smk4565

Those articles talk about European batter production, which of course these car companies are going to need a lot of battery technology and capacity to get economies of scale and cost down. And I'd imagine after VW, Stellantis and Daimler are the next 2 biggest car companies in Europe. And Because Mercedes has the resources they can buy up these battery companies, where as a Tesla or Lucid or Rivian can't do that.

Fleet sales usually mean a discount, doesn't matter if it is Enterprise car rental or Verizon buying the vehicle. Ford is probably the biggest fleet sale brand there is, I think they usually run like 25-30%. Where as a Toyota or Honda usually are single digits. The Tundra is obviously aimed at the middle of the truck market, less worry about the fringes. They have 2 cab sizes and 3 beds, I think that is good. Cheaper and more fuel efficient engine I think would be the thing they could add to really round it out.

It is also year 1, maybe a 2 door regular cab will follow as they expand to more markets. Toyota is biggest, richest car company on the planet, they have the resources to do anything they want. Toyota typically does not like fleet sales though and that is what the commercial market is.

I could see 2 door regular cab being a real small seller, so maybe that is why they didn't do it. They probably looked at the percentage of Ford, Ram, GM trucks are are regular cab and didn't see enough volume. They do have a base/SR trim, I guess that is like their work truck. I agree on a low price engine option, either the corporate V6, or a 4 cylinder hybrid, some sort of value option. Unless they plan to start the Tundra under $35k and get aggressive on pricing, because if their 479 lb-ft engine is priced like a 290 lb-ft V6s from Ford and Ram, then the Tundra is going to make an impact.

I think double cab in Toyota speak is the extended or super cab, so it is like a half door in back, thus you can get the longer bed. A Crew cab and an 8 foot bed would be a super long vehicle, I think most domestic trucks in that configuration are the 2500/3500 type trucks. Ford doesn't make an F150 crew cab with an 8 foot bed for example.

Worldwide and in the USA, Toyota is the mid-size truck champion. I don't see why they can't take on the full size segment. Toyota knows reliability, they know resale value, they know how to build quality. Their problem is leaving Tundras on market for 15 years without much improvement, and not having a lot of powertrain options or configurations. I made a mistake before, I thought it was only crew cab, there is a double cab option like they have now, 3 bed lengths might be better than the current truck, and there are 6 trim levels. So it seems like finally they have a variety of configurations they need. Price is the question, how much are these going to cost with the turbo V6 as the base engine? If they price it like a Pentastar V6 or GM 2.7 liter 4, that will deliver a big middle finger to the Detroit trucks, but if the Tundra is priced like a 6.2 V8 Silverado, I think Toyota prices a lot of people out.

The Tundra’s engines are pretty inline with the Ford 3.5 Ecoboost and Hybrid F150, but even the base Tundra engine puts out more torque than the Ram 5.7 Hemi or the Silverado 6.2 V8 and those are upgrade engines. Toyota could and should do an NA V6 base level to compete with the Ram V6, the Silverado and Ford 2.7 liter engines. I think Toyota is looking for more than 100k sales, Toyota has beat Detroit in every market segment except full size pickup truck (and full size van which they don’t even make). I am not saying Toyota is looking for a sales crown but you have to think they want 200k units a year out of the Tundra.

It’s about time they redesigned the Tundra, hopefully they don’t wait 15 years to do it again. This truck looks very competitive, lot of power, especially the hybrid, engine a and transmission combo looks strong. The different trims and off road stuff looks good. I think what is missing is a super cab version and a cheaper engine option, perhaps the regular corporate 3.5 V6 with 306 hp. If your base truck starts on par with a quad cab Ecoboost 3.5 F150, I feel like you are missing an entry level model.

They'll have to do a sedan, unless they too will be an SUV only brand. EQS will probably outsell all of them globally. Although I am not a fan of the EQS or EQE looks, I much prefer the S-class or E-class looks.

Wind tunnel is a factor, which I think they need to throw out the window. Also their lead designer says traditional 3 box sedans will die with EV's because of how thick the floor is with the battery, it makes the vehicle taller and the sedan look doesn't work. Although I am not a fan of jelly bean cars.

It has awesome range and horsepower, average styling and interior and it costs too much. And doesn't have a dealer or service network, probably will be hard to find parts if it is involved in an accident. I like that interior more than a Tesla with the yoke steering wheel, but the Tesla looks better on the outside I think. I also thought it was interesting that the 730 hp EQS is badged "53" because AMG always does a "63" so there must be more coming.

Best video of the week. He totaled his car for sure, because the repair cost will easily eclipse the value of a Gen 4 Camaro. What a moron. And you couldn't out race a Tesla anyway, what is the point? A Tesla is made in the USA. There is a Model S I think that did 1 million miles, Tesla claims the Cybertruck is designed to do 750,000 miles. So assuming a Model 3/Y is build in the same way, it should be able to do 500k miles which would be probably triple what a Fusion or Impala will do, thus making it cost effective.

I actually liked the 98 Seville interior, the Zebrano wood trim was the same thing used in 80s S-classes. But my car is not the all black interior as that base E350 appears to be. E550's have real leather seats and leather inserts in the door. And mine is 2 tone sand beige and black. I was going to upload a picture but the file upload wasn't working, so oh well. But if those GM interiors of the 90s and 2000s, or even 2010s were so good, they why do their customers keep leaving?

