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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    They can dump SEAT and Skoda also. Jeep and Ram are the profit centers of FCA, at least in the USA. I am just saying if VW were to buy them, then you don't need VW, Chrysler and Dodge brands, so either Chrysler or VW has to go away. The other option is move the 300 and repackage it as a $35-45,000 Phaeton, move the 200 to be a new Dodge Avenger and kill the Chrysler brand. Then Dodge would have the Dart, Avenger, Charger, Challenger, a real 4 car lineup, plus the Journey and Caravan. VW would get a full size car and resurrect the Routan to replace Town and Country.
  2. smk4565
    I remember when the 540i and 740i were V8s. The renaming stuff is sort of crazy, imagine searching for a used 3-series and having to sort out 330i, 335i, 335xi, 335i xDrive, 340i, etc Makes sense though to up the power, the 3-series had been at 300 hp for like 9 years. I didn't realize they were going to have a plug in so soon, I think the C-class plug in isn't coming in until fall or winter, BMW might beat them to the punch.
  3. smk4565
    Not surprised that Toyota and Lexus are the most reliable. Clearly every Toyota goes for 500,000 miles with no maintenance. Perhaps also a study could be done on most boring car to drive. Toyota would win that too.
  4. smk4565
    Or sell this company to VW and be done with it. The Chrysler 200 is selling, the Passat is not. VW has no minivan or commercial van or pickup, so the Ram Tucks don't overlap, and Jeep is proving that they still sell and Jeep is a valuable brand. Rework the Dart to a Chrysler 100, the 200 sells, keep the 300 and Town and Country. Kill Dodge and Fiat, let the 38 people a month that want an Alfa special order it.
  5. smk4565
    But a possible $70,000 Cadillac CT6 is going to have a 4-cyldiner, so by that level of engine placement the Regal should have a base turbo 3-cylinder and the top end Lacrosse a turbo four. Personally, I think Cadillac should use the 330 hp V6 as their base CTS and CT6 engine, turbo 4 in ATS only. I am all for the "there is no replacement for displacement" argument, since the Maxima, Camry, Passat, Accord all come with a V6, I'd have no problem with a Regal V6. If the Malibu is 4-cylinder only, giving the Regal a V6 is a good way to separate the two.
  6. smk4565
    The 200 is selling well, looks like they actually came up with a winner. I don't get how the Compass and Patriot are still on sale, let alone people actually buy them. Those haven't be redesigned in 10 years it seems, and the new Renegage and Cherokee are similar size and price for more entry level Jeeps. They should kill the Compass off now, maybe keep the boxy Patriot.
  7. smk4565
    Those new C-classes are sweet. I was hoping to get one as a loaner on my last service visit, but I got a GLK instead. The Journey must have a lot of sales to Avis and National. People can't seriously buy that thing.
  8. smk4565
    I agree with Drew. Take the Suburban for example, that is Chevy's longest running name plate. If they changed the name, I bet sales would drop. If Toyota changed the Camry name, sales would drop because people know what the Camry is, they are familiar with it and trust it. When you launch a new product and change the name, you need extra marketing to get people to know what it is, you have to build up emotion and get people excited about the product. Case in point, the Ford Five Hundred, no one knew or cared what a Ford Five Hundred was, so off to the redesign studio and back came the Taurus because the Taurus is recognizable.
  9. smk4565
    Does this count fleet cars? Some of those cars are high on rental car lots, so there could be a buy and sell after one year. The C-class surprises me, unless people are trading the old one on the new model year, normally I'd think people would keep one of those. The X1 is tiny, so I could see the yuppies trading to an X3 after a year and realizing they bought a small wagon more than a crossover. Charger, Sonic and Cruze not surprised, I am surprised the Chrysler 200 or Dodge Journey isn't on there. If they even make the Journey still.
  10. smk4565
    I am pretty sure if Ford called their sports coupe the Willard or the Henry or the Edsel back in 1965 rather than Mustang, it would not be here today, and would not have been a sales success. Name recognition matters. Why not rename the Malibu, Impala and Corvette to CV4, CV6 and CV8-S? Simple, CV = Chevrolet, the number for how many cylinders, and S for sport. Wonder how that would affect sales. Oh right it would crush them because no one knows what a CV8-S is and they want a Corvette. Just like Lincoln is better off with Continental rather than MKS and Cadillac is better off with Fleetwood and Eldorado rather than CT6.
  11. smk4565
    This car is really ugly though, it looks Japanese. The first gen Volt looked good in the front end, even though the headlights stole a bit from the 2005 era Acura TL, I still liked how the front of the original Volt looked. The 2016 has a much better interior, and this is a much better price than the $40k of the original Volt, but still $34k is a lot of a compact Chevy. Although a Prius is overpriced too.
  12. smk4565
    But they'll keep those X1 and GLA buyers and move them up the ladder. The Best selling Mercedes SUV is the ML, and the E-class when new is often their best selling car, so their middle models still sell well. The Lexus NX has allowed them to push the RX into the $45k range and it still sells well. The ATS is just as cheap as a GLA or NX or X1, Cadillac just isn't getting big volume out of it like other lux brands are.
  13. smk4565
    The Germans will have a load of plug in hybrids also and that adds more cost to a car than a diesel engine would and talk about weight. The battery pack alone in a plug in could be 400 lbs. A Tesla Model S is nearly 5,000 lbs because of the batteries. There is talk that the Mercedes quad turbo diesel will make 400 hp and 627 lb-ft of torque. That sounds pretty sweet, if it gets 35 mpg highway, that is hard to pass up.
