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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    The G-class as it is, is what the fan base wants. There is no reason to change it. The Jeep Wrangler has looked the same for 35 years and it is the iconic Jeep and still has a loyal fan base. If you want a modern unibody luxury crossover, Mercedes has the GL. G-class production is also sub-contracted out to Austria, it doesn't come from Stuttgart. What I didn't know until I did some research is the company that assembles it also makes the Mini Countryman and Pacemen. In the past they made Aston Martin Rapide, BMW X3, Jeep Grand Cherokee/Commander, Saab 9-3 convertible, and the early 4matic Benzes. I think the G63 6x6 is built by Brabus.
  2. smk4565
    Lincoln's rebirth plan will be under funded. Cadillac and Lincoln both face the problem of not enough R&D dollars. Lincoln will never get into the tier 1 luxury brands, I am not even sure they'll still be selling Lincolns in 10 years.
  3. smk4565
    RWD is the answer, it is just that Cadillac doesn't have brand cache and they just now are moving to 8-speed transmission and they don't have hybrids, diesels, DOHC V8, V12, convertible, etc. Their product line is still thin and powertrains to reliant on what Chevy uses. Lincoln will not be able to sell this car in the $60-80k range if that is the target price, too high for a fwd based car. As far as China goes, The Continental or CT6 won't sell there because they don't have 4 rings on the grille.
  4. smk4565
    Are they replacing the MKS with the Continental? or is the Continental supposed to be a $60,000 car above the MKS? Which would make it more of a K900 or Equus competitor, or what is the expected price point?
  5. smk4565
    The S-class has too much power for the other guys to beat with 4 and 6 cylinder engines. An S550 does 0-60 in 4.8 seconds, pretty quick for a big car, and they have faster models. A lighter weight 7-series with a 600 hp V12 could be a threat, but I doubt they put more hp in the 7-series than a Rolls-Royce, so the V12 will probably have like 540 hp. One has to wonder though what the quest for light weight will do to ride quality or sound deadening. Because in this segment luxury still comes first, and there is a image thing with a 4 or even V6, they seem common. Just like a V12 is a status symbol because it is so rare and high end.
  6. smk4565
    What does a CT6 3.0 TT with all wheel drive, 4 power heated/cooled seats, the 34 speaker stereo, panoramic glass roof, tray tables, dvd screens, etc weigh? All that stuff adds weight. Car and Driver tested a CTS 2.0t rear drive that was 3731 lbs, 64 less than that is 3677. All wheel drive adds 150-200 lbs plus all the luxury goodies, bigger engine, and the weight will rise. The S-class can hammer all these cars on power though. Jaguar and Audi tried the aluminum body thing, BMW is getting the 7-series back down in weight, that is all well in good. But if you put a small engine in, then you don't have an advantage. It is like saying the Miata is 800 lbs lighter than a Corvette, doesn't matter the Corvette kills it on power.
  7. smk4565
    The S-class is a luxury car, of course the the magic body control and air springs are going to go for comfort. That is the hallmark of the S-class, that legendary ride quality.
  8. smk4565
    What Clarkson proved in his X6 test is how over rated all wheel drive is. Tires matter more. Obviously 4 drive wheels gives better traction thatn 2 all other things being equal. But people over rate all wheel drive. My car has 245/40 ZR18 tires in the front and 265/35 ZR18 in the rear. With summer tires it would be useless. With Blizzaks I have driven it through 2 winters of snow without much of any problem. Getting up a hill from a stop can be a challenge. But the tires are what matter for grip, not the drive wheels.
  9. smk4565
    Magic body control is the S-class suspension that scans the road ahead to adjust the suspension before hitting a bump. That is where the real magic is.
