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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    Getting rid of a V8 in something like a C-class, and who puts V8s in small sedans outside of Mercedes? I don't see a V8 in an M3 anymore, CT4/ATS never had one, Lexus IS-F is dead, Guilia has a V6, etc. Rumor is Mercedes has a 515 hp 4-cylinder hybrid for the C63, more power than the current V8 and they get to take all that weight off the front axel for handling. SL isn't dying, they have a new one coming next year, I imagine 2022 model with how things are going as you mentioned. They are even killing SLC, S-class coupe, and S-class convertible to clear out space in the portfolio for the SL. And there will be an SL73 at the top of the Mercedes mountain, they are committed to their longest running nameplate. C8 is a game changer in that you can get a mid-engine car for $60k, and even well equipped at $75k, it is a fantastic deal. It is super car performance for half the price. But they always had good performance for half the price, so that hasn't changed. Problem with your last point is when the economy goes south, it isn't the type of people that buy new AMG cars that suffer, it is the other 95% of the population. As millions are unemployed the stock market goes up, Jeff Bezos gets richer and richer while thousands of small businesses fold and every auto maker around the globe lays off workers. The millionaires and billionaires don't suffer, the regular folks do.
  2. smk4565
    Corvette isn't the best performance, the C7 ZR1 was 30 seconds slower around the Nurburgring than the 911 GT2, and the 911 is slower than both the Huracan and Aventador. Yes there is a C8 but there is a new 911 too now. And yet Zora will be here in 4 years but the other guys have new stuff coming too. The Zora won't hold a candle to the AMG One, the C8 is too heavy. The AMG One is 1,000 lbs lighter than a C8. Nothing but the GM beancounters is stopping Corvette engineers from making a $1 million dollar hyper car. If Mary Barra said tomorrow she wants a car faster than the Veyron, we'd see if they can take the Corvette to 270 mph. Mercedes made a car that hit 268 mph on public roads in 1938, a record that stood until 2017 when the Koenigsegg Agera did 277 mph. Maybe Zora can go for 280 mph and set the new standard, that should be the target to have best in the world performance. Cadillac can do a fancy SUV, but you have Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Bentley, Ferrari with SUV's too, so you have to do something specular there, but there is less entrants in that space than there are in sports cars, and SUVs sell way better than sports cars.
  3. smk4565
    First off, a Corvette is not the best of the best performance, there are dozens of faster cars on market. Performance per dollar is fantastic and for years has been. Secondly, obviously a Corvette is a Chevrolet and always should be. I have often said there should be a V6 (probably turbo) Corvette that even comes in at a lower price point to broaden appeal. But there are people that want more than a Corvette, spend more than what a Corvette costs, or won't give Chevrolet the time of day solely on brand image or dealership experience. This is where Cadillac can come in. Now maybe GM ran the numbers and just doesn't see a business case or market demand for a Cadillac supercar and that's fine. When you look at R8 and NSX sales they are pretty much nothing, so I can see Cadillac not going there because it would probably be a money loser. So if not a sports car, what does Cadillac build outside of the Escalade that brings people in? I think super SUV has more profit potential.
  4. smk4565
    A year later but XLR was on market for 5-6 years. In 2009 they were working with a 1997 Corvette chassis. Point is Cadillac is greater than Chevrolet. A Cadillac sports car should be greater than a Chevrolet sports car. C8 starts at $60k, a Cadillac mid-engine car can start at $160k like an Audi R8 or the Acura NSX. So a whole of of performance options open up.
  5. smk4565
    Aston Martin just hired Tobias Moers to be their CEO. Aston Martin also has no money so I don’t know how they’ll afford to come up with a bespoke V6 hybrid of their own. Maybe they will or maybe Moers will just buy engines from AMG because that is what he knows. AMG isn’t getting rid of the V8, the SL will have it and that car has a long production run, probably gets them to 2030 before they kill the V8. AMG already has a 4 and a hybrid 4 is coming. There are lots of ways to get power and they have a lot of sized vehicles.
  6. smk4565
    S-class coupe and convertible are dying after this year to clear room for a new SL that is supposedly a 2+2 set up and engineered entirely by AMG. It will have I-6 and V8 with hybrid power on all. Updated C5, but Chevy had C6. And the Corvette was faster than the XLR. It would be like today Cadillac making a C7 based sports car with 400 hp and charging $85k when a C8 with 500 hp is $60k (to start) and wondering why the Cadillac doesn’t sell.
