Jump to content
News
Reviews
Discussons
Activity
Create New...
Close

smk4565

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13,686

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    11

 Content Type 

Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    The Fiat 500L I think is the least reliable individual car model sold in the USA. Not surprised the sales volume is awful and they languish on dealer lots. The Fiat 500 coupe was a fad, that for a year or two was a novelty item. It had that funky Italian look and was tiny so just like the PT Cruiser, or the New Beetle when it first came out, or even the Mini Cooper, they sell for a couple years while they are a hot item, then people realize the car sucks and all it had was styling, and the sales dry up and something else comes along.
  2. smk4565
    I mean I guess they did an AMG on the GLA, but that is a compact car, I think the length is less than a Corvette's. They could do a V-sport with 400 hp but Cadillac won't have a 500+ hp SUV to compete with the Cayenne turbo, the Range Rover Supercharged, the X5 M or the AMG's. Then you consider a Mercedes-Maybach GL600 is likely coming to do battle with the Bentley SUV, a Maserati SUV is in the works and Rolls and Lamborghini might make an SUV. The Escalade is still one of the top dog SUVs (at least in terms of price), but there could be a whole slew of $100,000+ SUVs hitting the market that make the Escalade look 2nd tier. Then do they risk it becoming like the Fleetwood/Deville of the SUV world, riding high for a few generations, until the more powerful, better handling, more luxurious imports came along and stole the ultra rich buyers. The Escalade is selling well, and no doubt a profit god for GM, but it is still a fancy Tahoe, and it hasn't really been challenged by anyone else in the past 10 years other than the Navigator which has gotten really dated, and the Mercedes GL which outsold the Escalade most of the past 5 years. Put 5 or 6 Euro luxury brands in that high end SUV segment and the Escalade is in for a battle.
  3. smk4565
    If Chi is scalable to difference sizes then it could replace both the Lambdas and the Thetas. The long wheel base Chi would be Enclave, the xT5 and other 3 row crossovers. A short wheelbase Chi could be Equinox, Terrain xT4. Similar to how they have a small and large Epsilon platform. But then you have an XT5 SUV that has no relation to a CT5 sedan. So their pointless naming scheme still doesn't make sense if they do that. And do they really think they can compete with the Germans with some front wheel drive crossovers. Lincoln and Acura have gone hard at that segment, and it has kept them alive, but it hasn't made them relevant. And how do you do a V-series of a front drive crossover?
  4. smk4565
    So Cadillac will get another front wheel drive crossover based on the Equinox, you have to figure a smaller than SRX crossover is coming on front drive, so much for their rear wheel drive plans.
  5. smk4565
    I was surprised by that too, since Fiat has the worst reliability in Europe and the worst in the USA, and Chrysler is right near the bottom also.
  6. smk4565
    They should give that $5 billion to cancer research or something worth while. Spending $5 billion on Lincoln is a waste of money.
  7. smk4565
    What I don't like is the top grille looks too small, and the lower air intake under the bumper is huge. Other cars use that styling cue also, it looks bad on all them. Why make your grille tiny, when that is a focal point, and make the air intake huge. Not a fan of black wheels on any car, but I am sure they have silver ones too, so not worried about that. The engine and performance data will be interesting to see how it compares to the Germans. The Lexus IS-F sucks, so I guess not much to worry about there, unless Lexus learns how to give a car torque.
  8. smk4565
    Can't Tesla still sell it over the Internet or if they can sell it in a neighboring state, people can just drive a few hours and bring it back. If people want a Tesla they will find a way to get one. And over time more and more people will buy Teslas and Michigan will probably lose money and business in the long run. It is this type of backward thinking that has led many of Michigan's cities to be bankrupt and living in depression.
  9. smk4565
    GM builds sedans, (mostly 4 cylinder) crossovers, and pick up trucks. No crazy talk about hatchbacks, coupes, wagons, or off roaders.
  10. smk4565
    Even if the CLA was the worst car ever built, it is unlikely E-class or S-class owners would ever know, it isn't like they are going to trade down to it. Chevy made a crappy subcompact Spark, it hasn't hurt Silverado sales. They are two totally different vehicles and different buyers. Mercedes sales, revenue, profits are at all time highs, their plan must be working. I am sure there are a lot of badge snob E-class buyers they don't know a thing about what is under the hood, but those are the best kind of customers to have, they will come back no matter what.
