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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I like Formula, but a friend of mine was saying how it has gotten boring, it isn't as good as the old days, there is no passing Mercedes always wins, etc. Which got me thinking how great would a racing league be where all cars had to have a 3800 V6? This way there is strategy in car selection and it would reward skilled driving. Some basic rules: 240 hp max (the GNX and Twin Turbo Trans Am would not be allowed) Stock wheels, but you could put on any tires you want Can remove excess weight like spare tire and jack, can't change the body or remove seats No engine modifications, but allowed to put new oil, filters, spark, plugs, etc to keep it maintained Races would be roughly 120 miles, so they could be done in under 2 hours on a mix of race tracks, some power circuits, other handling circuits so all cars have equal chance. The true strategy comes in car selection, as you would use the same car in all 10 races, so reliability is a concern, a newer car like a LaCrosse would have an edge in that regard. The rwd Camaro/Firebird have then handling and braking advantage, but no supercharger, woeful 0-60 times around 8 seconds, and are form the 90s, and reliability issues are a concern. A Grand Prix GTP or Regal GS with the supercharger would win the straight line battle, but not have as good handling as a Camaro. Being a no contract league, perhaps one wants a Park Aveune Ultra that will be harder to overtake since it is so large. The Monte Carlo would have NASCAR pedigree. And the one year the Trans Sport van had a 3800, it is welcome too. So of all the 3800 V6 cars, which would be win the inaugural season of the 3800 V6 Racing Series? I personally might go with a 2004 Buick Regal GS It has the supercharger so it will be good in a straight line, it is on the newer end which should bode well for reliability, it has soft seats for driver comfort.
  2. smk4565
    But 15 years ago Toyota was building the Prius, Highlander, Rav4, and Lexus RX. Those were already on market when GM decided to put money and man power into Hummer, Chevy SSR truck, and Bravada/Trailblazer/Envoy. Because crossovers were hot we got half-assed products like the Aztec and Rendezvous built off a minivan platform (and a poor van at that), the Equinox went on sale in 2005, 10 years after the Rav4. The Traverse went on sale nearly 7 years after the Highlander and Pilot went on sale. GM made it's money in the late 90s on trucks, Ford made it's money on the Explorer and F150, so GM of course thought to keep putting money into trucks. Toyota put their money into crossovers and hybrids in the late 90s because they saw it was the future. I'm not saying Cadillac coupes are the future, but GM will allocate money to the products and segments that paid yesterday's bills, rather than trying to predict what will sell tomorrow.
  3. smk4565
    It shows GM's own lack of faith in Cadillac. GM knows they can sell pick ups, large SUVs, and crossovers like no other, and they have had success with Camaro and Corvette. I believe in GM's weird way of thinking, if the ATS/CTS sedans aren't hot sellers, they don't deserve more body styles. And they don't realize that not having a coupe or convertible hurts sales. Or if Cadillac sales are low, spend less on marketing, and pump the advertising dollars into trucks. The money has always flowed to vehicles that had past success, not necessary where future success will lie. In the early 2000s, when crossovers started to get hot and the Cam/Cord were hot, GM put money into Hummer, the GMT360 trucks, then around 2005 poured it into GMT900s. Meanwhile their cars soldiered on using the W-body and 3800 from the 80s, and became hopelessly uncompetitive, they ignored hybrids while the Prius was a success, they ignored small cars, then we know what happened in 2009.
  4. smk4565
    Chrysler on its own needed government bailout twice in 30 years. Not exactly strong.
  5. smk4565
    I know they are doing the CT8 no matter what, I think the CT6 will need some success for them to make the CT8 really good. It isn't like GM hasn't half-assed a product before just to get it out there. They could lengthen the CT6 by 6 inches and change the front and rear facias and pass it off as a new model if they wanted. I don't think that is what Cadillac will do, but they could if they wanted to be cheap.
  6. smk4565
    To an R-class return I say:
  7. smk4565
    Of my list there, only the Acura RDX (Ohio), Lincoln MKC (Kentucky) and BMW X3 (South Carolina) are made in America. The Lincoln MKX is made in Canada, the SRX made in Mexico, but XT5 is moving back to US production I believe. Lexus RX in Japan or Canada, and the Q5 and GLK are made in Germany.
