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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I watched that episode and the problem is the Nissan Navara that underpins the X-class. Which is why it was a sales dud. A 100% Mercedes truck would do better but they don’t want to put money into something like that.
  2. smk4565
    So double the horsepower from a 1.6 liter V6 than the Corvette gets from a 6.2 V8. Seems very cookie cutter. Granted I believe and F1 engine costs $5 million dollars. Nothing cookie cutter about that price. And if they didn't have regulations, it would be even more unfair.
  3. smk4565
    F1 is more about he machine, Max Verstappen is one hell of a driver and he rarely wins because he has a Honda engine. Red Bull does well with aero and tire wear, but that car is not on par with a Mercedes.
  4. smk4565
    No one can beat the 5 time reigning, defending F1 champion who are well on their way to a 6th consecutive title. But I would love for Porsche or BMW or a GM/Toyota team to try. Last two races were great. And it is only predictable because one team is so dominate, but maybe with a 4th big money team it can make it more interesting.
  5. smk4565
    Toyota could literally buy Ford Motor company outright, they have that much money. They can also hire 1,000 American engineers to design and build a new Tundra, they could buy Rivian out too. Toyota made $17 billion last year with very little full size truck profit, that is insane, Ford would lose money without the F150. If Toyota spend even 1/5th of last year’s profit on a new Tundra it would be best in class. It is embarrassing that Toyota is so lazy with the Tundra. Even the Tacoma and 4Runner, update that stuff.
  6. smk4565
    I don’t think BMW lost 1 M5 sale when the Charger Hellcat came out. Badge trumps horsepower. I think people that always wished of having a mid-engine supercar but can’t afford a Ferrari are going to be very interested in the C8. And the C8 is super car performance at sports car price. Remarkable achievement, I thought the price would jump $25k on the base model and it barely moved. I was shocked at that price.
  7. smk4565
    The C8 can have all the performance in the world but it won’t have Porsche build quality and that is what will stop 911 buyers from leaving. The 911 has a crazy list of customizable options too. And the 928 may be coming back to give Porsche another option in the arsenal to attract/retain buyers. They showed a lot of Nürburgring ring driving clips in the Corvette launch but never mentioned a lap time. I am curious what that is.
  8. smk4565
    If they made a Cadillac version that looks like a Cien or something to that degree plus had an interior nicer than the CT6 and the Blackwing V8 that would be awesome. And assuming you can see of this car or a possible Cadillac version, some of these sports cars you can’t see well out of.
  9. smk4565
    This C8 looks as fast as an AMG GT R for half the money, looks almost as fast to a 911 Turbo for 1/3rd the money. That makes the Corvette a hell of a performance bargain. But that doesn’t mean AMG, Porsche or Ferrari people will buy a Corvette, those people are not choosing a car on value. I think the Corvette is 100% worth the price tag and even more so $60k base for a mid engine V8 car is insane. And a lot of vehicles out there are not worth their price tag. On value the Corvette has a really strong argument, it is Tahoe money and look at the engineering difference that goes into the two. The Corvette is outstanding value for the performance. But the Germans and Italians are not selling on a performance/value equation so I don’t think it will really have any effect on them.
  10. smk4565
    I imagine they could price the Corvette at $25,000 and most Porsche owners and no Ferrari owners are not going to buy one. To them it is about owning a Ferrari, not about performance per dollar. Corvette is trying to get the top end Camaro buyers for when that car dies, tempt people to spend a little more for a Vette rather than buy a Supra, or Mustang. Maybe try to steal some M4 or Audi TT buyers since TT is getting killed.
  11. smk4565
    Which dealership sells and services it? And it actually is and has always been a Chevrolet.
  12. smk4565
    I think this was a hell of an engineering effort to put this together and I am shocked it starts under $60k. I imagine that $60k Corvette is like the $35k Tesla Model 3, but even selling this much performance at the $70-80k range is a bargain. I do really like the carbon fiber rear reinforcement bar and the front suspension lift that will rise automatically with GPS. I like intuitive things that make it easier and who want to have to stop and hit a button everyday pulling into the driveway. They did a really good job with this overall, high pricing would have killed them, they priced this right. I am not a fan of the styling, looks too like a Ferrari and I don’t like Ferrari styling, and that center console is nuts, but performance per dollar is a win. Because it is a Chevrolet. I wouldn’t buy another Chevy (I owned one) no matter how good it was and Ferrari and Lamborghini drivers are way snobbier than I am.
  13. smk4565
    Pricing is what I am waiting for. And will they price it at a point where a lot of current Corvette buyers are not going to pay? And that is key because Corvette isn't going to conquest Italian sports cars. Even contesting Porsche will be hard. This seems like an NSX but for what the NSX actually should cost, because the NSX pricing is a joke, that car is $50k overpriced. I am also curious on all performance specs when they come out.
  14. smk4565
    Another monotone charcoal interior from GM. Fans of the C7 should like the looks, I think the C7 is ugly through, the C6 and C5 were both better designs. Interior ergonomics look a mess with that long strip of buttons. Appears like it will be fast though, I bet the performance is good with the mid-engine design. A base C8 will probably perform with or better than a C7 Z06.
