smk4565
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Everything posted by smk4565
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200 lb weight losses are all the rage now. So at least cars are going back to early 2000s weights, after many got fat.
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Alfa Romeo Begins Their $6 Billion Plan :Comments
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Alfa Romeo
Alfa plans to go from 70,000 sales to 400,000 sales in 3 years? Is it April Fool's day? I can see them taking the Maserati Ghibli (which doesn't sell) and turning that into a flagship sedan for Alfa, turn the Cherokee into an SUV, I think them or Fiat is going to use some Miata tooling for a roadster. But I don't think that is going to get them anywhere. I don't really see Alfa Romeo as much of a luxury brand anyway, more like a Buick or Chrysler level brand, Lincoln at best, but in Europe. -
Those both look terrible, the engines sound weak and terrible, and they seem overpriced. This brand needs closed down. They don't even build sporty or youthful cars. Make the Corolla in hatch and coupe body styles, move the FR-S to Toyota (as it is everywhere else in the world), make the tC into a new Celica if they want a fwd sports car and call it a day. Interestingly I just saw some commentary on how a lot of older seniors are buying Scion, because they are cheap and simple no frills kind of cars and it has Toyota reliability. And young people aren't buying them as was the target audience because young people want horsepower, touch screens, in car apps and technology, etc.
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Seems like they stole the 3-series interior. But the power to weight ratio should be pretty good with the power bump, the A4 always lacked horsepower compared to the other Germans. The new Q7 and this A4 look a bit boring, there is just something bland about these new Audis.
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Lexus News: Lexus Announces IS With 2.0L Turbo Four... For Europe
smk4565 replied to William Maley's topic in Toyota
They should put the turbo 4 in the IS. That 2.5 V6 is hopelessly underpowered. 205 hp from a V6? What is it, a 1997 Lesabre? -
If I were a producer for the new Clarkson, Hammond, May car show that is rumored to go to Netfix, I would give each of them, $3,800 to buy a GM car with a 3800 V6 and set them off on a series of challenges.
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The Vue Red Line is a good SUV option, those were pretty quick and I forgot they even made that. Honda V6 too for good reliability. I thought about an SRX V8 because those could handle, but needed the CTS-V, and I felt I had to get a Corvette and Firebird V8 in there. Typhoons and Cyclones were like $15-20k, too much to spend on the truck.
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People don't need it. They just think they do.
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CAFE might actually make all wheel drive show up in more cars. A lot of people are buying these small to midsize crossovers because they want all wheel drive. In 2025 car makers need to be near 40 mpg EPA combined to hit the 54 mpg CAFE target. The more cars in the mix the easier that will be to do.
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GLK came out in 2009, thus why the replacement goes on sale in a couple months. I was never a fan of the GLK looks. Encore is really small. I'd rather see Cadillac use the Delta platform as the Q3/GLA competitor, and Alpha for the others. I imagine XT5 is on the SRX same platform, unless it has moved to Epsilon. Either way it is boring front drive.
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Good pictures of a previously not seen vehicle. I like the grille on the XT5 because it looks like a Mercedes luxury grille. But I am not a fan of the head lights or tail lights and that D pillar looks massive. The shape is really similar to the current SRX with a bit of a sloping back like a Range Rover Evoque. I don't know, looks fine I guess, I am glad the grille is larger, and not one of those little upper grilles with a huge air intake below the bumper like some cars do now. I am guessing the small crossover is is a Cadillac Encore. I think Cadillac should do one small FWD crossover, so I guess that could work, but I might like the Delta platform for it more. I'd like to see the alpha platform used for the middle SUVs.
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The 2015 Malibu has a base price of $22,465. The 2015 Impala has a base price of $27,060. The Alpha chassis is probably too small for an Impala, which would be the problem, Omega platform maybe too expensive. If they could figure out a rwd platform to use that cost say $3,000 more to make than Epsilon, but they charge $32,000 they have added $5,000 in price and $3,000 in cost. They can still use a base 4 cylinder and optional V6, same interior trim and features. No V8s, or twin turbo V6. Just like now they don't put the 3.6 TT V6 in the Impala because they want you to buy an XTS V-sport. The Azera, Avalon, Maxima, Cadenza all start around $32-34k, although some have terrible sales. But Chrysler gets 300/Charger sales, I think a rear drive Impala would work, and it allows them to price the Malibu at $23k base (which the Camry is) and there is basically $10,000 of room for options before the next car.
