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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I'd imagine the CLA is cross shopped with A3, top end Jettas, Passat CC even though it is larger, it is similar shape and German, Volvo S40/S60.
  2. smk4565
    Cadillac lacks models, and this rebuilding program has been going on since 2003 and isn't working. It isn't hard to know you need either hybrid or diesel, and perhaps even both. Cadillac doesn't have either. Cadillac doesn't sell a convertible. So obviously if someone wants a luxury convertible they are going to get a German car, or a Jaguar F-type. I don't think Cadillac has what it takes to keep the products rolling out as fast as the other luxury brands do. When the CT6 comes, it will just be another big sedan and it sort of looks like other Cadillacs, so people might see it as a $70,000 CTS/XTS type car. It could get lost in the market with how weak of a job Cadillac does marketing new products.
  3. smk4565
    Black Viper hit most of the points. ATS may have a good chassis, but it is saddled with a 6-speed when the others have 7 or 8 and have had them for years. The 3.6 V6 in the ATS has 273 lb-ft, the C400 has 354 lb-ft, big difference. The ATS doesn't have world beater engines, it has engines GM was using in 2011 Buicks. Give the ATS all new engines and transmission to go with that chassis and maybe they will be half way there. Still have to fix CUE, and the boring front end styling. Then at least they'd have a capable product, whether or not the marketing department can sell it would be the question.
  4. smk4565
    Hopefully the CT6 has more than 43 inches of rear legroom since that is what the S-class has and apperently rear leg room matters a lot. Some car rags might knock the ATS rear seat as to why it doesn't sell, I just think it isn't as good a car as the German 3. The Lexus IS is a design disaster, yet it sells fairly well somehow, so that is a mystery to me. If I were Cadillac, I'd be concerned that we couldn't outsell the IS which has engines from 2007 under the hood.
  5. smk4565
    The CLA is a small car, only an inch shorter than an ATS but 3 inch shorter wheelbase. Rear drive cars have better packaging and can stretch the wheelbase out so they can give more interior room. The CLA has a tiny back seat, but probably most CLA buyers aren't using it anyway. CLA sales aren't hurting, the car seems to be performing the way Mercedes wanted it to. The CLA gets 38 mpg highway though, better than any Cadillac, so if you were shopping gas mileage, not back seat, the CLA looks good. Personally, I'd never buy a CLA, it is front drive. Luckily Mercedes makes the C-class with a whopping 111.8 inch wheelbase, which is longer than the 3-series, the ATS, even the XTS. So there are no legroom issues on the C-class which has the best interior in the segment, the most powerful V6 in the segment and the only car in the segment with 500 hp.
  6. smk4565
    So do you like the dopey Mercedes column mounted shifter with push button park? I still like the old school shifter, which I have, but the stock does open up a lot of space in the center console.
  7. smk4565
    The GL competes with the Escalade, the G-wagon is priced a class above, which is basically a 1 vehicle segment. Regardless, I still support heritage names, or even a mix could work. The made up "Escalade" they could use "Elmirage" or some new names mixed with names from the past like Eldorado and Fleetwood. They could even use Aurora, Cadillac had a concept car called Aurora, before that was reworked and sent to Oldsmobile. Rolls and Bentley pull names from the past all the time, Phantom, Ghost, Mulsanne, etc. What doesn't make sense is mixing 2 naming schemes.
  8. smk4565
    BMW and Mercedes don't build garbage product though, and haven't done so for years on end. One should not confuse low price, such as a $31k CLA with being unreliable, poor handling, poor build quality garbage. Even the Cadillacs of the 80s that cost good money were crap, it wasn't just the low end Chevy that was crap. BMW and MB still make good product, their cars are superior to the competition, thus they are still outselling the competition. The E-class is the oldest car in is segment and the 5-series is the 2nd oldest, yet they still outsell the others. For BMW or Mercedes to fall, someone else has to build and market a better product, no one has show the ability to do that. The Metris I don't think will be the downfall at all, they already are producing it and selling it in other markets, so selling it in the US just leads to more profit. They have to keep the profits rolling to fund the R&D budget and all the money needed to fund the Formula 1 team as was mentioned earlier. I could see using the Freightliner brand name for the Metris and Sprinter, but I would assume that was considered and it was determined that selling light duty vans though the existing Mercedes dealer network was better to do.
