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The Alpha platform is superbly weighted and balanced, one of the absolute best balanced platforms in the industry. The FWD based CLA does not have that. The Alpha platform does everything that the enthusiast crowd loved about BMWs from 2003 before BMWs got heavy and lost their steering feel. But Pole movers like SMK pulled up the goal and decided that flabby 3-series were the new ideal.

Not for a Serp belt on a BMW X1 it's not. It's just a FWD 2.0 liter 4-cylinder. If it's taking you 2 hours of labor to install the Serp belt on such an engine (not timing or anything like that) just a regular old Serp belt... then it's a bad design. Even on the old GM B-bodies equipped with the towing package, it required removing the first belt, removing the mechanical fan mount, and then removing the second belt, I can do that in under an hour. If it takes more than one wrench to replace the belt, it was designed badly. I can do all 4 V-belts on my Olds with a single adjustable wrench.

Why is any serp belt replacement EVER $541?? If it takes you more than 20 minutes to replace the belt, it is a bad design.

I borrow my best friend's dog pretty often, but I might get a photocopy sometime in the summer. Waiting for his Pup Cup at Starbucks...

Those prices are INSANE.

Not surprising about German cars but I am surprised about few Lexus models Cars and SUVs With Highest Repair Costs - Consumer Reports Consumer Reports analyzed estimated repair cost data from RepairPal AC Compressor Replacement Alternator Replacement Fuel Pump Replacement Serpentine Belt Replacement Starter Replacement Suspension Shock or Strut Replacement Timing Belt Replacement Water Pump Replacement

There really is not a song of his that don’t like....lots of good songs....

I LOVE MJ Its a disgrace what the public ended up doing to him.

Try the off the wall Album next... ?

MJ Time while working.

Motor1's clickbait headline aside... no the Tundra will not be a world beater no matter how good it is. No it won't take over Ford, GM, and Ram. Toyota simply doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to do so. They'll remain the distance 5 place brand. They can make 100,000 Tundras a year... that's all the the plant can handle. Ford can build over 900,000 F-150s.

An extensive study just released cross-referenced household electricity usage in 2014-2017 with BE vehicle registrations, and found a surprising result. Based on electricity usage increases, the average BE is only traveling 5300 miles per year, or less than half that of the average vehicle overall. This was much less than projected by CA regulators, raising concerns that widespread BEV adaptation would not address greenhouse gas emissions on nearly the scale desired. The paper stated that future research should explore possibilities for this including: • BEs may be complementing gas-powered vehicles instead of replacing them. • BEV buyers to date don't represent the 'broader vehicle-owning population'. - - - - - I struggle with how one needs to go much farther than past & current BE market share to instantly see the reasons posted above. I mean... right? https://www.nber.org/papers/w28451?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosgenerate&stream=top https://www.yahoo.com/news/electric-vehicle-owners-drive-them-141024144.html - - - - - What have I stated all along? : THIS IS GOING TO TAKE FOREVER.

Define what is bad ass about the CLA45? I think your meaning AMG CLA45 and even then that is just a turd of a Jellybean style wise. Nothing that makes it look any hotter compared to the Cadillac. And dare we say a true from the start RWD for Cadillac, True from the Start FWD for the CLA! AMG CLA45 CT4-V CT4-V Blackwing

LOL... $541 is dirt cheap. The Audi A8 (4.0T CEU engine) does not have a timing belt or an accessory belt. The timing chain is in the back between the transmission and the engine. In addition to the cams, it also drives the accessories gearbox via a bunch of reduction gears which are also in the back. These include the alternator, water pump and oil pump. The A/C compressor and water pump are actually in the front and driven by shafts from this accessory gearbox. The alternator is in the back where there is no airflow so it is liquid cooled. Theoretically, they are good for 300,000 miles or the life of the car. But if you need to replace ANY of these things or that pesky little chain tensioner... The front bumper comes off. The radiator and fan assembly comes off. The front aluminum cross beam comes off. The engine mounting and all harnesses are disconnected. The exhaust is unbolted. The front suspension sub-frame cross beam is removed. The entire engine is then removed from the front of the car. You can then get to the stuff with the engine on a stand. It's about 36 hours ($10,260 at dealer rates; labor only)

New Envision ST, blacked out, recalls Buick's glory days, local dealer has one, made me think of the remote possibility of an Envision Grand National.

A $60K Corvette competes with the $100K Porsche 911, so yes they are cross shopping. I just do not know how many more times this has to be explained to you. If a Maybach was once able to "compete" with a Rolls Royce, despite the HUGE price gulf between, then a Cadillac can sure as hell compete with an overpriced Benz. Are you kidding me? A similar in power AMG GT 4-door STARTS at $140K. It better beat everything Cadillac has. We won't even get into the oft delayed EVs from Benz. Vaporware does not count.

Mercedes sold 75,000 FWD-based vehicles in the (down) year of '20 in the U.S. alone. Vast majority of these in both cases are AWD, but at least Cadillac isn't building FWD-based sports sedans.

