smk4565

Formula 1 is the pinnacle of racing. LeMans prototype is like college football compared to the NFL. Everything else is like JV High School ball.

All I am saying is in GM’s promo video they talk a lot about race cars, super cars, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche are mentioned by name, the best of Europe are mentioned. If GM’s marketplace machine is saying that, then the car better back it up. And I imagine a turbo and hybrid versions are in the works, but I would hope it isn’t too long a delay, because the aftermarket crowd will turbo or supercharge the current Stingray I’m sure, GM is missing out by being able to sell that direct from factory.

BMW did the high rev engine thing, Audi and Mercedes never really did, and they all went heavy on turbos 10 years ago and are going into electrified now. They don’t sit still with one idea, they keep advancing. Lamborghini had the Urus the past 2 years also. Sales are up because the existing models are up. Mercedes still has the team lead. Max is a phenomenal driver. We’ll see what happens in the final few races, Red Bull and Honda brought the fight this year, Mercedes biggest challenge in 8 years. But you could have a Miata race series and a stock Ferrari would smoke that race car. A CR8 compared to an F1 car is not even close.

Not defensive at all. I like the idea of a DOHC V8, if I were GM I would have put twin turbos on it and given it all wheel drive. And I might have made it 3.99 liter to skirt the displacement taxes in international markets that they want to compete in, but given the Corvette's price advantage to other mid-engine sports cars, maybe the displacement tax wouldn't be that big a deal and they could just roll with the 5.5 V8. My car has a 5.5 liter DOHC V8 and I like it a lot, I am sure a 5.5 DOHC V8 in the Corvette will be great there too. It sounds good in the video. Although to be clear, I wouldn't buy any of these track focused sports cars, I'd rather have a Mercedes SL than an AMG GT or a 911 GT3 RS, give me luxury and comfort over track performance. It's plenty fast. But the M5 comes in standard, Competition, and CS. The CS is what I was referencing as it is the top M5. But on a track, I'm sure the Z06 will easily beat an M5 because of weight, grip, aero, etc. The M5 CS is faster than a Stingray around a tack, but I would expect the Z06 to make that up. A Tesla Model X can do 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, I am sure that is garbage on a track, probably garbage on a country back road, so that is why I think straight line speed isn't really going to matter anymore, because everything is getting fast in a straight line.

The M5 CS is faster than the Competition, it does it in 2.6 seconds. But tons of stuff is fast 0-60 and EV's will make 0-60 a meaningless number because everything will be fast in a straight line. So what will matter is handling, brakes, grip, aero, the stuff that actually makes you fast on a track. It is just hard for the marketing people to advertise grip and handling because there isn't an easy to understand number like 0-60 to use as a measuring stick. I think this C8 offers a crap ton of performance per dollar, in that regard it is an amazing value. Chevy is comparing it to super cars, which is a loose term, so sure you can call it supercar performance, but there is a lot of cars with supercar performance now too. Mark Reuss said in the video they want to target BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, maybe he means on a performance level, because the Corvette isn't there on a luxury level or dealership level. But if he is just talking performance, then they better bring it. Also a lot of "race car" talk on the promo video, "race car" can be another ambiguous term, because if I hear race car, I think Formula 1 car, and no road car even holds a candle to an F1 car. They are over selling a bit here, but I get it they are trying to get people excited about it, I'm sure it's a thrilling car to drive, but it isn't a race car.

I think Corvette fans will like it, but funny that they went with an Italian or Japanese style high rev NA engine when for years Corvette fans bashed that same thing. The Germans are about twin turbos, at least recently, BMW was making an 8400 rpm NA V10 16 years ago, and I don't remember Corvette fans calling for an engine like that in 2005. Lamborghini sales are up 20% this year, on pace for their all time sales record. So they aren't hurting or losing business.

