smk4565
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Everything posted by smk4565
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GMC doesn't sell outside of North America, not a global brand. I am not saying GMC loses money, I know it turns a profit so it will stick around. But if GM merged with FCA, you wouldn't need GMC, Jeep and Ram, that is redundant, GMC being a Chevy badge clone would be the one to go. But I don't think they will ever merge either.
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The Sky Lounge LED Roof feature sounds cool. They copied the S-class' cabin fragrance idea, so now everyone will follow. Overall it looks more aggressive and meaner, looks sportier. It is improved on the outside, but the old car was boring. The interior looks the same. I see they did a lot a leather, nice stitching, the LED ambient lighting (another S-class trait), looks well made, but looks boring. Where is the V12? The I-6 and V8 make the same power as before, that 4 cylinder hybrid will be weak. I think they are optimistic on their 4.3 second 0-60 run for the V8 model because the S550 is more powerful and does it in 4.8. Unless the gearing is ridiculously tight on the 750i, because they didn't lose that much weight.
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Well the Bangle 7-series was the worst ever. The current 7 looks like a fat 5-series. That car hasn't looked good in 15 years. This one actually looks unhappy and depressed.
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Th profit is at Jeep. If GM owned Jeep, then Chevy underpinnings could be shared with Jeep to replace the Compass, Patriot and some of the dated stuff. Jeep would still design the trucks, but they'd have a better parts bin of engines, transmissions and chassis to build off of. If GMC was all Denali I could see the point of them, but 75% of GMCs sold are just competition for Chevy. And Buick is supposed to be upscale and has crossovers, and Cadillac is the Luxury arm of GM, not GMC. Chrysler has gone bankrupt twice in 25 years, the only reason they are still in business is Jeep. Without Jeep Chrysler would go bankrupt again, regardless of their sales volume. I don't think Sergio will be able to find a merger, I think what will happen is he will try to sell the company in pieces because he knows another financial crisis will push them to bankruptcy. If gas prices spike and he loses the pick up and suv sales, they go bankrupt.
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RWD allows you to put a V8 in a car. If the 300 were a front driver, like the LHS, it would have a dopey 265 hp V6 still to this day, 10 years after introduction. RWD gives the option of adding performance. If Lincoln made the MKZ rear drive with the same 240 hp turbo 4-cyldiner then it would be a total waste. So for Lincoln that doesn't have any good engines, the platform doesn't matter as much. Same can be said for a Lexus GS that offers the same 306 hp V6 from 2007, and only the low volume GS F has a different engine. They basically waste the platform. You have to combine engine, suspension, transmission and chassis all together to make a superior driving car to the front drive mediocre mass market stuff.
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The CLS has less room than an E-class and it only seats 4, not 5. CLS and E-class ride the same wheelbase and chassis, the CLS is longer, must have more overhang on the front and rear because of the body shape. Interestingly, the C63 AMG is 3 inches longer than a standard C-class because they had to lengthen the hood to fit the V8. The CT6 looks like 3-box sedan, it won't get cross shopped with an A7 or CLS which are just people that want something different from the more common A6 and E-class. I think Cadillac wanted the first Omega platform car to be an S-class fighter, but then had to retract and say it isn't because they don't have a V8 yet, and they saw the W222 S-class and thought "oh crap" The leaked photos of the 7-series make me think this is the best looking 7-series since the 90s.
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Ferrari has an IPO coming, they are selling that off and the Ferrari family still has stake also. So that won't be part of any FCA merger. Jeep is the prize, the one thing that really has value. Ram trucks only has value to someone that doesn't make pick ups, but wants to. For GM to do this deal, the Chrysler 200 and Town and Country would move to Buick, the 200 becomes the Regal. The Chrysler 300 could be turned into a Park Avenue for the short term until they kill the LX platform. Chrysler brand dies. Dodge would stay with the Dart, Charger, Chalenger and a new Avenger based off the Dart/200 platform. They can sell to rental fleets, police car fleets, or young people that want a sporty car. Ram trucks continue with the commercial vans and pickups. GMC trucks would have to die, the Canyon would become the new Ram Dakota. Yukon could be transformed into a Grand Wagoneer.
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Dinosaur.
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Maybe Sergio can convince Kirk Kerkorian (who is somehow sill alive) that a merger is a good idea and get him to buy $3 billion worth of GM stock. Then he can get Ferdinand Piech (who is now without an automotive home) to buy $3 billion of GM stock. That will give those 2 10% ownership in GM and with FCA money or a hedge fund they could buy up another 5% and maybe try to pressure the board on a merger. Better yet, maybe Sergio can swing a three-way merger of VW, GM and Chrysler to build the super auto union. 20 brands under 1 roof. Strength through unity, unity through strength.
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I read Sergio is still trying to get a merger with GM, and trying to get people to buy some chunks of GM stock to help influence that. Perhaps his thought is to put projects on hold, because if he can get a merger some of those products will be shelved, and the more cash on hand the better FCA looks in the short term. Clearly Sergio is trying to Merger, just seems that no one is buying what he is selling.
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Cool, as a low cost basic commuter car they make sense. It looks practically new. And it is rear engine-rear drive like a Porsche 911.
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Lincoln Navigator sales averaged 33,517 for its first 10 years on market 1997-2006. Then the GL went on sale. The Navigator has averaged 9,510 sales per year since 2008 model year. Ford's approach is getting hammered.