Not funny and makes no sense. Seems questionable to promote what looks like angry hatred against another country in 2020/2021, and the metric portrayed seems a non-sequitur / pointless. They also drink more coffee per capita than the U.S. :shrug:

They are still targeting RR as well as Bentley. Not even bothering with the rest of the nonsense and I’ll just focus on your first sentence. Price was not best argument when cars like the 2nd gen CTS-V was spanking the Germans. It was the better drivers car overall. The same applies to the Blackwing as well. I do find it a bit hilarious that you think Cadillac won’t convert Tesla owners but I bet you think Benz can even though they are further down the EV pipeline than GM. Just stop the fanboy nonsense already.

I LOVE this song. probably my favorite MJ song. The video didnt age too good though. Promoting sexual assault. LOL (or at least ONLY in today's overly sensitive world)

Listening to this now. Have to say we HAVE NOT seen any talent like his yet to replace him.

The guy had some real talent. Genius. Ill start the MJ marathon. Love the vid. I love how girls shuffle dance. I often watch this guy's channel.

Yeah. It gets 320hp on regular gas, 328hp on E85

Horrible selection bias, that study shows nothing of value. 2014 - 2017 the only BEVs available were Teslas, a few Bolts, the Nissan Leaf, the very and a few compliance cars with too short ranges. I don't think anyone here needs a study to know that if you buy a vehicle with a 100 mile range, you're not going to be driving it as far as a gasoline vehicle or your lifestyle even with a gasoline vehicle doesn't involve driving long distances. It's a fairly big "duh!" The Bolt wasn't even available nationwide until August of 2017. Originally it was only sold in Metro areas of California and Oregon. These days we have a number of longer range EVs with a whole bunch more hitting the market in the next 24 months. Show me a 2021 - 2025 study and get back to me. So you can round file that study.

There's a reason that GM and Ford no longer make vehicles that cheap anymore... they don't make money doing it. Taking away the Spark which no one buys anyway, the cheapest vehicle at GM right now is the $19,995 Trailblazer which you and I both know is unobtainium at that price and most of them are sold as LT AWDs with an MSRP of $26,695. The best selling GM that isn't a truck are the Equinox/Terrain twins. Average MSRP of $30k for those. The days of the $14k Sonic LT 5-door are over. As of this time last year, the average new car price was $37,867 and with production shortages, that price had to have climbed. The Industry average is right above the Bolt EV's base price.

The whole point, that SMK intentionally misses is that Cadillac can compete at a lower price point and that’s mostly because the German competition is overpriced in the U.S. to begin with. It’s not that hard to figure out honestly but that BS has hijacked this thread for too long so...again, I love that a six speed manual comes standard on the Caddy’s!

Seems Norway and Audi have teamed up to reply to GM. Superbowl commercial

The top of the line CLA45 should be faster than a no longer made ATS-V or mid-range CT4-V. Again, those goalposts are getting mighty tired. To be fair, I brought up Maybach and Rolls (their huge current price differences) in counter to his assumption that Cadillac can’t compete with lower priced models n

Yet you struggle to not stay focused on the FACT this was about the Cadillac CT4 & 5 V-Blackwing edition. Everyone time someone points out how Daimler is now BEHIND Cadillac, you have to throw in EVERYTHING else NOT RELATED to this focus on this thread. What does Rolls or Maybach have to do with the BlackWings? NOTHING, you could ignore and just stay focus and would be better for it, but you have to flitter off into the back 40 Upper 40 Lower 40 to play smoke n mirrors about the fact that Cadillac Luxury maker has a pair of high quality LUXURY Speed Demon cars and Daimler is now BEHIND them. Normal as everyone leap frogs in this industry. You would rather bring in CUVs, FWD Appliance auto's that have been heavily massaged by their AMG division of lower level or higher level than seeing where these auto's truly are. What Ever! ?

Fair point on the price front, back then. However, they still couldn’t compete and sold the remaining US back overseas when the sales turned sour. Now, they are exponentially cheaper than the Rolls while still thinking they are competing with them. The core point stands. You feel it’s okay for them to target the big boys at a lower price point but somehow it’s wrong for Cadillac to do the same. That’s the goalpost moving we are all referring to.

What goal post, it was stated that Maybach was cheaper than Rolls and that is the same as Cadillac being cheaper than Mercedes. Except the Maybach was NOT CHEAPER than a Rolls, they were priced the same. Cadillac prices their cars below the Germans not the same like Maybach did when they went against Rolls-Royce.

Oh I've never said the Alpha platform cars weren't of the best in the industry. Just the broad statement "CT4-V Blackwing is better" is awfully generalized. Also, I'm not trying to take a single thing away from the CT4-VB, I'm just saying the CLA45 isn't one that should really be criticized as it's great in its own way. Yeah, it's roots are "wrong wheel drive" but it's received great reviews for being an absolute hoot to drive.

It did take me a bit of time to replace the serpentine belt on the Duramax, but my labor rate is fantastic. $285/hr is INSANE. I think my dealer is $140.