  14. smk4565
    The AdBlue stuff the diesel cars need is once every 15,000 miles and is like $80 or something. If you get a new or certified BMW it has prepaid maintenance, so you don't even pay that the first 4 years. It isn't overly expensive. Plus diesels run forever and ever, the longevity of diesel engines is another argument for it. The regulations do need work though, the gas tax should be raised to make regular gas and diesel prices the same, make diesel cheaper than premium gas and watch it sell. A gas tax is a better way to influence consumer purchasing and fund new roads. Most of our roads are crap, higher gas tax could be used on better roads (if they do the right thing and don't waste the money which the government may likely do). And if 87 octane gas and diesel cost the same, you encourage more high mileage diesels to be sold. This would work better than CAFE. On a side note, gas guzzler tax should be applied the same to all vehicles, not just cars, trucks should have the same gas guzzler rules. The Escalade or Ram Hemi pickup, should have the same gas guzzler tax an Aston Martin or Ferrari would have. Pick a number of like 16 mpg combined, if it is lower, then you pay a gas tax. Watch how fast something like the Escalade would get a diesel option if the V8 came with a $3000 gas guzzler tax. And for people that don't care about money and are going to drop $80k on an Escalade, they'll just pay the tax like people buying a Dodge Viper pay it.
  15. smk4565
    But if the German trio all have 40-45 mpg sedans and the ATS and CTS can't crack 31 mpg, Cadillac has a problem. Not only will BMW and Benz have a diesel is almost every model but a plug in hybrid of almost every model also. Gas only isn't enough anymore.
  16. smk4565
    Well they might as well fleet sale Equinoxes. The retail ones probably have decent incentives on them anyway. And people will buy used SUVs, so the rental companies can probably get better resale on an Equinox than they can a Malibu. They might prefer an SUV to a rental car. Because the Malibu or Cruze or 300 might get that rental car stigma and have crap resale value, but most American car shoppers have such a love for crossovers, that even if the Equinox has a 40% fleet rate, they'll still want it because it is a crossover.
  17. smk4565
    Gas prices will eventually go back up. This is what doomed GM the first time around, they thought gas would always be cheap so bet the farm on huge trucks and SUVs, and in 2008 or 2009 whenever it went to $4.25 a gallon and the economy tanked, those big truck sales died. You have to diversify the portfolio. Marketing a diesel is easy. 425 lb-ft of torque and 38 mpg. I fail to see how near Corvette like torque with Chevy Sonic fuel economy is a hard sell. Or for people that don't understand that, "the new CTS diesel, 30% more fuel economy, 50% more torque than the gas V6 model." That is a pretty easy advertisement, even Cadillac can get that one right. Although they might make an ad that says "Dare to be different, Dare to Diesel" and it will be really vague and no one will understand it.
  18. smk4565
    That is a crap ton of Equinoxes, the Lambdas did well too overall even though the Enclave was down. Crossovers are staying hot. Which I don't get the mass appeal, I'd rather have something that drives sporty. Silverado still up with the Colorado on sale, so that is a good sign that people just didn't buy the smaller truck and flee the Silverado. CTS is hurting, 2nd month in a row with a huge drop.
  19. smk4565
    Diesel four and six cylinder is for sure needed, and they need it in the USA, that shouldn't even be up for debate. The A4 and C-class are getting a diesel, the Jag XE will have one and the 3-series has it. I'd imagine the next Jag XF will have a diesel here, and of course the 5-series and E-class have one. Cadillac has to have diesels for the ATS and CTS, and a diesel would be good in a crossover where torque matters more than horsepower. Most of the German SUVs offer a diesel engine already, Cadillac should put a diesel in the XT5.
  20. smk4565
    No, I am not saying they need to fool customers. I am just saying Cadillac shouldn't aspire to be the value luxury brand, they need to promote the product more than the price. If this car is better than an M5, I'm sure Cadillac would like to price it at $95,000 base and pocket and extra $10k in profit. But I'd imagine their pricing analysts don't see them getting enough volume if it were M5 money. That perceived value or brand image is where the luxury brands make their profit.
  21. smk4565
    All expensive sedans depreciate quickly. Sports cars hold value, cars like a 911 or Corvette. Which I never got why someone would pay $60,000 for a 6 year old 911 when a new one is $85,000. Cadillac really needs the CTS-V to sell on merit so they can build the brand image. You don't want to have the image of "we're the discount luxury brand, buy our car because it is cheaper." You want people to buy to buy your car because it is better or the brand image creates some emotional connection. That is how Porsche gets fools to pay $800 for a carbon fiber rear window wiper.
  22. smk4565
    I don't think the interior is very good on this car, it looks really bland. I bet they overprice it like the XF is. When the XF came out you got the 4.2 liter V8 for E-class V6 money, I think it was actually $2,000 less than an E350 at around $49k. There was a value equation in play there. Now a 4 cylinder XF is $51k and the interior hasn't really changed since 2009. That doesn't seem like a good deal to trade a V8 for a I-4 and the price went up. I bet when they price the diesel over $40k and $50k for the V6, and then people will go buy a 3-series because it is cheaper and a proven commodity.
  23. smk4565
    It was a joke. Like saying a VW Microbus is rear engined so it probably handles the same as a Porsche 911.
  24. smk4565
    Why not just put a "d" badge on the diesel cars, and an "S" badge on the Supercharged V6. Then if they do a 2 liter gas engine they can put no badge on it. Sort of like how the F-type has Base, S, and R. I do like the engines though, the diesel should post high mpg and the V6 out powers everything but the C400. The performance is there. I wonder if the pricing will be competitive or if they'll want over $50k for a V6.
  25. smk4565
    Wait, did you just compare a Fiero to a GT40? Although, they both are mid-engined, so they are basically the same. Other than the 4 consecutive LeMans wins.
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