  9. smk4565
    But Denysschen says alpha numerics are better than names and the new XT3, XT4, XT5 naming system is best for business. I disagree with him and think names are better for Cadillac because that is what they were for 50 years. But you can't have it both ways and say word names are bad, then use a word name on your #1 product.
  10. smk4565
    Yet BMW and Mercedes sales continue to rise, while Cadillac, Lincoln, Porsche, Maserati and Jaguar all declined last month. The Sprinter has been on sale as a Mercedes in the USA for 7 years, and the brand image hasn't been hurt, sales haven't gone down, there is no cause for panic in the streets of Stuttgart. If the sales, marketing and product were flawed, then Mercedes wouldn't keep growing while many of their competitors struggle.
  11. smk4565
    If names do not matter then "Escalade" should be changed to XT7 to fit the rest of the naming scheme. If product is all that matters, that would be a logical move so they have XT3-5-7-8, etc. But we know Cadillac will not drop "Escalade" because the name means something.
  12. smk4565
    The 918 does the Nurburgring in under 7 minutes, so clearly this is an amazing machine in terms of performance. The question is it better than the McLaren P1 or Ferrari La Ferrari? However, I think all 3 just got show up by the Koenigsegg Regera, which is way faster and looks better than them too. The Regera has 300 more horsepower than a Veyron Super Sport and goes from 93-155 mph in 3.2 seconds, faster than a ZR-1 can do 0-62. Think about that rate of acceleration for a moment. And it goes 0-250 mph in under 20 seconds. 200 mph is old news, 250 mph is the new standard.
  13. smk4565
    But who is going to stop them? The ATS and CTS were Cadillac's best effort and made no impact, in fact both cars are in sales decline while the 3-series and C-class are on the rise. Infiniti has the Q50, another non threat, and a dated Q70 that has never challenged the E-class or 5-series. Lexus gets all their sales off old geezers buying the ES350 and that demographic is on their last car, and the soccer moms buying the RX. Credit to Lexus for finding the luxury crossover niche back in the late 90s and keeping RX buyers coming back, but 1 successful product of Lexus isn't going to topple M-B or BMW.
  14. smk4565
    Mercedes will be just fine. This strategy has worked in Europe for years, and no one has hurt them, Lexus, Infiniti and Cadillac can't even make a dent in Europe. The S-class and E-class outsell the BMW and Audi counterparts in Europe. So they are fine on that continent, they really only compete against the other Germans, and maybe Jaguar competes with them in the UK. In China Audi is the luxury car of choice, helped by the government buying A6's like crazy. Audi sells over 200,000 A6's a year there, more than their total US sales volume. Mercedes is a distant 3rd in China, but the strategy there is for Maybach to bring big profit margins. The CLA/GLA are here to compete with the A3, X1, 2-series, Volvo, Acura, etc. If the CLA/GLA weren't here, then Mercedes wouldn't have a car under $40,000, which would be ignoring a lot of potential buyers. Plus they have to play the CAFE game. Mercedes makes more 500 hp cars than any other brand, so there has to be an offset somewhere. Mercedes not having the CLA would be like Chevy pricing the Cruze at $20,000 base, and discontinuing the Spark and Sonic, and letting all car sales below $20,000 go to Ford or Toyota. It wouldn't make any business sense for Mercedes to not sell a car below $40,000 and let Lexus, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti and Audi take those sales. Mercedes is still an elite luxury line. The S-class dominates its segment with a price $20,000 over the competitors. The SL drove the rest of the high end roadster segment out of business, the XK, SC430, and XLR are gone. The E and C class are the most expensive cars in their segments, and over the past 10 years have been 1 or 2 in sales. Pus they have had a high end sports car like the SLR McLaren, SLS Gullwing, or the new AMG GT, which BMW hasn't had an answer to until maybe the i8, Audi has had the R8, and Lexus the LF-A which they made like 400 of and now Lexus has nothing.