  11. smk4565
    Hard to prove the recalls caused values to drop. Pontiac and Saturn resale values were crushed when they killed the brands off. And it isn't like the Cobalt or mid 2000s Malibu or Impala had any resale value to begin with. A lot of the recalled cars are fleet sale queens or discontinued models/brands. But lawyers will be lawyers and try to capitalize on it none the less.
  12. smk4565
    I was in Europe once about 20 years ago when I was 12 years old. I don't remember the cars really. Mercedes may be regular over there now, but they also only have 2 competitors. The Japanese and American luxury brands are non-factors in Europe, Jaguar is a small player and Volvo is barely a luxury brand. All they have to worry about is BMW and Audi and they beat both those brands in Europe. I bought a Mercedes because they have the best engineering and their cars last forever. And I could get a DOHC V8, 7-speed, air suspension, drilled brake rotors, hydraulic power steering, and the luxury features in a used car that was good value. Mercedes does the little things, my car has a pair of white gloves where the spare tire is so your hands don't get dirty if you have to change it. They hit every detail, most of the others don't.
  13. smk4565
    Mercedes have sold commercial trucks and A-class and B-class in Europe for years, and kept their image just fine there, Lexus, Infiniti, Cadillac, etc haven't been able to break in. They are selling the CLA and GLA to stop Audi from grabbing all the entry lux badge snobs. BMW seems slow to respond here but they have the 1-series in Europe. Mercedes can't let their two rivals get ahead of them, so this is the result.
  14. smk4565
    I think the GLA will post decent sales. It has the small crossover loom without being too tricky and women like that. I never said the CLA or GLA were the best autos, but they are as good as a Volvo or Acura ILX or VW CC or something like that. Mercedes won't tarnish the image because the S-class is the best car in the world and the C and E are kept near the top of their classes, so they aren't going to scare away the faithful.
  15. smk4565
    If they made these smaller I bet that 4 cylinder would have got 30 mpg.
  16. smk4565
    With the Envision Buick would have a 3 SUV lineup and I think they would be in good shape. The Terrain needs to be a bit bigger than the Envision and at least seem a little bit off road worthy. Then in a sense the Encore and Envision are compact and small, the Terrain can be mid size and you don't have overlap aside from Acadia and Enclave.
  17. smk4565
    You can all knock the CLA but the CLA45 AMG beat the CTS V-Sport in the Car and Driver Lightning Lap, so the performance of the CLA must not be so awful. I never drove a CLA, I have sat in them and they are not as nice as any other Mercedes obviously, but there are worse cars for the money. If the CLA was hurting their image then S-class and E-class sales wouldn't be up and those two wouldn't be easily outselling any of their competitors. Their high end cars are out performing Lexus, BMW and Audi, can't to that with a poor image.
  18. smk4565
    Mercedes isn't going to cut models, that would be like Chevy selling only the Cruze, Malibu and Impala and the Equinox, Tahoe and Silverado. Chevy "carpet bombs" every segment also and it works. Cadillac needs more models and you can blame GM for not giving Cadillac the models that it needs.
  19. smk4565
    Mercedes sells a lot of taxis because their cars are more durable and last longer than any one else. Toyota makes a few strong products, Toyota's strength (aside from manufacturing efficiency) is marketing and brand imaging. They could sell dog poo on wheels, and as long as it has that "T" badge on it people will buy it. The Prius has been a huge marketing symbol for Toyota, and it is a car that is only good at one thing, but since the Prius is the gold standard of fuel economy it makes people think all Toyotas get good gas mileage. I personally think Toyotas are ugly and would never buy one, but they are pretty reliable and cheap to maintain, and the Camry and Avalon are roomy and the build quality is decent. Cadillac doesn't have that brand power that Toyota has for people to just go buy one by default without thinking about it. Hard to build that, and Cadillac doesn't really have a singular focus of what they are or a product that can be an icon for the brand in the way that the Prius has been the icon for Toyota.
  20. smk4565