  7. smk4565
    Cadillac doesn’t do what AMG does, they don’t have performance SUV’s. Also Chevy makes the most powerful and fastest cars at GM. AMG doesn’t build slower less power cars than the Mercedes-Benz side of the house. If the C8 is 495 hp, make a Cadillac mid-engine car with the 550 hp blackwing engine. That is what AMG would do.
  8. smk4565
    XLR was a good looking car and still looks good today. Problem was it was a C5 chassis and the C6 came out a year later, also the XLR had 320 hp to the C6’s 400 hp and the XLR interior was not that good for Mercedes-Jaguar price class they were playing in. If the XLR was on the C6 chassis with more power and more luxury and quality, then they would have been on to something. If Cadillac gave it another go with a C8 platform and more luxury and performance than the C8, then there is a reason to buy the car, I don’t know how much market demand there is though. As I said Audi makes an SUV that is 12 seconds off the C8 on a 7:30 time, so they are close. All I said was Cadillac had to get close to C8 track performance with an SUV. Audi is already there and I suspect the Urus is faster than the SQ8, in fact I know it is.
  9. smk4565
    That design rendering looks bad, but I think Cadillac should have a sports car. They could use the C8 chassis, with a Cadillac body that doesn't look as close as a Tahoe to Escalade transformation. Make it a Cadillac interior and use the Blackwing V8. The problem with some Cadillacs like XT5 or XT6 is not only are they Chevy chassis, they are Chevy engine, transmission, steering, suspension, etc. Why pay Cadillac money for that? Especially when the competitors have rear drive and more power. With the C8 at least they would have a good performance per dollar starting point, and Cadillac can offer 550 hp standard vs the 495 for the Corvette and Cadillac can blow away the C8's interior, and then you have a compelling case for the Cadillac price ta of the car. I think Cadillac could do a performance SUV also, take the Omega platform, Blackwing V8, carbon fiber hood to cut weight, etc. The Audi SQ8 has a 7:42 Nurburgring time, vs 7:30 for a C8, that isn't that far off, I think it possible for Cadillac to make an SUV that can match the C8 on a race track or at least get really close. With SUV popularity, I might go that route over a Cadillac mid-engine sports car, unless you have the money to do both, which I doubt GM has given the hit they will take this year in sales.
  10. smk4565
    CT4’s problem is that the starting price is only $3-4K less than the CT5. With the 84 month financing GM is doing there isn’t going to be much difference in payment between the two.
  11. smk4565
    Mercedes E450 sedan 4matic starts at $61,550, the G80 3.5 AWD starts at. $62,250. Mercedes has a longer options list that can push the price higher but that is pretty close pricing. That G80 better be on point if they want E450 money for it.
  12. smk4565
    OCN is correct on that prior post and CT4 and CT5 still ride on Alpha. I think Cadillac knew they had to cut price to survive. They made the right move pricing CT5 where they did. CTS was dying in sales, a $10k price cut was needed or there was no point in continuing. 5-series size for 3-series money is the only strategy that worked for Cadillac in the past 25 years.
  13. smk4565
    @oldshurst442 That was a long post so I didn’t quote it, but I see a theme Cadillac Catera (Opel Omega), STS, DTS, CTS, XLR, ATS are all gone or failed. Throw SRX that was rear drive and now a front drive XT5. XTS too, 8 dead name plates in 20 years. Also CT5 is what gen 1 CTS was, 5-series size for 3-series money. Gen 1 CTS was the best selling (best looking too) so that is a correct strategy.
  14. smk4565
    All true in this post. And to answer the question, the E-class has 4 body styles (5 if you count CLS) and G80 has 1. E-class has 4 engines in the US, all of which will be electrified for 2021 and the G80 has 2 engines with no electrification. The E-class has up to 603 hp, the G80 has up to 375. Also pretty much anything offered on the G80 was on the E-class 3 years ago. The G80 has to share a chassis with the GV80, E-class and GLE use different architectures so to optimize one for cars and the other for SUV. And lastly Mercedes has a loyal buyer pool, Genesis has to conquest from another brand. G80 has the deck stacked against it. And we have seen everyone else make runs at the E-class and 5-series in the past, Lexus even failed and finally quit the segment. I don’t see how Genesis wins where Lexus failed.