  10. smk4565
    A turbo 4 in any full size luxury sedan is terrible. Turbo 4s are in entry lux sedans and family sedans, why would you want that in a full size car. As I put earlier, the only way to pass a turbo 4 as acceptable is if you had 100-150 hp electric motor packaged with it so you can sell the efficiency aspect of it, but still have over 350 hp and torque, which for a base model is okay. But a flagship sedan should have over 400 hp. We also don't know what the CT6 actually weighs. Lets see what the production models weigh and actually performance test data.
  11. smk4565
    And outside of the USA none of that stuff sells. Jeep is the only brand they could sell outside of the USA. Which makes it the only brand of value in the FCA portfolio. Sergio is trying to merge because he knows FCA can't survive as is. With longer and longer product cycles, too many brands, too many single market products, he knows the clock is ticking. No one is buying what he is selling though.
  12. smk4565
    I know the 8-series wasn't a roadster or sports car, it was a big executive coupe. And as much as like to see Mercedes clear out and monopolize the luxury 2 door segment from $60-120,000, it would still be nice if BMW had an 8-series or even a Z8 style car. Something with some cool factor, rather than their sedans that all look the same and their SUVs that all look the same. And I know BMW has the i8, so I do give them credit for building what looks like a concept car and actually putting it on sale.
  13. smk4565
    Wrong - Above 275hp, you need Hi-Per strut.. maybe. And that argument negates the entire Audi lineup if it were true. The XTS V-Sport is very nearly track ready and it is FWD based. The SRX sux so bad that it outsells its competitors, the GLK, X3, and Q5, regularly.... even at the tail end of its production run. Put an XTS V-sport on a track against a CTS V-sport and who wins? The SRX is bigger than those 3 Germans, and I think the Lexus RX and SRX both benefit from a lot of people liking Toyota or Chevy crossovers (or fwd crossovers in general) and it is a logical move up. But with the Q3, GLA, and X1 in place it allows the GLC, X3, Q5 to grow a little, add more content, more power etc. The Germans over time have a way of wearing down the market and winning people over.
  14. smk4565
    This post just shows you have no knowledge about the company.............. at all............ What does FCA do better than the other guys? VW makes better small cars than Fiat. If you are looking for South American or European sales, the Up!, Polo, Golf, etc are a lot more competitive. VW's global weakness is on mid-size to large sedans in the USA and they don't have a pick up truck or minivan. Toyota has all the bases covered, Honda does cars and minivans better than FCA, GM and Ford do cars and trucks better than FCA. None of the big 5 car companies need FCA. Jeep is the one prize that any company could use, because people buy Jeep for the look, the brand image, the off road recognition, etc. It wouldn't matter if the Jeep had a Pentastar V6 or a Ford V6 or Toyota V6 under the hood. Jeep could fit in with almost any of the big carmakers and not be an overlap to their existing product lines.
  15. smk4565
    The 850 was always to be a grand tourer, it was the coupe version of the 7-series. BMW has no product like that now. Actually the S-class coupe is the only product on the market like that now other than a DB9 or Maserati Gran Turismo, which are smaller sports cars. The 6-series is ugly, the 6-series gran coupe is nearly the size of a 7-series, that makes no sense. But perhaps Mercedes is just cornering the grand tourer market with the SL and S-class coupe. The Jag XK is gone, Lexus SC is gone, XLR gone, 8-series gone. One by one they all tumbled.
  16. smk4565
    FWD is worse than RWD. Cadillac spent 1967-now refining the wrong drivetrain. Once you get above 275 hp or $40,000 in price you start needing RWD to deliver the superior ride and handling and handle the extra engine power. So far this category is the Q3, GLA and X1. They all have a turbo 4 and all wheel drive riding on a front drive platform. And entry lux cute-ute buyer is probably clueless about which way the engine is mounted, as long as it has awd they are happy. There isn't a rear drive alternative in this segment, probably never will be, because on a platform this small and with 200-225 hp, you don't really need rear drive. The SRX isn't this segment though, these SUVs are nearly Buick Encore size. If Cadillac made a compact crossover that was FWD I wouldn't care because it would be too small a vehicle for the Alpha platform, they would have no other choice. The SRX or soon to be XT5 is supposed to be a mid-size vehicle, thus it would fit on Alpha and it should be rwd.
