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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    No one is buying the Jaguar i-Pace, that car flopped from day one. Maybe because it is ugly and overpriced or maybe because it says Jaguar on it, and the Model Y says Tesla on it. If you buy a Tesla, you are cutting edge, tech savvy and cool, if you buy a Jaguar you have to spend the next however many years explaining to people why you bought a Jaguar. Everyone says the Mach-E is good, but it is also one product, and I know Ford will has more coming. But it is still a Ford, not a Tesla, and Tesla will always have faster, cooler, more tech loaded, more expensive cars than Ford, so Tesla will be a more aspirational brand. Ford isn't going to build $150k+ EV's running sub 10 second quarter miles and getting headlines, so Tesla will always have the image advantage. This is a general problem for a lot of brands is lack of good halo product. Probably about half the car companies out there lack a good top level halo car that really lifts the brand.
  2. smk4565
    3 of Cadillac's 6 vehicles have a base price lower than a Tesla Model 3. 5 of 6 Cadillacs have a base price lower than the base price of a Model Y. So if Tesla is in Ford pricing, what is Cadillac who is priced below where Tesla is? And same can be read for Lincoln, Acura, Infiniti, Volvo as well. Most of their cars start under $50k, the cheapest Model Y you can get is $52k. And Tesla has a $200,000 car coming with that Roadster, none of those brands I mentioned could even think about a $200k car, Lexus can be thrown in there too, they all know it would flop hard. And I am not a Tesla fan boy, I am merely pointing out how they are selling a lot of cars are high prices and it is not going to be so easy to knock them off. That is why I separated the Vans division, Mercedes sold 325,000 units with Vans, and 274,000 without, compared to Tesla's 292,000. So Tesla beat them last year. If anyone is going to beat Tesla it will be Mercedes, but Mercedes is always going to operate at a higher price point than Tesla, although that didn't stop Mercedes from outselling all the other luxury brands in the past.
  3. smk4565
    I never said Tesla was a Gold standard. I am stating they came from nothing 10 years ago to be the #1 selling luxury brand in the USA, and worldwide they did about 500k units last year, and that is better than a lot of other luxury brands did, and Tesla only has 4 models too, imagine if they had 6-7 models they could sell even more. Tesla isn't going to be an easy brand to beat, especially when it comes to EV's. And I don't know if the the EQS to Model S comparison is even that fair, the EQS might have a starting price nearly $50k higher and it is a foot longer. So the EQE is probably a better competitor, which we should know specs on that by fall since it goes on sale in 2022. And still 6 times more valuable than GM and 9 times more valuable than Ford as of today. So probably not yet time to sound the panic alarm.
  4. smk4565
    Worldwide Mercedes is #1 is luxury sales, they are like 5-1 over Tesla. But I was more referencing the American market since Cadillac, Acura, Infiniti, Lincoln, etc don't have much of a global footprint outside US and China. In 2020 Tesla sold 292,902 units. Mercedes cars sold 274,916, and Mercedes-Benz Vans sold 50,999. BMW sold 278,732 units. Tesla only sold 195,000 in 2019, and yes in 2020 they were the #1 selling luxury brand in the USA. So I am not sure where all this competition is hurting them. More EV's from Ford, VW, or anyone else, is just moving sales from gas to electric, it isn't stealing Tesla sales and taking them down.
  5. smk4565
    Sure they take short cuts, but they do a lot of things well too. And as I stated, they outsell several luxury brands with no marketing budget. If you want performance, the V8s can't compete with the electric motors, so Tesla still has a performance advantage over other luxury brands. And if you just want an EV, Cadillac, Lincoln, Acura, Lexus, Infiniti, Genesis, Land Rover, all don't have an EV. Tesla still has a lot of advantages in their favor. It won't be that easy for the competition to just squash them out. And if it was, why haven't they already? 5 years ago, all those luxury brands outsold Tesla, now Tesla outsells them all except maybe Lexus.
  6. smk4565
    All the other car companies are still heavily ICE dependent. Tesla is still ahead of the game since they are all EV, and all their money is going into EVs, they don't need to split R&D between ICE and EV. And Tesla still makes the fastest cars, their infotainment and self driving tech is still better than most. Tesla still outsells Lincoln, Cadillac, Acura and Infiniti in the same price segment, and Tesla does it with a smaller line up.
  7. smk4565
    Tesla is gaining total market share. Losing EV market share because there are more EV's but using EV market share only is a horrible metric, total market is what matters. Ford could cancel all models but the F150, go from selling 2.5 million cars a year to 750,000 and gain 5% market share in pick ups and claim they gained pick up segment market share, but who cares if they just lost 1.75 million sales. Have to look at whole market. And the Cybertruck bed lowers in the rear, closer to the ground than any other pick up, so it is plenty accessible, actually the easiest to load on market because it comes with a ramp too. EV market share doesn't matter. Only total market share. When Tesla sales are declining, while everyone else is growing, then they can worry.
  8. smk4565
    I love how Dealer Associations say the dealer model is so great and the direct sales model is so terrible, so you need laws to stop direct sales. If they weren't afraid of direct sales or afraid of Tesla (or Lucid or Rivian, or whatever Chinese car company comes here) then why do they always talk about it? If the dealer model was so strong, they should welcome the competition. If the dealer model was so great, then the dealers should lobby the state gov't to allow Tesla to sell direct and compete with them head on to prove their point.
  9. smk4565
    That is what it says online. May or may not be true, we will see.
  10. smk4565
    Well the Cybertruck is designed to do 750,000 miles with no maintenance except tires, so you don't really need a dealership. Tesla has some issues and needs to get more models out and keep the existing ones updated. However they aren't really at risk of losing customers, their owners are super loyal and they are gaining market share, not losing.
