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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    Well the C-class is being replaced for 2015, new interior and new engines. Plus M-B is bringing an inline six in 2017-2018, so another all new engine is just 3 years away.
  2. smk4565
    Buick isn't a luxury car though, nor will they ever be. Buick has had a resurgence but they couldn't replace Cadillac and start selling $50-60,000 sedans. I think Buick in recent years has been helped by the demise of Mercury, Oldsmobile, Saturn, and Pontiac, and years of lackluster Chrysler Sebrings and basically no Chrysler SUVs the past five years. VW has also shifted a bit down market. Buick basically has to compete with Acura, Volvo and Lincoln, not really much going on with those brands.
  3. smk4565
    The biggest issue is that it doesn't say BMW or Mercedes on it. But Lexus has got some sales increase recently with the IS350 and that has a dated engine and transmission also. ATS to me feels smaller inside than any of the German sedans, the build quality just doesn't seem there either, reminds me too much of a Chevy when I sit in one. Powertrains are yesterdays news, they should have an 8 speed transmission, better fuel economy, more power and refinement, etc. CTS is in the same boat, dated powertrains, weak marketing and I feel like the CTS's 2 biggest competitors come from its own showroom, because the ATS looks similar and is $10k cheaper, the XTS is priced identical to the CTS so 2 cars compete for the same dollar. An amazing stat is that Audi sold as many cars in China in June as Cadillac sold there in all of 2013. Audi is on pace for over 500,000 sales in China this year, Cadillac's global volume is less than that. Cadillac may just be too far behind to ever catch up.
  4. smk4565
    Jaguar has blinged out interiors with a lot of bright work also, at least on the XJ. The BMW interior may be the same basic look they have used for 15 years but people seem to be buying it still. The 3-series outsells the ATS like 5-1, so BMW must have something right. Brand image hurts Cadillac, I just don't think a lot of luxury buyers aspire to own a Cadillac or drive a Cadillac, the old guard it still buying Mercedes, baby boomers like Lexus and the younger people like BMW and Audi.
  5. smk4565
    Marketing is a problem, but even good marketing isn't going to save Cadillac. Their lineup is limited to 3 sedans, a FWD crossover and a rebadged Tahoe, not exactly a full line and they don't have a hybrid or a diesel. The other guys all have hybrids, diesels, convertibles, sports cars, etc. I don't think the competitors are so flawed except Lincoln and Acura which are basically non factors. Infiniti I think is a bit lost with the names and they made the Q50 a bit too big and expensive, it is too big and costly to compete with a 3-series but too small to compete with a 5-series. Infiniti is sort of stuck where Cadillac is, they don't have a full line or the money to go head to head with the Germans. I think a downside to Cadillac interiors is the shiny piano black plastic and the chrome knobs and buttons, it just seems to tacky and blingy inside their cars. And little things like the carpet seem like what Chevy has in it, the interiors of the ATS and CTS feel cramped. It is a lot of little stuff but it adds up, combine that with the powertrains that are a bit dated and buyers start to look elsewhere.
  6. smk4565
    Even at a $10,000 discount, the S-class is still going to have transaction prices around $100-105K. None of the competitors can claim that sort of price. I can't find the article, but Mercedes did add Saturday shifts and overtime to the factory that produces the S-class last winter, which put them at max capacity which is like 460 cars per day. I did read that just recently they started S-class production in India because they can build about 20,000 cars per year there to sell in Asia. Up until then I think all S-class were built in Germany, thus why the factory is maxed out when trying to meed demand in Europe, North America, Middle East, China, etc.
  7. smk4565
    I think people don't like CUE, I think the new ATS and CTS look a bit boring, especially from the back, and my guess is you are right about powertrains. Problem is Mercedes spends about $2 billion in development per model line. Cadillac doesn't have that sort of budget to work with. Audi spent $3.9 billion in R&D in 2012, BMW spent $5.4 billion, while Mercedes spent a whopping $7.6 billion. General Motors spent $7.4 billion in 2012 and that has to be divided up among Buick, Chevy, GMC, Cadillac, Opel, etc.
  8. smk4565
    I am not saying GM focusing on trucks is a bad thing, that is what they do because it is what they are good at and what they are able to sell. I think crossover buyers are less demanding, and Toyota's and Honda's crossovers are pretty ugly so it is easy for Chevy and Buick and Ford also to capitalize on that market. Same with pick up trucks, the Detroit 3 have that market cornered and they reap the profits because pickup buyers will shell out money for trucks. I am just saying that I am not surprised that Cruze and Malibu have lackluster sales because they are lackluster products that GM doesn't really spend time developing or marketing. It isn't any different than in the 90s or 2000s when the Cavalier, Cobalt, Lumina, Monte Carlo, etc didn't get much effort put into them. It is just the way they do things, that is why they keep GMC and give Buick 3 SUVs so Buick-GMC dealers have 6 SUVs and 3 sedans. They want to sell trucks, and there is nothing wrong with that. I'd like to see proof that S-classes are selling at $15,000 off sticker, when demand is so high the factory is producing cars at 100% capacity. The Mercedes dealer nearest me has 13 S-class on the lot, the cheapest one is $108,655 and there are no lease specials and only a 2.99% finance special, which is no better than what local banks offer. My guess is the discounts over at Lexus, Audi and BMW on their big sedans are much more since the S-class is whipping them all. I think the S-class will be even less likely to get discounted once the coupe arrives, those will probably sell over sticker at first.
  9. smk4565
    Customers do love them, but at Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, etc the top sellers are still sedans.
