smk4565
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Everything posted by smk4565
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BMW was never class leading, they have been in 2nd place (or worse) for the past 100 years and were almost bought out by the leader.
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I don't know where all the hard plastics are on a Mercedes unless you are talking about a Sprinter or the wheel cladding on some SUVs, which isn't even on all of them, because most SUVs have body color fender guards. But the E-class does compare very well to a Camry, just as the GLS compares very well to a Tahoe, so compare away, Mercedes wins those all day.
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Since BMW doesn't make their own transmission and they buy ZF units, I guess they will get 10 speeds when ZF makes it. Mercedes ran 81 billion simulations in 2015 and found that a 10 speed has no benefit over a 9-speed however. So they have already done ZF's work for them, no reason to make a 10-speed.
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Cadillac needs to start comparing that CT5 to the ES350, MKZ, and Q50, hell maybe a Kia Stinger or Acura TLX. Change the narrative, they look bad in any comparison they do with BMW and Mercedes. And plastic on the C-pillar a la the Cruze is just terrible and shouldn't have black plastic on a pillar of a luxury car.
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GM News: GM Selling Lordstown to Electric Truck Maker Workhorse
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in General Motors
GM probably would sell it for $1. The building anyway, GM May want the equipment inside of it. But the maintenance, upkeep, security, utilities and property tax bill on Lordstown has to be huge. They are probably spending a million dollars a month just to hold on to it, which granted isn’t a lot by GM standards but still I am sure they want to off load it fast.- 18 replies
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GM News: GM Selling Lordstown to Electric Truck Maker Workhorse
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in General Motors
That is a big factory having driven past it many times, it can probably produce 500k units per year if it was running at full capacity. I don’t see how Workhorse would sell that many vehicles, even if they add a van to the mix with the pickup. That isn’t a good looking truck, it has a low EV range and a high price. If they make that truck $34,000 before tax credits, game on. -
Only the first car, the first truck and first van. Maybe the first supercar with the 300SL. The ML55 perhaps the first luxury performance SUV, Range Rover is really the first luxury SUV and there was the GMC Typhoon for putting a big motor in an SUV. Some props to the Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited too. BMW X6 started the crossover coupe game.
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Benz doesn’t think they can sell Benz diesels here, not sure why FCA wants to make a go of it. I am sure Mercedes would be happy to sell them engines though, I think their diesel sales in Europe are down, there is probably some factory capacity available.
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I think that looks like a Mazda or Toyota. Almost looks like a Blazer which I think is trying to look like a Japanese crossover despite the claimed “inspired by Camaro” statements.
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What is missing is a crossover coupe with a pickup bed behind it, like a Honda Ridgeline but with a 4-coupe front half. Even better if they make it mid-engined, which Honda could easily do a mid-engine Ridgeline with the engine in the bed area.
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But they aren’t cool. Once Mercedes and Audi do it, the band wagon will start.
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High riding sedans will probably become a thing.
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Ran needs a midsize pickup and I could see room for a Promaster City based small truck.
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Haha, of course they are. Because nothing says “expressive design” like a crossover coupe. These things will be more common than a family sedan in about 3 years, then people won’t want them because they are too common and they’ll want a sedan to be different.
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Chevrolet News:Chevy updates the Camaro for 2020
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Chevrolet
Corvette average buyer is fore sure over 60. -
Elon should just buy all 3.5 million shares. More importantly this company needs to sell cars at a profit.
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Chevrolet News:Chevy updates the Camaro for 2020
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Chevrolet
Wouldn’t surprise me if the median buyer age for a Camaro was over 60 either. -
Chevrolet News:Chevy updates the Camaro for 2020
smk4565 replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Chevrolet
Cheaper V8 and 10 speed with the V6 are nice updates. Styling tweaks don’t fix that this was never very good looking any way or that you can’t see out of it. -
Smart should be sold in 2nd/3rd world countries, where a cheap, small car is all they can afford. Or as an EV brand in China as a low cost EV for those that can't afford a bigger car because cars are pretty expensive in China. Outside of that, there is no point in the Smart brand.
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Chrysler had PT Cruiser, Sebring, 300, Town and Country, Pacifica, Crossfire, Aspen under Daimler, now they have 300 and Pacifica. Daimler didn’t kill those 5 models and not replace them, that came post Daimler. Chrysler probably thought in 1998 that Daimler buying them was god’s Greatest gift, they would probably have been bankrupt well before 2009 had Daimler not bought them. And if FCA was so cash rich as Drew suggests, why haven’t they put any SUVs at Chrysler?
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Daimler should have never bought them to begin with, Daimler lost like $20 billion on them. And the Daimler era got Chrysler the LX platform and the Grand Cheroke platform, which are like the only 2 Chrysler products that have done anything the past 15 years.
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Porsche and Audi are pretty different and is the Toureg even still around? I mean I know it exists but not in USA anymore I don’t think. That is the only VW suv built on the MLB platform. FCA can’t get Alfa Romero or Maserati to compete with the German and Japanese luxury brands, yet the Chrysler brand could pull that off? Zero chance, waste of money if they try it.
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Chrysler is not a luxury brand though, it is a Honda Odyssey, Toyota Avalon competitor brand. Chrysler also doesn’t have European or Chinese market sales like some of those other brands do. GM has spent billions upon billions on Cadillac trying to revive them and they are still struggling and they were never a “dead” brand nor did Cadillac have a total product drought like Chrysler has. FCA will probably go bankrupt trying to revive Chrysler, the reason they have no new product is there is no money.
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Renegade, Compass and Cherokee are all front drive crossovers, all of those are down this year. Wrangler is down, but I think they just overpriced the new one, that is a different issue. FCA has bad reliability. They can give Chrysler all the crossovers they want to, but until they fix the reliability and build quality they aren't going to make a dent in Rav4 and CR-V sales, not to mention the 7 SUVs over at Hyundai. The Pacifica is down 30% this year, the 300 is down 40% for the year, 50% last month, and probably what they did sell is fleet sales. Chrysler is basically one product and that product is hemoraging 30% losses despite not being that old on the market. They invented the mini-van and can't even win in that segment, why on earth would the dump money into crossovers to take on the Rav4 and Highlander, they have no shot there. Likewise with Dodge, their sales are tanking and they have no new product on the horizon.
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And what product will sell there? There is no point in making 3 SUVs for Chrysler as they have Jeep for SUV and Jeep sales are down. Sedans don't sell, FCA could spend $2 billion on a new mid-size sedan and the Camry will outsell it 5 to 1, so that would be a total waste of money. The brand is just a dead brand, Pontiac had more mojo in 2007 than Chrysler has in 2019.