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My team: 2003 GMC Sonoma reg. cab 4.3 V6: $5,000 2007 Saturn Relay 3900 V6: $7,000 2005 Buick Rainier V8: $8,000 1999 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am: $7,000 2007 Saab 9-5 Aero: $7,000 2003 Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0: $4,000 2004 Cadillac CTS-V: $15,000 2004 Chevrolet Corvette Z06: $20,000 $73,000 total
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I just thought of a great spin-off series to the 3800 V6 racing league. The GM Relay Race Racing Series. This would be an endurance racing series of 8 hour races (3 drivers per team). Could also be done as a 16 hour endurance race with 4 drivers per team. Each team would have 8 cars from 8 different GM brands (past or present), maximum 1 car per brand. Each team would have to have at least 1 two-door car (coupe or convertible), 1 four-door sedan, 1 SUV, 1 pickup and 1 van. Max budget for all 8 cars would bet set at a pre-determined limit like $80,000 Maybe a minimum car price like $4,000 Each car has to do 1 hour of race time. (or 2 hours each for 16 hour race) The budget makes it hard to throw a Corvette in there with a whole bunch of cheap slow cars, makes it hard to afford a GMC Typhoon or Cyclone, and you could only get one. A Cyclone would take care of the GMC and pickup requirement with 1 vehicle, but if you add a Corvette, Chevy is out for the van. So you think Transport Montana, but then you can't get a firebird. And a Saturn Relay might take up more budget than you want to spend on a slow car.
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The Juke is a ugly car. Not really that spacious either, the backs of them are pretty small. Why would anyone want a 600 hp Juke? This is a classic case of how more power doesn't always make it better.
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It came with drilled rotors, I just put new ones on. In fact, I think when you do parts searches for brakes all the ones that come up are drilled. I read up on the fake V8 sound. A company called MR racing in England is adding a sound generator with fake V8 noise and some other performance upgrades to Golf GTD (the diesel GTI), although I am sure they'd do it to the GTi also. In other exciting VW news, the next Jetta will be styled to look like a 4-door coupe! When will it ever stop.
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Why couldn't a RWD Impala start at $32? A Chrysler 300 starts at $31,695. The Impala starts at like $27k now, use the same interior, same V6, just on a RWD chassis. I don't think Chevy is going to do it, but it wouldn't be hard. If they can make a RWD Camaro for $25k or whatever it is going to cost, I am sure they could make a RWD Impala for $32k. And I don't mean make it a luxury car, or put a big V8 in it. Keep it simple, sell based on the benefit of RWD (awd option). If you want luxury RWD you buy a Cadillac, if you want something like what the current FWD Impala LTZ is, you get a Buick. Since the Civic, Cruze, etc have gotten bigger, the Accord, Malibu, Fusion, Sonata, etc grow and add more content and features. This is really squeezing out the Maxima, Taurus, Impala, Azera, Cadenza segment. That is sort of a dying segment. A RWD Impala would be different than the masses, allow you to sell it to police fleets and discontinue the Caprice, and it hopefully gets more people seeing the benefit of RWD that will later trade up to Cadillac.
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Throttle tip in is really slow, but it makes the car not jumpy. My brakes grab pretty well, but I also put Zimmerman drilled rotors on and Akebono Euro ceramic pads on.
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I agree Drew on the E-class. Even with my V8 you hardly hear it, it just delivers power and you don't notice because it is a bit of an isolated driving experience. So in a lot of ways the inline six will probably suit the car better, and probably be faster with better fuel economy. I read something about VW pumping V8 sound into the Golf. It is bad enough that these cars pump engine noise into the speakers to create some fake performance feel, now they are going to use sound from another car's engine?!?! Terrible. Why not just pump Lamborghini Aventator engine noise into the Golf, maybe add an external speaker also so people think your Golf has a high revving V12.
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Actually, it would probably be smoother than a V8 and with stump ripping thrust. Oh I am sure it will be smoother than a V8, and get better gas mileage, but a V8 is just charismatic. There is something more exciting about a V8. Imagine a Corvette with a silky smooth, no vibration 450 hp inline six and no V8. Yes it would be smooth and quiet, but probably not as exciting.
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What looks like a threat is the BMW i5 sedan. Mid size, 360 hp from 2 electric motors and it is supposed to weigh under 3,450 lbs. You are better than the ideal 10 lbs per horsepower ratio and electric cars fly off the line.
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I do fear the E-class will have a standard 4 cylinder, which to me sucks. 240 hp is fine in a C-class base model, but an E-class base model should have the C-class's optional engine. I'd like to see the new inline six as the base E-class engine, of course add the turbo diesel and plug in hybrid 4 cylinders for the Eco crowd. I want the E550 back too, but I fear they won't bring the V8 back. I'm sure the quad turbo inline six will be great, but it's not a V8.
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The one nice thing about that Ecoboost engine is it has 380 lb-ft of torque. 100 more than you get in an Enclave or SRX or Lexus RX. Even the Volvo 2 liter makes like 320 hp and torque. The boosted engines are going to take over.
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Cadillac isn't even in the A and B segments or the SLK segment, which is where a lot of the Euro 4 cylinders are. To me the 5-series is a bit big to have a 4 cylinder. When you get to 5-series and E-class money I think you should get a standard six cylinder.
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Moving the Impala to RWD and priced around $32k base would move it away from the Malibu, make it different than the LaCrosse and give them 300/Charger competitor, and it would give the market another rwd/awd car. Would give it better ride/handling than a Maxima or Taurus also.