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The current Navigator went on sale in 2007 model year. The new one is coming in 2017? 10 years on the market! And a lot of those body panels you can tell came from an Expedition. There has to be a better way to produce your most expensive model.
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Jeremy Clarkson once did an off road test of an Escalade, Range Rover and a Hummer H2 for one of his DVDs. It was to see which could climb some mountain out in the desert. The Escalade was obviously the first one out, it didn't get that far. The Ranger Rover got to the top. The G-wagen has 3 locking differentials, it is made for off road. Important to remember that Mercedes was going to kill the G-wagen off in 2006, the fans wanted them to keep making it. Mercedes is just giving the people what they want.
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But what works for Cadillac isn't working for Lincoln. The F150 sits on the market too long before getting chassis updates, and is the F150 chassis what you want to use as the basis of your BMW X7, Merc GL, Maserati Levante, and Jag-LR products. Lincoln isn't a tier one brand, making a Navigator off the Explorer platform gives them 380 hp/460 lb-ft turbo V6 in a 5,000 lb vehicle for $55k. That matches up extremely well against top end Tahoes, Enclaves, MDX, undercuts the Escalade a lot in price while offering better acceleration and fuel economy. It gives Lincoln a chance. Lincoln doing a half assed job turning and F150 into an Escalade competitor hasn't worked since like 2006 when the previous generation Escalade stepped it up.
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The Genesis has a V8 and RWD, so I think that gives it a bit of an edge over the front drive V6 crowd. I did just look up the price of an Acura RLX which is $54k base and $60k with a technology package. I think Acura has a better reputation than Lincoln, and the RLX has awful sales volume, but only 315 hp or whatever they got out of the Accord V6. I could agree with Drew's $51k starting point, if the content level is high. I think $49k starting will grab more attention though. The Continental needs aggressive pricing, I'd almost suggest they sell it at a loss to get Lincoln back in the game if they are actually serious about resurrecting Lincoln.
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As I said the Escalade hits the sweet spot for those that want a big, brash, arrogant American car. There is a customer base that loves that and the Escalade has a loyal following. But other full size body on frame SUVs have been declining, CAFE is getting higher, global emissions regulations higher, in time some of them will go away. When Ford was selling over 400,000 BOF Explorers every year who would have thought less than 10 years later the model would actually get discontinued for a while before returning as a unibody. If Lincoln merged the MKT and Navigator into one new unibody product (still using Navigator name) they could have a more competitive vehicle. But instead we know they'll just keep rebadging Fords with minimal changes because that is the cheapest way to design a car. That is why the Navigator is dated as can be, because the Expedition is dated as can be.
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The CT6 has a long hood and short deck because that is how Mercedes and BMW design cars. They surely didn't make the hood on the CT6 that long because it had to be to fit the V6 under it. The Continental from the side looks a lot like the last Saab 9-5. Pricing will be interesting to see on both cars. For the Continental, I think they need to make 400 hp standard and start it at $49k. They need to go for absolute wow factor or it will just get over looked.
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Plus, the G-wagen is the only car that can fly.
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A full size SUV based on the Genesise RWD structure could be really good. They have a 330 hp V6 which would be okay for a base model, the 5.0 V8 would be perfect for it, and a turbo V6 is supposed to be in the works. If they could make this SUV in the $47-57k range they could have a winner. People spend that much on a Tahoe.
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A lot of those MKS and XTS sales are fleet and livery market, and the MKS and XTS start at $45k Not quite the starting point of those Germans. There is speculation that the Continental will be $60-80,000, good luck selling a fancy Taurus for that money.
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A Navigator is near 6,000 lbs, a loaded Ford Explorer is 4,800. Even if they add extra luxury goodies and a couple inches of lenth to the Explorer, they could keep the weight to 5,000 lbs. 1,000 less than the current Navigator. The ML and GL both are rather heavy, that is something Mercedes should address on the next generation, as they share a chassis. They should be able to get 200 lbs of weight out of both.
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Because the competition hasn't beat them yet. 10-15 years ago pick up based big SUVs were all there were. Then the GL game along and beat all the other guys and even beat the Escalade in sales a couple times. Add the X7 in there, updated Q7 and slowly they may eat away at those truck based sales. Remember when the Explorer, Blazer, Envoy, 4Runner and all those 90s SUVs were body on frame? Then the Lexus RX showed the world a luxury crossover, soon all those body on framers were gone, and every brand pushed crossovers because they rode and handled better, got better gas mileage etc. The Escalade is well done, GM is the best at big body on frame SUVs. But that is a dying breed. The Tahoe/Escalade my survive as the last of the breed while Toyota, Ford, Nissan give up that market. The Escalade hits that sweetspot of huge, bling, flashy, and pop culture icon, but it is going to be hard for Lincoln to copy all that. That is why they should attack from a different angle.
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The main problem with the likes of the MKS, Catera, S-type, Mark VIII, etc is they are half assed products. Mostly spawned in a hasty combination of platform share, engine share, mediocre styling, low rent interiors, etc. Those cars took short cuts regardless of platform. If you want a good luxury car it has to be purpose built, it can't be built out of a Fusion or Malibu. What are the best front wheel drive luxury cars on the market today? The Volvo S80, Lexus ES350, Cadillac XTS? Compared to the Rolls-Royce Phantom, Mercedes S-class, Bentley Mulsanne, and BMW 7-series on the rear wheel drive group. I think I'd rather have a car in the second group over the first.