  11. smk4565
    You take a test drive at one oof their stores or demo places. Then go home and order online.
  12. smk4565
    I think Tesla is working on a car smaller and cheaper than the Model 3 that will likely appeal to Europe and China as well. But they have to get Cybertruck and the Semi and Roadster all out. I don't think their R&D staff or manufacturing capacity can take on another volume car right now.
  13. smk4565
    Elon will probably lobby them, he has more money than the dealer association. But I imagine people will have no problem buying online, they can test drive the car online, then just buy online like people buy everything else online. The Dealer Associations are almost like suburban shopping malls trying to compete with Amazon, they can make up whatever excuses they want, but their spend 5 hours at the dealership to buy a car is an out dated model.
  14. smk4565
    This looks like a winner, but they never give a price on any of these cars. And I could see this being the most expensive Kia easily, and then maybe not worth that kind of money for a Kia.
  15. smk4565
    The steering wheel looks terrible, and the door panels look boring. The interior is a bit blah for me, the exterior looks different so it will stand out. I think the specs and performance all look strong. It could be a hit if priced right, but depends on what it costs, it could cost a lot and be a bust too.
  16. smk4565
    Hertz paid their CEO $8 million in 2018, $9.1 million and 2019 and then she resigned in 2020 when they filed bankruptcy. They paid their CFO $3.9 million on 2019. These people obviously were not worth what they paid them, other wise the company wouldn't be bankrupt. Sure the pandemic hurt, but not everyone went bankrupt, they filed bankruptcy like 1 month in, so they were headed there anyway. And Wall Street Journal reported last May that Herz paid out $16 million in bonuses to 340 executives as they laid off 10,000 people and sold all these cars off. So $13 million wasted on the 2 people that led them into trouble, and then $16 million on undeserved bonuses, because no executive at a company filing bankruptcy deserves a bonus. So there is $39 million wasted right there, they could have kept 1,500 cars with that money rather than sell them, and that is 1,500 they wouldn't have sold at a loss and now had to overpay to get back now. Also why didn't they have a cash reserve to survive a few bad months?
  17. smk4565
    Neither probably handle that well, one is front drive, the other is heavy and on a super dated platform. But this sort of goes back to the earlier point that you don't get much for $32k or whatever the TRD Camry price point is. And there isn't a lot at this price point that is even semi sporty, and maybe Charger and Camry are semi-sporty and that is as good as it gets without going up a lot in price.
  18. smk4565
    Yeah the Stinger is over priced. From the star that should have been targeted price wise against Camaro/Mustang and Charger and been like $29,000 as a base price and pushed to people that want a sports car but need a back seat. Instead they wanted to be a discount 3-series, even though it is bigger, and no one was interested. And maybe the K5 and Stinger could have been 1 car, 1 mid-size sedan starting at $25k, put a 195 hp standard 4-banger in the base model as your Camry/Accord competitor. Kia is in a position where they did 2 different cars and neither compete with the Camry/Accord that well and they don't compete well with the sport sedans either. Well the Camry V6 is faster in a straight line than a Charger V6. For equal money.
  19. smk4565
    If you are looking at track times, the SRT Hellcat is slower around Virginia International Raceway (a circuit that rewards straight line power) than the BMW M340i, Mercedes-AMG GLC63, Subaru STI, and the Mercedes CLA45 beats the Charger by over 5 seconds. And all those cars are cheaper than the Charger Hellcat with the exception of a GLC63 which costs about the same, but is an SUV. Now I imagine 99% of people aren't going to track these cars, so if you are just looking at on road regular driving, maybe the base V6 Charger is in line with Camry TRD for similar money. But there is also a huge drop off from a Charger Hellcat to a base V6 car. But selections for sporty sedans that can fit 4 adults are few to pick from any more, unless you go up into that mid-size German car territory at double the price of a Camry TRD.
  20. smk4565
    Kia Stinger but that is even a little over priced and the back seat is smaller than the Camry. The Charger, but those don’t have much handling. Maybe Kia K5 GT or Sonata N Line, otherwise you are going over $50k for a sporty sedan that seats 4.
  21. smk4565
    Except with better build quality and reliability.
  22. smk4565
    Smart business move, sell off your rental fleet in a big dump 1 year ago, then buy all those cars back at a higher price this year. No wonder Hertz filed for bankruptcy.
  23. smk4565
    These are not sporty. I am sure they are reliable since that 3.5 V6 is going on a GM 3800-like production run, that engine has been around forever and clearly all the bugs are well worked out. And Toyota/Lexus have good resale value. Reliability and resale yes, sporty, no.
  24. smk4565
    The Mercedes battery, which is of their own design, not some off the shelf Panosonic or LG, has the individual cells temperature controlled, where as everyone cools the pack as a whole. This is why a Tesla has a few 0-60 runs in it before the pack overheats. The Mercedes battery will allow you to do drag race runs all day. Mercedes has F1 technology coming to the road with their EVs and AMG Hybrids, GM, Toyota, Tesla, Ford have no F1 technology.
  25. smk4565
    Cadillac shouldn't be in bargain selling mode, but they have been. Cadillac is a far, far cry away from Porsche pricing levels or their pricing model. I just hopped on the Porsche website and picked a 911 Carerra 4, and was able to add $76,420 in options and I didn't pick everything. The Escalade's base price is $76,195, so you can add a whole Escalade worth of options to a 911, and that is without going to a 4S or Cabriolet or anything. It is a good way to make money if you can get away with it. I don't think Cadillac can get away with charging $2070 for leather lined air vents.
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