  15. smk4565
    The 340i is priced near the CT5-V and G70 V6 and the BMW spanks both in performance, better interior too although not as nice as the C43 which is slower than the 340i but faster than the other 2. As far as G80 goes, the BMW 550i is faster than a Lexus LFA, CTS-V or CT6 Blackwing. So I’d expect a G80 to have that level of performance. I am not even saying Genesis needs M5 or E63 performance, that won’t happen, but they should be able to get to 550i level especially since they hired a guy from BMW to run their R&D.
  16. smk4565
    2 good posts in a row and I think Genesis is aggressive and will have a 6 vehicle line that is pretty strong within a couple years. The SUVs will be key. The GV80 and G80 interiors seem very nice, new chassis, new engine, that is all good stuff. But they are also going against the German big 3 pretty much head on. You have to be on your A game and be relentless. Keep in mind Audi has an SUV that does the Nurburgring 12 seconds slower than a C8 Corvette Z51. Can Genesis get a GV80 near Corvette level performance? Lincoln Aviatior is a good case study for Genesis, they came in with standard 400 hp turbo V6, optional 500 hp hybrid. GV80 turbo 4 is priced against the 400 hp Aviator, the GV80 V6 is less powerful than the Aviator and probably with the right options mix the 2 could cost the same in V6 guise. But Aviator is getting smoked in sales by others in the segment. I’m not sure GV80 is an all out Aviator killer and it needs to be.
  17. smk4565
    They make an M3. Europeans beating America on fuel efficiency again?
  18. smk4565
    Right but CT4 is a 1-series, A-class, A3 competitor. As Johan previously stated while there, Cadillac was going to go to that segment with rear drive when everyone else did front drive. And you can throw the Acura TLX in there, which is bigger than a CT4, but same price point.
  19. smk4565
    Cadillac states the CT5 is a C-class, A4, 3-series, G70 competitor. On price the CT5 and G70 match up very closely, but the CT5 is the size of a G80. I think the G80 is nicer than a CT5, CT5 and G70 are about equal I think, depends on how big a car you want. I think the Cadillac will sell better as it is 1 car covering 2 segments basically and has more recognizable brand name and dealer network. On a side note a BMW M340i has a 3.8 second 0-60 time, that's not only a full second faster than a CT5-V, it is faster than a Camaro SS or Mustang GT. This is the big separator with the Germans and these other guys, the performance isn't there. Genesis isn't going to make a sedan that fast, let alone an M3 competitor. Cadillac at least has tried with the V-series to make some fast cars, but they could still do more, like V-series SUVs, etc.
  20. smk4565
    Bringing it back to the G80, a good comparison would be to the Cadillac CT5. They are both the same size roughly. A CT5-V starts at $49k, Genesis has said the G80 will start just under $50k, so I'll assume that means $49k. So we have similar size and price with the Cadillac you get a turbo V6 for the price of the turbo 4 in the Genesis. CT5 tops out around $65k, G80 is supposed to go to $70k, so pretty close. So which car is better, CT5 or G80? Which car will sell better?
  21. smk4565
    An E200 bare bones E-class no options starts at 47,000 Euro or $50,800. That is still higher than a Cadillac XTS that had a high fleet %. Every company needs fleet sales to survive too.
  22. smk4565
    So what is the cheapest E-class in Germany? I saw 49,000 Euro. Worldwide number is what matters, that is how Mercedes gets their money for product development. They don’t build a US only E-class paid for only with US sales revenue. Also how VW makes crazy money. Most don’t know the VW Tiguan and Golf both outsold the Chevy Silverado last year on a global number. They sell over 800,000 Golfs per year.
  23. smk4565
    So an E, 5, or A6 start at $54k with zero options, which we know doesn’t exist and every is extra in a German car. Mercedes charges $200 for wireless phone charging which is ridiculous, for $54k that should be included. So what are those 3 transacting at? You get to $70k real quick while still with a 4-cylinder engine on those cars and 4-cylinder sucks for a luxury car so you need the 6, now it is $80k.
  24. smk4565
    The cheapest E-class in Germany 3 years ago was $53k, and that is for an E250 that we don’t even get here. E-class isn’t going anywhere, they sold 351,000 of them last year. Mercedes already paid the fine last year. And all automakers will be hurt by Covid-19.
  25. smk4565
    But the car starts at $36,895, so many will sell at $45-50k and the V’s will mostly sell upper $50’s. New cars often ship first with higher trims before they put lower trims out. But a loaded CLA250 is $53k, $65k for a loaded AMG CLA35. Most CLA250 will sell in the mid 40’s, most CLA35 will sell around $55k. Not far off from CT5 and that is a budget Benz.
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