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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    SL for 65 years S-class 47 years G-wagen for 40 years E-class 26 years Pretty consistent there, the suv names are new but the suv craze is new.
  2. smk4565
    GM cares about salable product. They could always have Cadillac Blackwing series that is above V-series and slap V-badges on 50% of the product they sell. Name equity means nothing at Cadillac, they dumped Eldorado Deville and Seville for STS, CTS, SRX, and dumped those for CT4, CT5, XT5. They don't care about name brand being built up. They might be thinking V is desirable, so if they have $40k V cars they will get sales volume. I am surprised all SUVs aren't called Escalade Sport, Escalade Imaj, Escalade Evoq, etc
  3. smk4565
    .... As far as CT5-V goes, what if it is $49,950 including destination with a $2500 cash back or 0% for 60 months finance deal on the hood? I could see the CT4-V for $39k, if they price these low enough they could get some sales volume. Although if they can't sell at that price point they might as well give up on sedans.
  4. smk4565
    It hurts them all for sure, some just have higher margins or more cash on hand that can weather a storm.
  5. smk4565
    Some is the key word, on 110 billion euro in revenue, they had 3.6 billion in profit. That is barely more than a 3% margin, which isn't a lot of room for error and the past few years were banner years for the auto industry. And that is all while these guys haven't spend a dime on new product for Dodge/Chrysler or electric cars or autonomous cars.
  6. smk4565
    A recession or a 25% tariff on Mexican imports could run FCA deep into the red, and I wonder how much cash they have on hand to survive a down turn of a couple years. Actually I'll answer my own question. FCA has 23 million euros cash on hand in 2014 and ended last year with 12 billion euros cash on hand.
  7. smk4565
    Honda really has 2 cars, Civic and Accord. So it isn't like they have models to cut, it isn't like they have 5 sedans. And they have mainstays in the segment. As long as the price is decent on them, they will be fine for decades more to come. Stuff like the Insight, Clarity, Fit, and whatever other oddball stuff they make my not last. People have to get sick of crossovers at some point. Baby Boomers don't want full size sedans because their parents had them, Gen Xers don't want minivans because their mom had one in the 90s and they aren't cool. I could see Gen Z not wanting crossovers since their parents all had one.
  8. smk4565
    So does this mean Carlos Ghosn won’t be CEO?
  9. smk4565
    Although Elon says the Tesla truck is a better sports car than a 911 and can tow 300,000 lbs and will cost $49,000. Shot fired!
  10. smk4565
    Single market brands have a hard time. That is a problem FCA has. Alfa and Fiat are stronger in the USA than Chrysler and Dodge are outside of North America. When you have regional brands, it is hard to stay competitive. Same problem with Renault, another regional company, if they merge all this together, they need to get a "One Ford" type plan where they have 1 car sold all over the world, maybe under different brand names.
  11. smk4565
    They were up 0.4%. At least they aren't down 34% like Alfa Romeo, or down 26% like Chrysler or down 7% like Jeep in an SUV market and Jeep is down 7% for the year as the SUV market is just getting flooded with entries.
  12. smk4565
    That is some good low end torque and pricing the same as the V8 is a good idea so people actually buy, unlike the huge up charge that some diesel vehicles have.
  13. smk4565
    Moers said they are close to production, so that could happen this year. The last hurdle is clearing emissions as ccap points out. We know the powertrain works, it is undefeated in Formula 1 this year and has won 5 consecutive championships. That VW EV that did the Nurburgring isn't a road legal car, and it was also turned just for the Nurburgring,
  14. smk4565
    There is a lot of red this month, mostly at FCA.
  15. smk4565
    At least there is hope for humanity that the AMG GT is their hottest car and not some crossover. Someone out there still likes performance.
  16. smk4565
    I don’t care so much about the horsepower on these hyper track cars, the lap times depend on weight, brakes and suspension because all these cars have 800-1000 hp. The AMG One is like 2,800 lbs with F1 suspension, brakes, steering, transmission, etc. It is way faster than a LaFerrari or a SPF90 or whatever the new one is, I think it named after sunblock. And Mercedes has beat Ferrari the past 5 years in a row in F1 and Mercedes is undefeated this year, I am not worried about Ferrari beating them, Tesla Roadster with its rocket thrusters could be the challenger but I think it will be too heavy. I am also not ignoring what GM performance can do, the rumored specs of the C8 are impressive, I would just put my ultimate performance car in my high end brand not my value brand. 7:04 for the GT R Pro is their fastest ever, which is what makes AMG One so impressive that it can talks a minute or two off that.
  17. smk4565
    That very well could be. I am not a fan of that naming scheme, Audi has something similar, but I could see Cadillac doing that and you could have multiple V’s.
