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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. 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.
  2. smk4565
    You take a test drive at one oof their stores or demo places. Then go home and order online.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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?
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. smk4565
    Except with better build quality and reliability.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. smk4565
    The GLC300 4Matic is faster than XT4 or XT5 and the Lexus RX350, so you don't need to pay extra for enough power to move it. And true we don't know what the price premium will be for AWD, but this is a general issue with EV's in cold climates, batteries degrade faster and AWD is a huge upcharge, so it is a harder sell for an EV in cold climates than it is in California or Florida. I would hope Lyric has the AWD option at launch, I think if they wait to see how the rear drive model sells for a year before green lighting all wheel drive would be a mistake.
  18. smk4565
    But AWD is $2,000 option on and XT5 or XT6. If it is $15k on a Lyriq, that may scare customers away. And that is a probably with any EV. And Mercedes will sell an all wheel drive E300, they don't force you into an AMG E63 to get the all wheel drive model.
  19. smk4565
    I think a big question is how much more for all wheel drive, and whether that requires a lot of other feature add ons, like interior stuff that isn't related to mechanical things. And that price jump to AWD will probably have a big impact on sales, because a lot of SUV buyers will want AWD.
  20. smk4565
    Sure Escalade buyers have money. A better way for me to have phased that would be to say people with a lot of money buy Mercedes, because Mercedes sells more six figure price tag vehicles than any other brand in the world. Cadillac's issue is they haven't been able to replicate the Escalade's success in any other segment. They have put out a lot of mediocre product that tends to fall off the sales chart and disappear. And yet they'll pump money into build E46 3-series clones that no one is buying, rather than putting the Escalade formula more places. I am sure it is coming a a hefty price premium that they don't want to announce now because they want the perception that the Lyriq is competitively priced, which in base trim it pretty much is, although we don't know what features are standard vs how much options will cost or how high the price might go on this thing.
  21. smk4565
    Mercedes buyers have money. The E-class is Mercedes #1 selling car in 2021. They are not a brand that relies on the entry level product and E and GLE are often among their top sellers. GLE has a 3rd row too, up 41%, GLB has a 3rd row up 46%. And the GLE has a bigger share of its segment than the GLC does of its segment.
  22. smk4565
    Escalade is the #1 selling Cadillac in 2021, of course it is all new. XT6 sales up 18% while XT5 is down 2.8%, XT5 still outsells XT6 but that small-mid SUV segment has way more volume. The Enclave is outselling the Envision, the Traverse is outselling the Blazer and Acadia outselling Terrain. So the 3-rows are going strong on those brands. Although I would never buy an SUV, so I don't really care how many seats they have, I am just pointing out what sells and the need for brands to have like 4-5-6 different size SUVs now because consumers are so SUV crazy.
  23. smk4565
    Well the XT6 is terrible, so maybe Lyriq will outsell it by default.
  24. smk4565
    1. Price. 2. XT5 has been on market longer and has more name recognition. 3. The XT6 is terrible compared to rivals in its class.
  25. smk4565
    Mercedes makes a GLS that can seat 7, and probably 6 adults with ease, for the wealthy folk. The G-wagon is more of the personal luxury SUV, keep in mind it is smaller than a GLE. Rolls-Royce is for old people or pro athletes that don't have kids, so they don't care how many it sits. And the average Rolls-Royce owner owns like 20 cars or something, and they can just pay someone to drive their 2nd Rolls-Royce to chauffeur the kids around if they have them.
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