  8. smk4565
    Porsche spend $727,000 to build a 959, but sold it for $239,000. They took the loss because it was a halo builder, and got them lots of press and let them sell more 911s and 928s and 944s, etc. And it established Porsche up there with Ferrari and Lamborghini at the time. On a sports car I think you can afford to lose money on production because you'll get media coverage and press for your brand. I don't see a sedan being featured on all the TV shows, or ending up on t-shirts or bedroom wall posters the way a supercar would. To use an analogy, Disney paid over a billion dollars to buy Star Wars. Even if they don't recoup that in profit from the movies (which they probably will) they still have cartoons, toys, action figures, t-shirts, video games, etc to sell. GM can't use the Omega platform anywhere else except for big Cadillacs (or a big expensive Buick), so the CT6 and CT8 can't really afford to be long term money losers. Otherwise the bean counters won't authorize replacements.
  9. smk4565
    The R-class wasn't too early, it just is a dumb vehicle. R-classes are long too I think over 202 inches, about as long as a GL, just not as tall or bulky. No one is going to buy an R-class. Mercedes would be better served on trying to get a 3rd row in the next generation GLE. Right now it is 189 inches long, they could move it to 192 inches, try to lower the rear floor a couple inches or remove the spare tire and use run flats and get a 3rd row, or do side mounted folding seats like the old Land Rover Discovery. If they can figure out a 3rd row option for the GLE, then no R-class is needed.
  10. smk4565
    Suppose they get 300 a month here, 300 a month in China. That is only 7200 cars a year, I don't know if that makes profit when the chassis underpins only that one model for now. The turbo V6 could be scaled across other Cadillacs, so development cost on that shouldn't be too big a deal, but do they re-coup the chassis cost, and interior design cost, wind tunnel cost, certifications, advertising costs, etc at 7,000 global units a year?
  11. smk4565
    But if we follow the Mighty SMK who thinks MB is the worlds best then this is OK because the higher end models are not to be so bold in their design and more generically flowing. The S-class has always had a more elegant and classic design, that is what the car is about. It isn't a shouty, obnoxious bling mobile. If you want flair Mercedes made these:
  12. smk4565
    The CT6 is a fairly big car as it is, like 203 or 204 inches long. I think what Cadillac will look at more is how the CT6 sells and at what price. Because previous attempts at high dollar Cadillacs like the Allante, XLR, STS-V all flopped. The Escalade is the only Cadillac with a base price over $48,000 to ever really sell. If the CT6 is a hit, I think they'll put more money into the CT8, if the CT6 flops and sells 300 cars a month, how much money will they put into a bigger, more expensive car that will sell even less.
  13. smk4565
    Too bad crossover buyers don't value performance, because the GLC450 has a huge power advantage over similarly priced crossovers. GLC450 362 hp/384 lb-ft Audi Q5 3.0 272 hp/295 lb-ft BMW X3-35i 300 hp/300 lb-ft Lexus RX350 270 hp/248 lb-ft Acura RDX 279 hp/252 lb-ft Lincoln MKC 285 hp/305 lb-ft Cadillac SRX 308 hp/265 lb-ft
  14. smk4565
    The CTS had a pop up Nav screen that went to the same location when raised, and if you drove with it up the whole time, it was basically the same as floating Nav. I never heard about a lot of people breaking off the CTS's pop up screen. I will add another Mercedes annoyance of mine though. Calling the V6 model the GLC450. Why can't they just call all turbo V6 cars "400" especially since the C-class dropped the 339 hp V6 in favor of the 362 hp for 2016. And the E-class should have the 362 hp V6 rather than the 339, likewise with the SL400. If they want to sort out their naming, all the turbo V6 should be 400, V8s 500, V12 600.. Make the diesels 250 bluetec, 350 bluetec, etc.
  15. smk4565
    Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Mazda all use the floating Nav screen now, I bet others follow. I don't really care for it, but car making, much like the NFL, is a copy-cat league.