All if these failed to illustrate the most important factor -- whether or not those parts fail. Lexus parts are not any cheaper than German parts, but whether they fail is a different story. -- In any case, all these prices are not all that bad. Most of it has to do with Dealer Labor rates. Here in California, it has risen to $285 an hour, such that a simple 2 hour job is $570 not counting parts or taxes.

Not this movie, but another movie ... It's amazing how powerful Hollyweird can be, though. BBHC (Before Beverly Hills Cop), a Chevy Nova was a Chevy Nova. ABHC, they were epic. You would look to see who was driving one ... and why. If they ever rebooted the Chevy Nova, they can run an "Axel Foley edition." Two likely drawbacks to that: 1) it may not be politically correct, and 2) it is more and more conceivable that larger swaths of the vehicle buying public may not be familiar with, or get, the "once in a decade" movie that is "Beverly Hills Cop."

Pay attention to what I said. The original Maybach was built to compete with RR but was far cheaper, something you were clearly okay with, yet somehow the CT5 can’t compete with the E Class because it is also cheaper? Olds is right. Get new material because what you’ve said on this entire thread is old, outdated, and at times just flat out wrong. Except it’s not a $36K caddy competing with a $100K car. It’s an $85K Blackwing that does and until you’ve actually sat in said Blackwing, you are just talking out of thin air about the interior. Shall we bring up how plain Jane a base E Class interior looks? Nothing but black everywhere I see.

Get new material...

Hollyweird does this all the time, especially with cars, but check this out. From the Denzel Washington movie trailer The Littlest Things... Voiceover states the perp's car 'probably has high miles', and they show a '68-70 Nova but they give it a 6-digit odometer. 'Movie magic'.

But you get to choose the al a carte thing like rear side impact airbags and USB-C ports (for those unsuspecting backseat passengers) though so it is wash lol!

Moving on from the wash, rinse, repeat nature of debating the same s*** with a Daimler fanatic, I just dig the fact that a six speed manual comes standard on the Blackwing!

Cadillac base prices are vapor- Cadillac doesn’t build a $36K CT5, just like Tesla doesn’t build any $37K Model 3’s. But to address the question; cross-shopping doesn’t happen going uphill, but give a -say- $60K shopper a better driving car at $48K in the same segment and yeah; cross-shopping does occur. Remember, Cadillac wasn’t in the lux sports sedan segment at all 20 years ago - it was all bmw & mb.

AMG GT 4-door is their 5th sedan. Also the Nurburgring record holder for a 4-door. If the Blackwing superior to AMG, then the Blackwing will beat it. And Mercedes has 2 EV sedans coming in a year or so, so they will have to phase out CLS and AMG GT-4 because they have too many sedans.

Benz couldn’t have “invented” the car when there were cars that pre-dated it, but keep swilling that kool-aid. - - - - - The point where everyone gets confused is; mercedes is akin to General Motors, not to Cadillac. Mercedes is a mass-volume mainstream corporation, not a brand. It’s certainly not a ‘luxury brand’.

It is an investor move really. Daimler is the #1 truck company in the world, as a stand alone company would be worth about $35 billion, of which Mercedes-Benz would be the largest shareholder. Also they will still be able to share any technology with each other. And Mercedes-Benz (the corporation) can push toward EV cars and get investor money as the next Tesla. Also Karl Benz invented the car, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhem Maybach didn't put their car on sale until 1889, so Benz's name should be on the company anyway.

And stop with the embellishment. You have the C, E, CLS, and S. Four. Everything else is a derivative of those four and half of those are being (or have already been) phased out. Nice job sidestepping the options /package debate though.

How many times does this have to explained to you? The CT5 is a tweener size that is closer in size to a E Class than the C-Class. And what you call "al a carte", I call "nickel and diming" you to death. Your bar moving changes nothing here. Again, charging extra for two USB-C ports that should already been in the back of a supposed four door family sedan and $700 for airbags. BTW, those soft close doors are not offered on the E-Class at all unless you opt for the AMG models. That makes those doors a $30-50K option if you really want them since they can only be had on the AMG. Want to try that again? Guess it didn't dawn on you that I am talking about their cars and not their CUVs/SUVs. Not one FWD Cadillac sedan or coupe in the last 13 years. Furthermore (since you wanted to go there), how many FWD based car/CUVs constitute the total number sold by Benz? Oh and that FWD original CLA45 comes in at the same price (just a few grand under) as the CT4 Blackwing so get back to us when that comparison comes out instead of comparing it to a lower trim CT4-V.

And only Porsche beats them at that but at least Porsche has never sold a FWD appliance and disguised it as a performance auto (looking at you A-Class). They get a slight pass but not by much lol.

You do get that it still comes in miles cheaper than the German competition, especially when said competition prices also shoot through the roof when loaded? Hell, I’m looking at the build price for the E63 AMG and why in the hell does it cost $550 extra for soft close doors? What kind of BS is that from the supposed luxury standard of the world? Or how about $50 for two rear USB-C ports? Or an extra $700 for rear seat side impact air bags? Who charges extra for that non-sense? And this (and every other option for it) pushes it over $140K.