  15. smk4565
    I would venture to guess 2 out of 3 people that walk into a Cadillac dealership will be confused by CTS and CT6 and not understand the difference. They will think it is a stretched CTS or a CTS with a V6 or something. Their naming scheme should have been ATS -->LaSalle (coupe/convertible), CTS -->Seville (Seville coupe), XTS --> Calais, Eldorado would be their 6-series competitor and grand touring coupe (could do a 4 door coupe Eldo even) and Fleetwood for their large sedan.
  16. smk4565
    The Camaro looks different, which is probably a good thing the current Camaro is fat and overweight. That Camaro looks like it wants to be a Mustang, that could be a good thing, but could hurt it too. The Malibu in the 5 in '15 teaser looks like a Camry from the A-pillar forward with a Chevy grille. The C-pillar and greenhouse have a Chrysler 200 shape. Ed Welburn said this would be a ground breaking car with breakthrough design, I don't see it. It looks like a mismash of what is already on sale. Although most midsize cars are a mismash of styling and aren't very original.
  17. smk4565
    A few years ago many of you claimed that offering the Sprinter was going to drag the Mercedes brand image down, and it didn't. Mercedes still sticks to "The Best or Nothing" philosophy. The Metris/Sprinter are the best commercial vans, they have the best luxury car in the world, the best race car in the world, the best off-roader in the world. They out did Rolls-Royce in luxury, beat Ferrari and McLaren on the track, and outdid Hummer off road.
  18. smk4565
    I think it looks good, one of their best looking concepts in a long time. Perhaps the future CC will look like this. The grille is a bit over the top, but overall, this is a sweet looking car.
  19. smk4565
    Is the Corvette a bad sports car because Chevy makes the lowly Sonic with a 138 hp engine? The S-class is still the best car in the world, regardless of what Mercedes does with their commercial line. This van might sell fairly well too, and they already produce it, so it wasn't like it cost them R&D dollars.
  20. smk4565
    The Impala can't really go up market, the Lacosse is there, plus the XTS while it is around. The Malibu could grow in size, but they can't push the price up, because the Camry price is not going up by any big margin. This outline looks a bit like an Audi A7, and I don't see that selling in the family sedan segment. Things like cost of ownership, reliability and gas mileage is what sells here. The Camry hasn't had dramatic or sporty styling ever and it has crushed all the others in sales for the past 20 years. If they make a dramatic shift, it will be interesting to see what happens.
  21. smk4565
    I think we just get the commercial version for the US, to pair up with the Sprinter. This fills a void though, there are only compact vans or giant full size for the commercial market.
  22. smk4565
    I love how when gas prices drop trucks sales boom as if gas isn't going to go back up to $4. My how the American consumer quickly forgets. Cadillac would be out of business without the Escalade, yet alpha numeric names are what people want and what sells according to DeNeschyn.
  23. smk4565
    The E-class took a beating, but that could just be one bad month. I am surprised the C-class isn't nearing 10,000 a month, but maybe with the diesel and plug-in coming this summer, and the coupe this fall that may happen. There is a new E-class coming next year, perhaps some people are waiting. The CLA and GLA have the Mercedes look and image which people like, and what is their competition? The A3 and BMW X1? Not exactly world beaters there. Interesting though that the GLA, GLK and GL all basically sold the same volume.
  24. smk4565
    Not surprising really, they rely on younger buyers, or people moving up from a VW or a Subaru WRX or something and want a small sport car, so they get their A3 and Q3 sales. The A4/A5 are getting stale, and the A6 and A8 never sold well anyway. The 3-series and C-class are better than what Audi can offer.
  25. smk4565
    The 3.0 TT V6 that is all new is really the key engine for this car, because that will be the volume engine. The V6 will have to have the power, fuel economy, and NVH refinement to beat the Europeans or the Korean V8s if this car gets compared to the Equus/K900 at all. Execution on the new V6 is important. They obviously need a V8 and a diesel, but those will probably be lower volume.
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