smk4565

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.

I am actually glad that 1/3 of Mercedes are under $50k, because that takes sales away from Acura, Volvo, Lincoln, Lexus, Cadillac, Infiniti, etc. The A-class, CLA, GLA, GLB (aside from being needed in China and Europe with displacement tax and CO2 regs) in the USA take away sales from Volvo XC40/XC60 and S60, Acura RDX/TSX, Cadillac CT4/CT5, XT4, Lexus NX/UX, etc. No reason to let those brands take that volume when Mercedes can take it. And people will pay double the price for that Maybach than they could get a Navigator or Escalade for. Shouldn't Lincoln, Volvo, Cadillac, Lexus, Acura, Infiniti, Tesla and Jaguar all wonder why no one will pay $200k for one of their cars? Zero of those brands are on par with Mercedes until they have a $200,000 car.

Yes you can get a Mercedes for $45,000, you can also get 5 different ones for over $145,000, not sure why it matters. Point is, I don't see Tesla taking on a big threat from $50,000 Kias and Hyundais. The Hyundai Ionic 5 is the same size as a Tuscon, but the Ionic 5 is double the price. People aren't going to spend $50k for a Hyundai compact crossover. Now maybe Hyundai/Kia roll out a $399 a month lease on those things just to move them and that is how they do it.

Lincoln has no credibility now either, not much has changed. I have heard what people liked about the Avalanche was it rides/handles better than a Silverado, because it is basically a Suburban, which is 1 body, not 2 pieces, has better suspension, etc. I don't disagree that there are advantages to it, or that they couldn't sell some volume with it. I just think GM beancounters must have figured that they could sell X number of Avalanche/Escalades but 80-90% of X would just buy a Silverado/Suburban anyway. So even if they lose 10-20% of X units, that is cheaper than building and marketing another model. Not much different than the Germans saying less coupes and convertibles, they figure those people will just buy something else off the lot and if they lose a few people, oh well. I still have doubts that if there were a Lincoln or Cadillac pick up for $85k and a Black Label/Platinum for $100k that it would sell. GM and Ford must have done market research on that and don't see volume there. Years ago, I might have thought they don't want a pick up on a luxury dealer lot, but Lincoln tried it twice, and Lincoln is SUVs only now. Cadillac, maybe if they are trying to be a performance/luxury brand don't want a pick up there, but I doubt they care about that since they make 3 FWD crossovers. So the only reason they don't exist must be that their market research tells them they won't sell.

I don't know if there will be so called $25k or even $30k vehicles from rivals. The Hyundai Ionic 5 is supposed to start around $44,000, the Kia EV6 around $45,000 and those are base models, so add the options and you are at $50k or more. For $50k are you going buy a Tesla or a Hyundai? People are used to paying $50-60k for a BMW or Mercedes, or a Tesla for that matter. But people won't pay $50-60k for a Kia, the K900 flopped, the Stinger flopped, the Cadenza flopped. The Telluride does well, but those are more $40-50k, and a 3 row SUV. Where as the Kia EV6 is smaller than a Sorrento, I think $50k for a Kia compact crossover is a hard sell. The American ones are larger sure, but you can't compare a GLS to a Lincoln Aviator or Cadillac XT6 which are much smaller and cheaper. At least the X7 and GLS cost roughly the same as the big American SUVs. In my example though, the EQE and Model S have nearly identical dimensions, and EQE is supposed to be priced the same as the Model S, sounds like those are competition. The EQS is a foot longer and double the price of the Model S, those aren't direct competitors. That would be like saying the Mercedes S-class and Audi A6 are competitors, they aren't.

All the Germans will have big line ups of EV's, Genesis is going all EV too. So question will become can Tesla keep up with introducing new product, new models, new body styles, new interiors, etc. The Model S has had basically 2 mid-cycle refreshes in nearly 10 years, nothing done with the Model 3 since launch. The Germans usually do an all new model every 7 years with a refresh halfway through. Look at how slow Tesla is to get new product out now, I don't think they'll be able to keep up with how often the competition can pump out new models.

It is a fast car, but that is their top end, the Model S starts at $69k, and $130k for the Plaid. Basically the costs of an E450 or BMW 540i to the E63 and M5. Same price structure, same size cars. Mercedes will have AMG EQE to complete with the Model S Plaid. The EQS53 is 750 hp, now if they named that car the "53" it must be because there is a "63" in the works. There is always an AMG 63. And all they announced so far was EQE350 with single motor, obviously there will be a dual motor, and then an AMG above that. And considering pretty much every car they make has 2 levels of AMG, I don't see why they would change it on the electric cars.

There is no long wheelbase GLS, or X7 for that matter. But the regular Escalade and Navigator and Grand Wagoneer are not too much bigger than the GLS and X7, more importantly they all cost roughly the same. But the GLS and Escalade are the closest vehicles between those 2 brands, as the GLE and XT6 are close in size and price, etc. The Model S is not close in size or price the the EQS, however the EQE is almost identical to the Model S. Just as there will be an EQ C-class that will be the size of a Model 3, and there is going to be an EQ A-class under that. Mercedes is going to have 4 EV cars to Tesla's 2, I don't know why anyone would compare a mid-size Tesla to a full size Mercedes when there is mid-size Mercedes also.

What would you like to compare them by? Length, width height are all within an inch on EQE and Model S, and the EQE estimated cost is the same as a Model S.

Publications compared EQS and Tesla Model S, because for a month or 2 the EQS was the only EV Mercedes. Tesla Model S dimensions: 196" L x 77" W x 57" H wheelbase 116.5" base price $69,000 Now which of these 2 cars is closer to the Model S: EQS dimensions: 207" L x 83.6" W x 60" H wheelbase 126.4". est base price $124,000 EQE dimensions: 196.6" L x 77" W x 59" H wheelbase 122.9" est base price $65,000 EQS AMG, EQE, EQB all released in production trim, on sale in 2022. EQG and Maybach EQ-SUV concept shown, but those are 90% of the way to production, those are 2023 models with the standard EQS SUV and EQE SUV, and AMG version of the EQE, supposed to be a Maybach EQS also. By the end of calendar year 2023 Mercedes will have more EV's than Tesla. They might not outsell Tesla, but they are going to have more models.