  17. smk4565
    The only valuable parts of this company are Jeep brand, Ram pickups, and minivan. Maybe Alfa Romeo and Maserati to the right buyer. VW, Ford, Mazda, GM, Nissan or anyone else can make small sedans and inline fours and V6s. Jeep is a unique product and brand that other big car companies can't duplicate. Pick up truck and minivan would fill gaps at VW or Mazda, but don't do much for Toyota or Nissan. Sergio might want to sell this company in pieces if that is his goal.
  18. smk4565
    That thing is ugly. They need to bring back the M1 or the 850csi and pay homage to 2 of their best products, that for some reason they cancelled so they could make SUVs. If they took this exact body and only change the head lights and tail lights to LED, this would be their best looking car for 2016. Look at those wheels, no B-pillar, the small grille.
  19. smk4565
    I actually don't like BMWs in terms of styling, never have. They make good engines and suspensions, I'll give them that. The 3-series has always been rear wheel drive, they have always had handling. If the stuff Cadillac made in the 80s and 90s was so good, they wouldn't have been overtaken with such ease by BMW. The numbers after the 3 on a BMW are getting rather inconsistent, but engine displacements are always changing, I don't know why they don't just stick with a number. But it is also complicated because they have two 2.0 turbo fours making different horsepower. But at least they still call it the 3-series. I am also aware of the 80s econobox base models, the E-class taxis, the fleet cars, and whatever else the Germans sell in Europe that would be seen as poor image in the USA. But no one has been able to go to Europe and challenge them. Not Lexus, not Infiniti, not Cadillac. So it doesn't really matter what they do in Europe because they have the monopoly and high barriers to entry.
  20. smk4565
    But BMW didn't make the X5 a $35,000 front drive SUV. Cadillac moves products around segments and change names like crazy. There is no clear direction. If Cadillac comes out with a new XT1 front drive crossover to compete in this segment, and makes the XT5 a CTS based $50k crossover to compete with the X5 then the product mix would make sense. But suppose Cadillac made the next gen CTS a $36k front drive Lexus ES competitor, after 15 years of saying it is a 5-series competitor. It wouldn't make sense. On a side note, how badly does Cadillac want to be BMW with XT1, XT3, XT5 to compete with the X1, X3, and X5. They need to think up some new names in Detroit, errr New York.
  21. smk4565
    Not surprising, they have no money. This is why they want to sell. The Jeep brand has big value and pickups make profit. Most of their other stuff nothing special and could be a product that is co-developed or badge jobbed from another company. I don't get how they even stay competitive, they always have dated product.
  22. smk4565
    All I said was the X1 looks better than the other 2 competitors. The GLA interior might be a little better. I don't like front wheel drive, but I understand why all 3 Germans offer a compact SUV in the low 30s because they want that entry level buyer. The GLK and X3 can then start around $38k, the mid-size SUVs around $50k. My problem with the SRX is that it was RWD, and targeted against the X5 and ML, and then they made it a Lincoln MKX/Lexus RX clone. It was counteractive to the rear wheel drive plan Cadillac was on, and said Cadillac is a Lincoln/Acura competitor, not a German competitor. And the Cadillac brass keeps saying they are on par with the Germans.
  23. smk4565
    I think this looks better than the GLA and Q3. BMW somehow made this look both truckier and sportier than the other 2 Germans.
  24. smk4565
    They still make Lincolns? Seriously though, how did they sell 3,300 MKZ's. How does that car outsell an A4 or ATS? Or why didn't those 3,300 people spend the extra 5 grand and get a C-class instead?
  25. smk4565
    Time to retire the Clubman, Paceman, Roadster and Coupe. And why is the X1 a car, when ever other X is a crossover?
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