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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    Lincoln is coming from the gutter, sales are up since they added the MKC and crossovers are easy to sell. The MKC was a good move on their part though, the Escape is a huge seller, makes sense to have a luxury version of it. Lincoln sedan sales are knocking on deaths door, I still question the long term viability of the brand. Cadillac has a sales and marketing problem and is clueless how to sell sedans. The E-class (which is a dated model) outsold the ATS, CTS and XTS combined. Lexus IS outsold the ATS by over 3-1 and it is ugly with a powertrain from 2007. Cadillac has a serious brand image problem that most people probably don't even consider one. Interesting that the Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade trio all had pretty big drops, the Lambdas all did pretty well, so I wonder if that is a one time thing, or if more people are moving away from the big V8 trucks to the crossovers. I wouldn't be surprised to see that trend continue. Pickup trucks did really well though.
  2. smk4565
    Their sales success comes from the C-class and E-class. Most brands are crossover or bust anymore. I predict the GLC will be a hot seller though. The GLK is an ugly vehicle, and I think the rounded off styling of the GLC will be appealing to female buyers. I think the GLC could get into the 4,000 a month range, maybe more, that small or entry level crossover market Mercedes hasn't really tapped into fully.
  3. smk4565
    $55,000??? If you buy one do you get a second one free? The Black Label interior isn't even as nice as a C-class, they should make that Black Label interior standard on the base car as was mentioned earlier. My friend got a certified BMW 535 diesel with 5 years and 90,000 miles of warranty for a little under $55k and he gets 31 mpg average and does more city driving than highway, and his car isn't a Ford Fusion. Seems like a much better deal than a Lincoln.
  4. smk4565
    That 7.0 liter is old news. Time to do something else, although I like the idea of the top Camaro being the base Corvette engine. If they want a Hellcat competitor they could supercharge the 7 liter V8 to make 700 HP but then a Camaro would have more than a Corvette.
  5. smk4565
    $250 million Amazon paid for this show. I hope it is epic!
  6. smk4565
    A CT6 with the 400 HP engine maybe. The Boxster is nearly 1,000 lbs less than the CT6 so not like it needs 400 HP, but buying a sports car I'd want more than 240, just like if buying a large luxury sedan I'd want more than 300.
  7. smk4565
    The base Boxster has 265 hp now, odd that they would replace it with a less powerful engine. The 300 hp is pretty good, this is a sub 3,000 lb car, so that is better than 10 lbs per horsepower.
  8. smk4565
    240 is not much horsepower, even in a small car like this. But I guess the Boxter often had a weak base model, I think the first ones only had like 210 hp back around year 2000. But I guess this gives people more reason to pay for a 911.
  9. smk4565
    In my area right now diesel is cheaper than premium gas. It is priced about where 89 octane is, so on that front the diesel fuel pricing is good, so the increased fuel economy will pay back more quickly. Secondly, diesels hold value. People know diesels run forever, so I bet 5 years from now a Colorado diesel with 100k miles sells for $4,000 more than a Colorado V6 with 100k miles.
  10. smk4565
    Bring on the comparison tests. There is a new E63 next fall, and the 5-series is redone in 2017 I think, so I wonder if the magazines will run their comparo's next year. The current E63 is 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, but that is a heavy car. It'll be interesting to see how much weight they get out, and what they do with the 4.0 V8, since they have a 5.5 liter V8 in there now.
  11. smk4565
    I think they will act the same way. The good news might be they'll travel to more places or do more cars from outside of Western Europe.
  12. smk4565
    There are so many copy cats and wannabes also, but no one can replicate that chemistry. And they have the perfect mix because Clarkson likes an AMG, Hammond will want a 911 and May will want a Ferrari or something sensible like a Golf. Who else is going to buy $5,000 SUVs and drive from Boliva to the coast of Chile? Or race a GT-R, DB9 or Veyron in a race against public transport or an airplane. Or convert a Ford Transit into a hovercraft, or a make their own police cars and ambulances out of cheap used cars? Last year they even raced a Silverado 2500 HD vs a Ford F150 Raptor in the Canadian wilderness to see who could get to the top of the mountain first to rescue Hammond. So they have done some American car stuff too.
  13. smk4565
    I think the new show will be better than Top Gear because it is global now. They aren't going for the BBC audience, and then putting it on all the BBC world networks. Now they it is made for a global audience from the start, I think they'll do a bigger variety of cars, some more American and Japanese cars, and they can make a broader reaching show. Still, 350,000,000 people watched Top Gear, now that it will be online and not just on BBC, I think more people will watch. And since it isn't dependent on sponsors, they can still rip a car to shreds if they want. Clarkson makes fun of anything, he has made fun of Mercedes before, and his personal drivers have been Mercedes-AMG for a while, he had an SLK55, CLK55, and he has a S63 coupe now.
  14. smk4565
    A Mercedes 2.1 liter diesel makes 201 hp and 369 lb-ft. So I just thought they'd get a big more power out of 2.8 liters. Although I'd wonder if GM could have got the same power from a 2.4 liter diesel, rather than the 2.8 and maybe gotten a little more in the fuel economy dept.
  15. smk4565
    Well not no one, just 1/2 to 1/3 as many people as many of their competitors.
  16. smk4565
    This is the best news of the year! I will be signing up for Amazon Prime in 2016. I think this show could be better than Top Gear, since they don't have to worry about the stupid BBC.
