already has good margins. A Bentley killer with the Escalade isn't going to happen. I don't think even Mercedes can get the GL up to 190 mph even with the V12. I'd say only the Lamborghini SUV will topple the Bentley.
  2. smk4565
    I probably would have made all wheel drive available. This segment is the most competitive of any segment to begin with. There are about 10 entries in it. Then you have the shift to SUVs, where a lot of people are trading in a mid-size sedan or cross shopping the mid-size sedan with a C-segment crossover. So the CR-V, Rav4, Escape, etc all offer 5 seats, similar equipment, more cargo space, all wheel drive and similar fuel economy to a Fusion, Camry or Malibu. If the Malibu had awd, maybe you prevent some people from going to the crossover because of the perceived safety that awd provides.
  3. smk4565
    Tahoe police package is a far cry from the level of performance we are talking about. To get to Bentley SUV performance, we are talking about making an Escalade accelerate and have a top speed like an ATS-V or Corvette Stingray. I don't think it can be done. They can make a faster Escalade, it isn't going to out perform that Bentley.
  4. smk4565
    Porsche Cayenne has a .37 cD, and the Mercedes GL is a .38 cD. The Cayenne Turbo S can do 171 mph, the GL63 is electronically limited to 155 mph. With the Escalade though, you have to look at weight and chassis too, and find tires that can support the weight and speed. But the GM truck platform was never made for 150 mph speed, let alone 190 mph speed. There are a lot of factors working against it getting an Escalade to add 75 mph to the top speed. If they had made the XT5 and future XT3 of the Alpha platform, and did an XT7 off Omega, they could have had the chassis that would have been capable of competing with the German performance SUVs. I'd suggest maybe an Omega platform SUV could be above Escalade, but then you mess up the naming structure because Cadillac wants it both ways with XT and CT, but then have a word name product. It should all be one or the other.
  5. smk4565
    Probably the best looking car since the 1961 Jaguar E-type. Oh wait, no I meant ugliest car since the Aztek.
  6. smk4565
    Looks ugly, and of course it has "4-door coupe" styling, which every car does not, it is so overdone. It does look really big, I don't get why these cars keep growing. Like Ford has made the Focus and Fusion grow to make room for the Fiesta, not the Taurus might be phased out. So here the Civic is like becoming their new mid-size, if the Accord gets any bigger it will be a full size car, then they'll need a Fit sedan to fill in for where he Civic was 10 years ago.
  7. smk4565
    There are plenty of old Mercedes out there. I went on Auto Trader and did a search of cars 1981-1990 within 200 miles of Pittsburgh. Mercedes 87, Ford 75, Buick 66, Cadillac 25, BMW 19, Honda 18, Toyota 13. Just to name a few, and I am pretty sure the sales volume of Ford, Honda or Toyota in the 80s was a lot higher than Mercedes was, yet there are still more 80s Mercs for sale. And my comment about the 3.6 V6 goes to other cars also. Look at the ATS segment. The Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes and Lexus all have a 2.0T standard. Then all of them except Lexus jump up to a supercharged or Turbocharged V6 (or straight six) for the step up. Lexus, Mercedes and soon Jaguar have a V8 for their performance car. The Audi RS5 is a V8 as well.
  8. smk4565
    I think the Malibu doesn't have anywhere near the reputation of Accord or Camry, but at the same time I wouldn't dump the name. I would however make some ads that make the Malibu look cool, or fun to own. The last good Chevy car ad I saw was the Impala launch ads and they had Sinatra music and they were playing to the 50 and 60 something segment, but it made the Impala look like a desirable car, not just a rental sedan which it had been.
  9. smk4565
    The Tesla Model X is a competitor too. That is the SUV 0-60 champion and horsepower champion with 762. The Tesla tops out at 155 mph though, I imagine the V12 Rolls will be able to go past that (if they want, Rolls probably will limit to 155 mph).
  10. smk4565
    Every Air Matic Mecedes automatically lowers ride height at highway speed, I believe the Range Rover does also. Putting an air suspension on the Escalade is easy, but you still have to deal with a .36 drag coefficient and a lot of surface area to push though the air so drag is going to limit top speed. Plus a 6,000 weight. The Escalade now has a top speed of 113 mph (governor limited). But you have to figure that limiter is there because of tire blow out concerns and the drag limited speed is probably not all that much higher. I don't know where you get an extra 75 mph of top speed out of the Escalade. Plus an Escalade V-series would compete more with an AMG GL63. I don't think it would be in Bentley territory. And what about an XT5-V to compete with the X5 M and GLE63? Why not put a 600 hp V8 in that front wheel drive crossover Cadillac is about to launch, and they need a Porsche Macan competitor, so they need an ATS-V powertrain in an XT3 crossover. But XT3 is rumored to be based on D2XX, so I guess that won't work either.
  11. smk4565
    They have to price aggressive, the Malibu is sort of an after thought in this segment. I think Chevy marketing right now is about as weak as I can remember in my life time. The current crop of ads with focus groups picking what brand had the most awards or what car won a JD Power award are just hopelessly boring. They don't spark any emotion and make the product seem desirable. The Heartbeat of America has flat lined.
  12. smk4565
    When us the Escalde V happening? There is a rolls Royce SUV in the works and a BMW X7. The Rolls will have a V12 as all Rolls do, there was rumor the BMW would have an optional V12. That is the Bentley's competition. Mercedes has a V12 G-wagon but it is too trucky to be even remotely sporty. Maybe if they put the V12 in the GL and gave it the Maybach treatment they could compete with Bentley.