  15. smk4565
    Toyota could spend Ford under a table if they wanted to. Toyota made over $17 billion in profit last year, over 20 billion the year before and sits on about a $50 billion pile of cash and short term investments. Why on earth they haven't taken that full size truck segment head on is beyond me.
  16. smk4565
    True to that. I think Tundra could outsell F150 if Toyota got on it. But F-series does have a big line that get lumped into there. And I don't see Toyota doing medium duty trucks and such.
  17. smk4565
    Beat me to it. I get this is a low volume thing, but it looks too like a Ferrari 458 and 1 lap around the Nurburgring will deplete the battery. The 130 people that buy it probably don't care about any of that, but most people don't even know Lotus is still around, and they don't really have any product that people want. Sports cars as a segment are dying, and that is all these guys have, and they are expensive, it isn' like they are in Mustang or Supra level pricing where they might be able to get a little volume.
  18. smk4565
    No suck luck the BMW X8 is a go, and it probably won't cost any more to build than an X7, yet it will sell for $130,000 and the BMW bored will be like as they count their profits IF Toyota got their act together on the Tundra. The current Tundra is a joke, it is dated as can be, has been on market for 12 years, has a 5.7 liter engine making 3 liter V6 power. Toyota has 10s of billions of dollars in cash on hand. If they launched a Tundra that was class leading in ride, handling, towing, hauling, fuel economy, refinement, and reliability (which they have the money to do), THEN they can do a Lexus version. But in their current state of affairs no, their full size truck entrant is a joke, and there is no excuse for it, they aren't on an FCA shoestring budget, they are the richest car company in the world. I actually think if Toyota set a goal and made a 20 year commitment that they could get the Tundra to outsell the F150. The Camry only needed about 15 years to be the #1 selling car, the RAV4 needed about 15 years to be #1 selling SUV.
  19. smk4565
    I think it is great that they are killing the X-class (and SLC also). I think they should kill the S-class convertible, to make more room for the SL. I don't think the CLS serves any purpose, they can kill that too. I'd like to see C and E-class convertibles stay since they are killing SLC and S-class convertible. They can kill the C-class wagon too. Cut the fat, make a Maybach G-wagon instead. I could see a Maybach E580, which would be pretty bad ass. And that is easy stuff to do, just load up existing models that are already paid for. Heck that has kept FCA in business for the past 10 years.
  20. smk4565
    I never thought a Mercedes pick up was a good idea to begin with, and I certainly wouldn't use any thing from Nissan/Renault as a platform. That is why I didn't think it would work here. If it worked overseas they could have done a gen 2 on their own platform and brought it to the USA. Doing it the way they did was a way to put their toe in the water with little R&D expense, I think it is a smart move to dump the pick up and focus on sedans and SUVs which is where they make their money. And imagine Cadillac or Lincoln making a pickup without using the Silverado or F150 chassis. And see how the business case for that would work. GM can't even make a business case for a Camaro that rides on an existing platform. And it is every carmaker, they see crossovers as profit, and that is where the money will go, and the Detroit 3 have full size trucks also which works here, not outside of the USA, thus they have to put all their other money in crossovers or whatever China demands or regulates.
  21. smk4565
    It isn't about percentage it is about price point. Why do Cadillac and Lincoln not have pickup trucks? Both tried and failed, Lincoln tried twice and failed. Lexus and Infiniti never tried. Mercedes can't find enough volume for a truck on their own, it would have to platform share with another vehicle, which is what they tried with the X-class and it didn't work. They could try to convert a GLS into a unibody pick up, but a GLS is expensive, and how many trucks would they sell at that price point? I don't see that as being a smart business move. Toyota if they got their act together on the Tundra I think could make a Lexus truck because even if they sold 20,000 a year, it wouldn't matter because the Tundra is eating up all the R&D cost.
  22. smk4565
    Ford, Chevy Ram have sold trucks because no one really put a competitive entrant in there. If Toyota went all in on the Tundra and made it superior to the domestic trucks they would start to take market share, just the way the Camry shut down the domestic sedan market. The Camry did that because it was good, the Tundra is not competitive, thus hasn't. And if Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Tesla or whoever wanted to go into a luxury pick up market they would steal some sales. Problem is what % of F150's are that top trim vs the 100,000s of work truck trims sold? When you have a huge quantity to suck up most of the engineering, it is easy to do a top trim level and sell a few of them. Just like BMW can do an M5 because 528i's exist. It isn't that Daimler with all their truck knowledge couldn't build the best pick up out there, but how much volume would they get on a Mercedes truck that was $70,000 base? If Ford made the F150 start at $70,000 then sales would drop from 700,000 a year to about 25,000 a year, and there would be no business case for it.
  23. smk4565
    Daimler is the largest truck maker in the world. That is the most “real” truck company there is. Useless but people pay a premium for them. 4 door coupes are useless too but every keeps making them.
  24. smk4565
    The problem with the X-class is Mercedes owners aren’t going to buy a truck made by Nissan and Nissan owners aren’t going to pay Mercedes pricing.
  25. smk4565
    I think the money is being diverted to EV’s. They have to bet on the future.
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