This is the worst console in years, this is like 80s GM level bad. Even worse is the option with only 1 screen, and you just get a big chuck of black plastic at the top.

Correct, it is as GLS580 now, I saw a GLS550 on a car lot earlier today and that must have been what I was thinking of. They should have just left all those 550's as 550's to keep things simple.

The GLS550 has rear heated, ventilated, and massage seats too, with pillow headrests. Can get heated rear arm rests and 3rd row heated seats too. So nothing new in the Navigator, unless they are just comparing their segment as Escalade and Grand Wagoneer.

And that probably won't move the sales needle, if anything I think Navigator sales will drop with the Grand Wagoneer out there now. The Maybach GLS already has massage rear seats and level 2 semi-autonomous driving, so Lincoln has nothing new there, just what is expected in that segment.

You mention a few products but a few products don’t make a car company. Like GM needs 12 electric SUVs at minimum, probably more like 15-20. They need EV sedans, EV pickups and vans. Question is if GM, Ford, Mercedes or anyone else cancelled all their gas cars, could they survive? The Mach-e might have a nice conquest rate but Tesla sold 200,000 Model 3/Y in Q2 of 2021 worldwide. That’s like an F150 sales rate, the Mach-E is no where near that.

Lincoln is still rebadging Fords, all 4 of their SUVs are exactly that. They have gotten better at doing it, but it has been the same playbook for 30 years. As far as Tesla goes, the Model Y is roughly same size and price as the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ionic 5. If you ask a consumer what do they want, a Hyundai, a Kia or a Tesla? I think we know that survey says Tesla. The Mach-E is also priced like a Model Y, so the eventual Lincoln version will be $10-20k more. That is a tall mountain to climb to get consumers to pay more for a Lincoln than a competing Tesla. Tesla is selling a lifestyle, that is what these other people aren’t doing and why something like the VW iD4 was a flop already.

So they like the Aviator, but all the peers sell better. So either Lincoln didn’t do enough on the Aviator, or there brand image is so bad, that people will buy any of the competitors instead even if the Aviator is a better vehicle.

Why aren’t badge snobs buying Lincoln’s? Everyone likes to say that badge snobs just buy a German without even comparing competition vehicles. But why isn’t Lincoln the brand badge snobs want?

Only 2 SUVs at Acura, so that helps pump up their numbers I am sure. The MDX was also up 104% in first half of 2021. RDX sold 27,690 in first half of 2021. Lincoln Corsair had 13,507, Nautilis 11,427. So if you add Lincoln's 3 SUVs = 36,790. The MDX alone is 36,791. And I wouldn't say Acura is any gold standard of brand image, so where does that put Lincoln? If you look at the other guys 3 SUV's that line up with Lincoln and Acura's price range: BMW X3, X4, X5, X6 combined = 74,480 Cadillac XT4, XT5, XT6 combined = 40,453. Lexus NX, RX, GX combined = 104,116 Mercedes: GLB, GLC, GLE combined = 83,295 Volvo: XC40, XC60, XC90 combined = 55,439 Infiniti had about 20k sales, they are a mess. So outside of Infiniti, Lincoln is in the back of the pack again. I imagine Genesis is low for now, but their SUVs just went on sale this year and they seem to be on the rise. I don't think it is badge snob, I think reality is people prefer those other brands because their products are better. And Ford cut sedans to make better SUVs, GM is sort of doing the same, and yet their SUVs are getting beat by the Asians and Europeans.

The GLE is absolutely better than an MDX, but the MDX is $7k cheaper and Acura has 2 SUVs to pick from and Mercedes has 9. So Mercedes is spreading the the sales around more. But obviously Acura has a following with the MDX and does well with it.

Mercedes hasn't gone down market. The CLA has the same price structure as the Cadillac CT5, the most expensive Cadillac sedan. The S-class just got a $15,000 price hike this year. From Daimler's July 2021 press release: July 06, 2021 - Mercedes-Benz Cars delivered 1,182,724 passenger cars (+25.1%) to customers worldwide in the first half of 2021. No one is selling more expensive cars than Mercedes is. Even if you throw away the lower half of their sales, they would outsell GMC and Cadillac combined. Still waiting on that $200,000 GMC. Mercedes can get $90k for a vehicle the size of a Terrain, not sure why GMC can't.

Competitive? Compared to who and who is buying them? I'll just pick the Aviator as an example, since that is thought to be Lincoln's best SUV and compare to others on first half of 2021 sales: Aviator: 11,856 Acura MDX: 36,791 Audi Q7: 17,705 BMW X5: 29,244 (+ X6: 4,612) Cadillac XT6: 13,141 Infniti QX60: 4,306 Lexus GX: 15,406 Mercedes GLE: 35,705 Volvo XC90: 19,981 Infiniti is a mess, throw them out and Lincoln gets beat by everyone else in that segment, losing to a glossed over GMC Acadia that Cadillac is selling, the glossed over Honda Pilot that Acura is selling, a 13 year old badge job 4Runner that Lexus is selling. Lincoln getting beat 3-1 by Mercedes, BMW and Acura. So either the Aviator is a bad product, or the Lincoln brand image is so lousy that even when they build a good product people ignore it and buy one of the others.