  10. smk4565
    Agreed. VW brand itself is not very profitable, but they have serious cash cow brands in Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti.
  11. smk4565
    I smell an Equinox with a Buick front end coming. GM loves crossovers like they used to love W-body sedans.
  12. smk4565
    Caddy is still undercutting the Germans in price, the CTS is about $6,000 cheaper than the E-class base price, the ATS is $3,000 cheaper than the Audi A4. I don't think the ATS is too small when the 3-series sales are on fire and the C-class which came out 7 years ago is still selling strong. Demand is up on the A3 and A4 and Lexus IS also. Basically every small luxury car is on fire except the ATS. Cadillacs need to get better, not bigger or cheaper. They do need better marketing, their ads are hopeless, don't promote the brand, don't promote the models, don't really sell the features of the car, it is pretty much a lost cause all around. I think their last good commercial had Led Zeppelin in it.
  13. smk4565
    Porsche does make a car with 887 hp though. The Bugatti Veyron has 1200 hp, but that is made in France even though Volkswagen makes it. But 707 hp in a non-super car is crazy, so kudos for Chrysler for going big.
  14. smk4565
    That is a crazy amount of horsepower. Awesome from a marketing standpoint, but it probably does handle terribly and shreds tires.
  15. smk4565
    Mullaly wanted to kill Lincoln too, but now that he is gone Mark Fields wants to keep Lincoln. Lincoln sales are awful, I don't know why they are still bothering.
  16. smk4565
    Camry and Corolla prove that vanilla is the best selling ice cream flavor. Although I have to say, the current Camry isn't bad, it has sort of a sporty look in the front (way better than the Jelly Bean Camry of 5-10 years ago) and the interior is pretty roomy. I'd take a Fusion or Sonata/Optima or Mazda 6 over a Camry, but most buyers in the "white good" family car segment buy either on the deal or the name, and that Camry name gets people to buy it by default.
  17. smk4565
    GM is still a truck company, they survive on trucks and SUVs. They still don't put their primary focus on engineering or advertising cars because to them the profits are on trucks, so they'll keep milking it as long as they can. I imagine a lot of people by a Cruze or Malibu based on if they can get a good deal, so if incentives are big that month they buy, if the incentives are better on a Hyundai or Ford or whatever they will just go there. Cadillac's sedan struggles don't surprise me, the XTS got its fleet sales the first year, now it is cooling off back to where DTS sales levels were. The ATS and CTS look a bit boring, plus Cadillac doesn't have the hybrids or diesels that Lexus and the Germans have. Cadillac also lacks coupes, convertibles, etc.
  18. smk4565
    They need the new C-class since the 3-series is beating it 2 to 1. However the dated C-class is still #2 in the segment. They also need to do an SL400, the SL starts at like $110k and probably a lot of the people buying it don't need 450 hp. The bi-turbo V6 with 339 hp in the SL at a lower price would be sweet.
  19. smk4565
    Right, Audi needs to rely on the bottom end of the line up. However they are probably bringing in younger buyers with the A3 which could pay off years from now if they choose to buy another Audi. Q3 is a big seller too, so they are appealing to younger and probably female buyers, but they are rolling.
  20. smk4565
    Huge increases on the 7-series and 5-series. The 5-series usually don't outsell the E-class either. I wonder what they did or if it was just a fluke.
  21. smk4565
    China is expected to surpass the USA as the #1 country for luxury car sales within the next few years; China is already the largest overall car market. The Germans are ahead there too though, according to Forbes, 73% of luxury car sales in China in 2013 were Audi, BMW or Mercedes. BMW is selling over 325,000 cars a year in China and growing while Cadillac and Lexus are in the 50-70,000 a per year level. Cadillac does have a better chance in China than they do in Europe, but they face a similar battle. At least the Chinese market is growing though, and not flat like Europe.
  22. smk4565
    If they made a diesel for this, they could put it in the Dart also as a Jetta TDi and Cruze diesel competitor. I bet people would buy a diesel Jeep Cherokee too, there is a diesel Grand Cherokee afterall.
  23. smk4565
    It is more like a 3 wheel trike, to me this isn't really a car. What is a bit sad is the old Honda Insight from the early 2000s got 60 mpg city and 70 mpg highway, and it was car, and no car since has really topped that, that wasn't a plug in of some sort. This seems like a Reliant Robin part 2, except the single wheel is in back not the front, so it probably doesn't roll over on every corner.
  24. smk4565
    They will have to put Cadillacs in Opel dealers and fancy up the Opel dealerships then. Cadillac better go diesel crazy, there should be plug-in hybrid versions of the ATS and CTS also. I am not convinced though that they are willing to spend the money on technology and powertrains to make this happen. This is a go big or go home type of deal, and Cadillac works with a limited budget and the GM parts bin. Plus given the recall expenses coming of the next couple years, I doubt GM is going to turn over several billion dollars to Cadillac for R&D.
  25. smk4565
    True, the sales channel has to be there, so they either need to make their own dealerships, or partner with Opel. What GM should have done years ago, and maybe still can is to phase out Opel/Vauxhaul and put Chevy in Europe, then you can have Chevy/Cadillac dealerships instead. Ford has streamlined the products so they basically have the same cars here as in Europe, GM needs that approach even if that means different engines or interior options, you could still sell the same basic car in both places. They have to build a product line simultaneously with the sales channel though. If they get dealerships then send the SRX over there and a pair of gas V6 sedans, they aren't going to sell anything in those dealerships. Cadillac can't convince Americans to buy an ATS over a 3-series or C-class, how will they convince Germans to buy an ATS?
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