  13. smk4565
    Correction the M5 never set the standard, it is a FAT PIG under powered and underwhelming. The M3 set the standard that Cadillac used to bench what became the CTS-V.Back in 1987 or when ever the M5 came out as the first sports sedan it did set the standard and I was thinking more of the E39 M5 which was the gold standard of sports sedans. The current M5 is too big and fat. In fact the current M3 is nearly as big as an E39.
  14. smk4565
    Snowbelt is a non-issue, every BMW and Mercedes sedan or coupe is available with all wheel drive. I don't see where this proliferation of FWD thought the Mercedes lineup will come from either. That is the hopes and dreams of Cadillac fans because Cadillac has the XTS, ELR, XT5, and coming XT3, maybe and XT1, etc all front drive. And they don't have rear drive crossovers or a V-series crossover, while there are AMG, M, SRT, Audi S-models, hi-performance Porsche crossovers, soon to be Jaguar, Maserati and Bentley crossovers. So when all the others have performance crossovers, Cadillac won't be able to do one. And you might think it doesn't matter then why did Cadillac race to make a CTS-V after the BMW M5 set the standard. So how does the XT5 compete with the X5 M or GLE63? They can't put a 600 hp V8 in an XT5 because it is on the wrong platform with wrong wheel drive.
  15. smk4565
    Jeers. Looks ugly. Would have been better to keep the normal Corvette front end and put a modern interpretation of the Nomad shape out back to make a Corvette shooting brake. That could have looked cool.
  16. smk4565
    Maybe the Corvette and CTS will move to front wheel drive since it doesn't matter. CTS can share the Malibu platform, think of the cost savings!
  17. smk4565
    They should just delay it until 2027. Watch the production model show up with a turbo 3.5 liter Accord V6 making 400 hp and it will get outrun by Mustang GT's and M3's that cost 1/3 as much. The NSX is a sham, the 90s car had like 270 hp and 220 lb-ft of torque with 5.8 second 0-60 times and they wanted to call that a super car. Lame.
  18. smk4565
    The E350 is the oldest car in the segment, but if you look at the C-class there is not N/A V6. The XE, 3-series and A4 have no N/A V6. Lexus finally has a turbo 4 in that segment, and their 3.5 V6 is a dinosaur. The Jaguar XF and 5-series and A6 don't have an N/A engine, all of them are boosted. Supercharged or turbocharged V6 are pretty common place in luxury cars. I don't see the need of the 3.6 V6, when you could just go 2.0T and 3.0TT and have a fuel economy option for those that don't care about performance, and power of yesterday's V8 with the turbo V6 that is what a luxury/performance buyer wants. There probably won't even be an E350 next year, I think that engine is being retired at the end of 2016 model year. A new inline six is replacing it.
  19. smk4565
    Well at least they didn't name it BTX 600.
  20. smk4565
    I just figured between weight and physical size(cutting through air) would have yielded 1mpg towards the ATS. At least at cruising highway mpg. Surprisingly it is easier to make a longer car more aerodynamic than a smaller car. I think it was an interview with Dave Leon when he was talking about the ATS and what they had to do to get under .30 CD. He had mentioned on long cars it is easier to move the air and get rid of low pressure areas.
  21. smk4565
    Haldex systems are for front drive, or at least AWD systems that normally run FWD. There is an episode of Autoline after hours with one of the lead engineers at VW and he explained how the Haldex system works and that is what is on the VW models, and the Audi A3 and Q3. On those cars it is like 90% front drive unless the wheels slip, he said the differentials would overheat if they ran rear drive, they can only do it for short periods. The Audi A4/A6/A8 use a totally different system that runs more rear bias. CTS has to use something different than haldex, something that can run 55% or more rear bias.
  22. smk4565
    Well they are comparing to an E-class that came out in summer of 2009 also, the oldest car in the segment, and I who am a Mercedes fan, and not really a fan of the current E-class interior. But, the 2017 E-class spy photos show S-class level interior, so I am looking forward to seeing the new E-class at the Detroit Auto show, and hoping it doesn't just look the same as the C-class and S-class.
  23. smk4565
    I have never been much of a Porsche fan, but I do give them credit for getting a lot of acceleration out of not a lot of torque. You wouldn't think a 368 lb-ft of torque car would run 3.7 seconds 0-60, but Porsches do seem to make the most of their power. In that regard, you can probably use all the power almost all the time on a track, where a lot of these high power cars are mostly just straight line burners, and can't put the power down in a corner. Which reminds me on Top Gear one time, Jeremy Clarkson drove a Boxter S around Monza and could drive it hard, and posted a similar lap time to Hammond who had something like a Pagani Zonda that has just too much power to keep control of for a non race car driver.
  24. smk4565
    I think a Wrangler pick up is a great idea. As I said in another threat, Wrangler has a following and is a popular model, and you can't change the styling, so you might as well do a new body style. And people like pickups, even ancient pick ups like the Tacoma and Frontier sell in fairly good numbers, I think a Wranger pickup could sell pretty well, especially if they get some updated engines and transmissions, like the pentastar 2.7 liter (or 3.6) and the 8-speed transmission. I think the Wrangler still has a 5-speed auto from Daimler days.
  25. smk4565
    I'm sure Lexus thinks long and hard about that when it deposits checks for RX350 payments. Well they are cashing in on the sheeple that think Toyota product lasts 300k miles without maintenance, and those soccer moms have no idea what drive wheels do what. Cadillac is an underdog that is trying to climb up, "good enough" isn't going to get them to where they want to be. Plus the RX sells at a much lower price than the X5 or GLE. Which makes me think XT5 will be about $40k, so an XT3 has to be about $33k, if they follow the Lexus NX and RX or Lincoln MKC-MKX pricing models.
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