  17. smk4565
    Lincoln is dead, Ford just doesn't know it yet. The Navigator sales have slumped big time, when the BMW X7 comes, sales will probably drop even more. Then there are the Jaguar and Maserati SUVs, maybe some people will buy those too. They'll overprice the Continental, it will probably tank, and another 5 years of re-bodying Fords isn't going to get them anywhere. Lincoln's future is probably in the livery market. I am not so convinced Johan is the savior, he did nothing for Infiniti but re-name the cars and destroy the equity the G37 had built. Infiniti is mess now. Plus he is a marketing guy, and the weakest part about Cadillac is the marketing. They make a good handling car, yet no one buys it.
  18. smk4565
    Turbo engines often don't offer fuel economy and power. If you drive a 4-cylinder turbo with a light foot and keep the revs low, then you get good fuel economy because it is a 4 cylinder. If you push it hard because you want V8 like power and are always on the boost, then you get V8 like fuel economy. Not surprised at their findings, and I always thought Mustangs were way over rated on performance, other than the Shelby models of course, and the recent 5.0 V8 coupes are pretty quick. I am a bit surprised it did 0-60 in 6.1 seconds, a V6 Camry can do that, probably beat it.
  19. smk4565
    What platforms did Mercedes and Chrysler directly share? The only one was the Crossfire was built on the existing SLK platform and used the same powertrain as the SLK and was made in Germany also. The Chrysler 300 and Grand Cherokee platforms were made based off existing (in 2004) Mercedes platforms, but Mercedes has since moved on, and the 300 and Grand Cherokee still used that old Daimler tech from the early 2000s, and those are their 2 best vehicles. I still think there is no way the Impala ends up on Omega, they want the Impala as an inexpensive large car, and need it to be, because the LaCrosse has to be more than the Impala, and the XTS will be dead, but the Cadillacs have to be more than the Buicks. So you can't throw a $40,000 base model Impala out there, and a $60,000 Impala SS. A car like that won't sell, and the 100,000 or so Impala sales per year will go buy a Taurus or Accord or something. Plus you don't want a Cadillac CT8 sharing a platform with an Impala. See Lincoln and Acura as to why that doesn't work.
  20. smk4565
    I am surprised the horsepower isn't more like 220-230. Torque seems about right, although some 3.0 diesels are making 425 lb-ft.
  21. smk4565
    I said a CTS coupe should be $50k. That would be $5k more than the sedan, so you'd have to have more standard equipment than the sedan, but easy to do you just start up one trim level. If the Impala is on the Omega platform, I don't think that bodes well for Cadillac to have their CT6 and CT8 which are to compete with the A8, S-class, Jaguar XJ, 7-series, Bentley, who knows shared with a Chevy Impala. Goodbye credibility if a $100,000 Cadillac is on the same chassis as a $30,000 Chevy. And how can the platform be that cheap to make? If it is Mercedes/BMW good, it can't cost Chevy dollars to produce.
  22. smk4565
    The V8 lives! I am not a Charger or Challenger fan, but I am glad they selling more than they thought they would. We need more people demanding performance cars, and less people buying dopey Camrys.
  23. smk4565
    I don't think the Riviera name is so hallowed that it couldn't be used for a $35-40k car. The 90s Riviera was $35k, and I understand we have had inflation. Sports car buyers buy a Camaro. You make the Riviera a entry lux car, that doesn't have a lot of performance. Actually the perfect way to design it is to think of it as a 2 door Lexus ES350. Soft luxury, a 2.0T is enough engine for it. An Avenir sedan would do better than any Buick coupe on Omega, but a Buick Avenir is going to be CTS money or maybe more, why overlap Cadillac with Buick. And I am not so convinced that Cadillac is such a huge profit center (outside of Escalade) when the CTS is priced $5,000 below most competitors, and Cadillac's incentive spend has been among the highest in the luxury segment. If GM wants a $50,000 luxury coupe, that should be a CTS coupe, there should be an Omega coupe as well so Cadillac has a 3 coupe lineup, I think they should have at least 2 convertibles too, Mercedes is about to have 5 convertibles.
  24. smk4565
    If they can make a Camaro 2.0T for $25k, and a V6 one under $30k I'd assume, you use those same engines in a Buick Riviera and you add $10k into the interior, making a $35-40,000 coupe. They can make a fairly well optioned LaCrosse for under $40k as even the LaCrosse starts at $31k. I am pretty sure you could make a car equally nice to the LaCrosse in 2 door form for the same price. Coupes overall are a hard sell, the Monte Carlo and Camry Solara are dead, Acrua CL is dead, Lincoln doesn't make a coupe. Cadillac and Lexus have 1 coupe each. The coupe market is small, I think for a Riviera to have a chance you keep the price low, even if it was like a 2 door version of the Regal with 4-cylinder only for $30k. I don't know what the best course of action is for a Buick coupe, I am just saying coupes in general are slow sellers, the one segment they sell is the 4-series, C-class, A5 segment, and Buick isn't going to make it against those guys, so they need to find another segment. As far as Omega platform, the S-class platform underpins 1 car (unless you count sedan, coupe, convertible as 3 models) and it is more than economically viable. So it is possible to make money on Cadillac only Omegas, make a CT6, CT8 and Eldorado, hell make a crossover on it.
  25. smk4565
    On the Riviera, if they made it $55,000, who buys it? There is no market for luxury mid-size or full size coupes. You can get a E400 coupe with a twin turbo V6 and AWD for $56,700, add $6,600 for Premium 1 and 2 packages and you at $64k. This is the only mid-size luxury coupe for sale right now. The only large coupe in the $40-70,000 space is the Dodge Challenger SRT, since a base challenger is $27k, hard to count that one. Obviously demand for $45-60,000 dollar mid to large coupes is tiny. The 2 door coupes in that price range are things like Cayman, Corvette, 4-series, ATS, RC, Audi TT, Alfa 4C, etc. Pure sports cars or compacts.
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