    Didn't you just contradict yourself there? So much for NOT the moving goal posts. So Audi and Porsche get a pass for pillaging the VW parts and bins because the company as a whole has a bigger budget? Do you even proof read your own garbage? Engineering is NOT who has bigger budget. Engineering is who makes the MOST out of the budget he gets. It took more money to make the movie Gravity than for India to put a Mars mission. And with such a big budget, where is the US government with moving the country forward? My point on Audi is that they get a lot of money from the VW group, just as Cadillac does from GM. But the added advantage Audi has is that they in the past used a Lamborghini V10 in the RS6 and S8, they can do the R8 because the Gallardo engineering work is done already. They can share a platform and engine with the A8 and Bentley Continental. Having those higher end brands lets Audi build a mid engine super car or a 12 cylinder car. Cadillac is probably not going to have a mid-engine super car or a V12 sedan because they don't have the economies of scale that Audi has being part of the VW luxury group. To the engineering point, what has Cadillac made? A bunch or sedans, since 2003 they made 1 generation of a CTS coupe, and now 1 ATS coupe. And the XLR convertible. Three 2-doors, only 1 convertible in 12 years? They make the XTS, ELR and Escalade off Chevy platforms, and the SRX is pretty close to an Equinox. They got the ATS and CTS, but there is no V-series of either, there is no hybrid or diesel on either. Cadillac is basically the American Infiniti, and I think Cadillac's leadership really wants them to be top tier, but I don't know if these guys can get them there.
  21. smk4565
    Mercedes in September posted its best global sales month ever. Their biggest growth sector is the S-class up 105%, granted it is a small volume product at 76,000 sold globally so far this year. The A-Class, B-class, CLA, GLA combined have sold 335,000, but they have sold 261,000 E-class alone. GLK, ML, and GL sales combined at 250,000. Their #1 selling product line is still the E-class. The A/B-class chassis cars are mainly getting their numbers from China and emerging markets. In the USA the CLA is 7.8% of Mercedes sales (barely outselling the S-class), but it gives them a model to bring in younger buyers. If you are waiting for the collapse of Mercedes so that buyers will flee to buy a Cadillac it isn't going to happen. Mercedes keeps improving the S, E and C-class to keep the loyalists coming back. Cadillac better step their game up if they want to be the Standard of the World, and I still believe it comes down to money. Cadillac just can't spend money like the German trio, maybe not even as much as Lexus.
  22. smk4565
    Mercedes and BMW have better brand images than Cadillac. Mercedes just won the Formula 1 world championship Sunday. Cadillac has a more damaged image, I think they are trying to reboot with CT6-5-4-3, to start fresh, but the danger there is generic name products from a weak brand name. It is the problem Lincoln and Acura have, generic names from weak brands. Infiniti also, Q50, Q60 don't mean anything, so the sale comes from an emotional tie to the "Infiniti" brand and they aren't damaged, but they aren't thought of as prestigious either. 2nd problem comes down to money. Cadillac will never have the R&D budget that Mercedes or BMW do, and Audi benefits from a big budget and having other brands above and below them at VW, so there is a lot of money and resources to pull from. When you don't have the money, Cadillac is forced to pull from the Chevy parts bin or do things like an ATS sedan in year 1, ATS coupe in year 3, ATS-V in year 4, and never make a wagon or convertible. They have to stagger product roll outs because the money isn't there to do multiple body styles and engines in 1 year. Give Cadillac a $5 billion a year R&D budget and they can do some damage in the luxury market, but they aren't ever going to get that.
  23. smk4565
    AWD V6 is a poor combo for fuel economy, that hurts Acura compared to some competitors. Probably why they want some FWD and 4 cylinder models to advertise the higher fuel economy. Acura doesn't have a diesel or a turbo 4 in a sedan, they basically are an Accord V6 with AWD to give it a 1-2 mpg penalty. Making every Acura a hybrid of some kind would make them unique, but then you also risk adding cost and trying to sell a $45,000 TLX, and I don't think anyone wants a $45,000 Accord hybrid. Acura has the same problem Lincoln has, you can only do so much with a Ford or Honda, and can't really put a price tag much over $40k on them.
  24. smk4565
    How about they make a RWD car instead of rebodied Civics and Accords.
  25. smk4565
    Most people aren't going more than 200 miles per day, most of the world only drive 40 miles a day or less. The Tesla has plenty of range. For those that need to travel halfway across the country they can get on an airplane.
×
×
  • Create New...

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

I've whitelisted
Continue without support

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search