A BMW M5 does that and it's a big sedan. Lots of things can go fast in a straight line now. The Z06 has 10 less lb-ft than the Stingray, and at a higher RPM, that is what I meant about Z06 being more for the track than the road. That being said, on a track 0-60 doesn't really matter, because you aren't doing it, the 60-120 mph and 100-150 mph pulls are what matter more, and I would assume this engine up in the 5-8,000 rpm range will be really good in track environments. Still waiting on that Nurburgring lap time on this one.

I think this will be really good on a track where you can keep that engine in the 4,000-8,000 rpm range. The stuff they did here to make it better on a track, will probably make it worse in day to day driving, because it won't have the low end torque, but that isn't the point of this car either. For track days I am sure this will deliver what the owners expect. This more of a Ferrari-style or Honda V-tech style rev the hell out of it motor that you have to keep at high rpm, I wonder if Corvette fans will like that or not. I assume GM is trying to attract new buyers with this strategy.

I think they should target 200k. Toyota could be profitable selling zero pick up trucks. But Toyota has the size and resources to compete everywhere so they should.

On the current generation, a fairly loaded Tundra is about $55k, if they price the new one like that, and you can get a well equipped Tundra at that price, that is going to be crazy competitive in a world of $75k trucks.

Well that is why they have Lexus.

First off, Toyota brand doesn't have any $75,000+ vehicles except the Land Cruiser, which they are killing in the USA (I assume for a Lexus Version). Lexus then does have SUVs and the LS/LC up in that $75k+ range. But I can't imagine Toyota brand is really going to lose customers to Rivian, sure a handful, but it isn't like Toyota/Lexus sales are going to drop 10% because Rivian and Lucid arrive on market. Toyota is also a company of 366,000 employees and have $52 billion cash on hand. If the market demands a lifestyle electric SUV, I am sure they can come up with 1 or 7 of them if they want. Toyota is a very low risk taking, methodical company. Maybe that is good, maybe it isn't, but that is how they operate, and it has worked so far for them.

Yes, it is good to be #1 in any segment. Sedans won't disappear from the market. Others will give up, and the Camry and Corolla will still be there. Plus Toyota has 5 crossovers, 1 minivan (another segment most are giving up on) and depending on what happens with the full size SUV's, lets assume 2 BOF SUVs. 7 SUVs 2 pickups and a van seems like enough to cover the growth segments. And look at Ford, they wanted to focus on just SUVs, now they are killing the Ecosport due to slow sales because that market is flooded. Edge is dying in another year too. Stuff like the Venza, Sorrento and Santa Fe are better options.

Toyota has penetration in a lot of global markets. But just looking in the USA, the Rav4 is the #4 selling vehicle in the country. And when you go by segments, the Camry is the best selling car, Rav4 the best selling SUV, the Highlander probably is the #1 selling 3 row SUV, if it isn't it is close, the Civic beats the Corolla, that is an area Toyota needs to improve but the Corolla Cross is now there, so maybe that is their answer. But then Toyota has the #1 selling mid-size truck, the 4Runner still sells decent despite being ancient. The Lexus RX is the best selling luxury SUV, the ES350 still sells pretty strong. Toyota is strong in a lot of key segments, and much of the competition is giving up on some of those segments. Mazda dropped the 6 and the CX-3, Ford has dropped all cars but Mustang, and they are dropping Ecosport in 6 months, GM seems to be dropping every car they have at the end of the life cycle except for Corvette. I feel like a lot of car companies are giving up on segments and making Toyota's job even easier.

I think Toyota will still be #1 in 2030, maybe VW overtakes them and Toyota is #2, but they'll be close. And assuming there isn't more merging, and something like Honda and GM merge to make a real big company or something. Hydrogen isn't going to catch on, maybe that works for trucks in a shipping port or something in a specialty use, but not for general public, because there isn't a hydrogen fueling infrastructure. BEV is going to replace fuel, end of story. Toyota will need to get more EV's going in the 2020s, they hybrids will be good til 2030, but after that they better have BEV's or else they will start to get over taken by VW, Stellantis, Renault/Nissan, GM, etc.

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.