  16. smk4565
    The Volvo XC90 has radar cruise control with self steering for dealing with traffic and it can hold lanes on a highway as long as there are line markings. Their system I heard didn't need hands on the wheel like the Mercedes system. A problem with decision making is if a bus is about to hit your car, the car doesn't know it is a bus or if it has 1 passenger or 50. The car is just going to see a large object to avoid. But there are thousands of traffic fatalities every year caused by human error. Autonomous drive systems could probably cut that in half maybe more. But if autonomous cars as a whole cause 100 deaths a year people will be in uproar about it, yet they'll be okay with humans killing 30,000 from drunk driving, falling asleep, texting, not paying attention, etc.
  17. smk4565
    The floating Nav Screen trend is picking up, more car companies are doing that. It would be cool if that was like a tablet that you could unplug and take with you. But if you can't take it with you, I don't know why it isn't integrated. Mercedes did announce the V6 will be the 362 hp/384 lb-ft of torque version from the C450 and GL450. That is a lot of power for a small crossover, and there will also be an AMG model with a 470 hp V8.
  18. smk4565
    I bet the success of the CT6 will impact the development budget for the CT8. If the CT6 sales lag the first year or two, I wonder how much money they'll put into the CT8.
  19. smk4565
    GM should offer Sergio 20 cents on the dollar per share to buy the company, then dump the junk brands, keep Jeep and any products they see as viable. FCA will probably end up bankrupt anyways, 20 cents on the dollar is better than zero.
  20. smk4565
    Which is what distronic plus does, stop and go traffic where it maps off the other cars, or high way speed where is just has to hold a lane and speed. The difference becomes Cadillac beings hands free, and the Mercedes system making you hold the wheel after 60 seconds. Which I am sure is that the request of the legal department. If Cadillac has a totally hands free system, I am sure there will be some big warnings and disclaimers all over that, possibly an audio message that plays that you have to listen to then click "OK" to put it in Super Cruise. Of course how many people drive while texting, doing hair/makeup, eating Big Macs or even all 3 at once. So Autonomous cars might not be so bad.
  21. smk4565
    It is real wood, and real aluminum trim.
  22. smk4565
    That is dumb, my car stays in sport if I turn it off in sport. On the new Mercedes I noticed that if you turn off Eco start/stop it defaults it back to on the next time you start the car. I think BMW does the same thing. These enviro-friendly things are nice, but you should be able to defeat them if you want, and not have to hit the off button every time you turn on the car. I will say this about the 2015 GLK (as well as the 2014 C-class) is the throttle tip in is rather aggressive, so I'd rather start in 2nd gear driving either of those cars, otherwise it is jerky off the line. On my car the gas pedal has a bit of a dead feel initially, which I am sure they did to keep the car smooth.
  23. smk4565
    The problem with any autonomous drive system is going to be when the vehicle has to make a life or death decision. Suppose a car swerves into on coming traffic headed right for you, and there are 2 pedestrians on the sidewalk. Does the autonomous car take a head on collision or swerve and risk hitting the pedestrians. There will be huge disclaimers on these things and that is why the Mercedes system makes you have hand on the wheel. So if it messes up you can't sue them. What happens if SuperCruise hits a pedestrian trying to avoid something else while the driver didn't have hands on wheel or wasn't paying attention.
  24. smk4565
    My car uses 7th gear on the highway, I had a GLK loaner that I think used 7th gear on the highway. I don't see why the new models wouldn't use all 9. I will say though that if you put the transmission in comfort mode it does 2nd gear starts and doesn't use first gear.
  25. smk4565
    The sad thing about the American car market is that is what sells. And it ranges from Rav4 to Escape tor Equinox to GLC, X3 or RX350. People want an SUV for some perceived notion of safety, or because the cargo area will allow them to haul a bike or canoe to suit the active lifestyle that they don't actually have, and at the end of the day they will commute from A to B, plodding along in traffic thinking they are more successful because they bought an SUV and the other guy bought a CamCord, not realizing they themselves are driving a CamCord station wagon on stilts. This is the crossover market in general. I don't get it myself, give me a superior handling car any day of the week, something that can handle a corner and be driven hard without fear of tipping over. At least with the bi-turbo V6 they'll have 339 hp in the GLC, maybe even 362 hp since Mercedes seems to be phasing the 339 hp version out already, the C-class is dropping it for 2016, in favor of the 362 hp used in the GL. None of the other small crossovers have that kind of power or air suspension. So maybe they'll bring some level of excitement to the otherwise boring crossover segment.
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