  18. smk4565
    I am not saying one is better than the other it is just what they each have. I actually tend to think a 2 brand strategy works best, like Toyota-Lexus or Ford-Lincoln, it gives you a mainstream and a luxury, and I don't think you really need a tweener brand in between. The exception would be VW, that instead of VW-Audi has stuff like Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini but those are super low volume brands. Really it comes down to strategy execution. GM has a 3 dealership channel strategy, so they have to execute on that. And it isn't just the Corvette, I think the Corvette should be a Chevy, and not a Cadillac, not its own brand. But For Cadillac to build the V-brand I think they should have the ultimate GM performance car at Cadillac. A Cadillac Brougham line that is like an ultra lux trim I think would be a good idea too. The real problem is they need to get Cadillac up market, and they can't do that if all of GM's best stuff isn't at Cadillac. Cadillac could have XT4, CT4, and CT5 all starting in the $30-$40k range with XT5 around $42k starting, and that is where Buick and GMC are supposed to be. There is way too much overlap. Which in the past I have said if Cadillac is going to that price point, why have Buick or GMC, just badge all that stuff as Cadillac and charge more for it and make more money. And go to the 2 tier set up like Toyota-Lexus, Honda-Acura, Ford-Lincoln.
  19. smk4565
    The Aventador SVJ and Hurcan Performante both do the Nurburgring in under 7 minutes, I would say that makes them track cars. The Aventador may have been around a while, but it is still wicked fast. I am not a Lambo guy, although I would prefer them to Ferrari who hasn't designed a good looking car in 20 years.
  20. smk4565
    Oldshurst442 said the Corvette would be nipping at its heels. They aren't even remotely close, as pointed out the Aventator SVJ isn't even close. Mercedes doesn't have multiple tiers. I am lost there. It is one brand so they have to have a $3 million dollar car and a $35k car in the same place. GM has 3 tiers, so the cheap stuff should be at Chevy, the middle at Buick, the expensive at Cadillac. That is why I thought Corvette should stay where it is, and the mid-engine car make $100k or more and sell it at Cadillac.
  21. smk4565
    Nurburgring production record holder: Lamborghini Aventator SVJ: 6:45 Tobias Moers thinks the AMG One can do it in 5:19 or better to beat the Porsche 919 prototype car, which is not road legal.
  22. smk4565
    On a Cadillac sure, not on a Chevrolet. Why not make a $120,000 luxury Suburban, or a $85,000 Impala? GM has tiered brands for a reason, but they seem to forget that. Although if they can sell $130,000 Corvettes, then good for them, take the money, absolutely. If they wanted to make Corvette $200,000 to reap profit margin, I don't care. But the point of a 3 tier brand system is to have 3 distinct tiers, which GM doesn't have right now.
  23. smk4565
    If they want more performance form the Corvette and want to use over 600 hp then yes it needs to be mid-engine. I would still argue that the Corvette could be front engine with 400-600 hp and still cost in that "affordable" range. The C8 isn't just going to go up a little in price, mid-engine cars are expensive. GM can say it won't go up much, but we'll see. I am not going to buy a Corvette, they don't appeal to me, so I don't really care if it costs $50,000 or $500,000, but from a marketing/sales standpoint I think they are better off in that $50-80k range. And the C8 even in top trim on its best day won't hold a candle to the Mercedes-AMG One. No Corvette ever has cracked the 7 minute mark on the Nurburgring, the production car record is like 6:42 and the AMG One will be running it in under 6 minutes, maybe 5:30 range. I can't wait to find out. No road car on the planet is going to beat the AMG One around a track.
  24. smk4565
    Correct, which if the C8 is in the $100-200k range, then it isn't "everyman" anymore. And I get that new cars in general are not "everyman" anymore when the average new car is $35k and the median income in the USA is not going up much but healthcare, education, food, and everything else goes up and up. But for the purposes of using the everyman sports car term, the Corvette is that and should stay that. If GM wants hypercar performance and high priced super cars, ship that over to the Cadillac brand. Unless the Cadillac brand is not about performance, but GM says it is about performance with these Super V-series coming.
  25. smk4565
    First off the Corvette in the 60s was a $4,000 car which is like a $32k car now, in the 70s Corvettes were around $6,000 which is about $30k in today's money. A 1974 Cadillac Eldorado was double the price of a 1974 Corvette. Because the Corvette was an attainable car. In the late 80s a Corvette was about $30k, A Cadillac Seville was $28k a Mercedes SL was $61k, and a Ferrari Testarossa was $134k. The Corvette was always about a lot of performance per dollar, that is what the fans love. Even in the late 90s a Corvette was about $39k, and Cadillac Seville was $42k. Today's Seville equivalent is probably like a CTS, which is why I think Corvette should be in that $50-80k range. And that is the mission, a sports car that is within reach, not $100,000+ car like an Audi R8 that they sell 200 of a year. Mercedes has one brand. If GM was to kill Cadillac and sell $100k Chevy luxury sedans and $200k Chevy super cars, I don't care. But the whole reason of a Chevy-Buick/GMC-Cadillac 3 tier set up is to have 3 tiers. If Chevy's cost more than Cadillacs you don't need 3 tiers, just sell everything out of 1 dealership channel. I would say the same thing about VW or Toyota, a $80-100k VW or Toyota sports car would make zero sense because they have Audi and Lexus for that.
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