oldshurst442

You folk bitchin' 'bout taxes? Something or other 'bout services? Quebec resident here! We take the cake!!!

I do not know why, but your post reminded me of this classic scene

The Buick Bamboo... The perfect name for a Chinese market only Buick cute ute crossover!

The Florida Keys look gorgeous! I see you have moved around in your life time. And you aint done yet! With Montreal weather being frigid the last couple of days and a snow storm to come in the next few, a place with hot, sun kissed beaches sounds good right about now, never you mind when retirement comes!!!

The Continental lacks the smoothness of the concept. Those very subtle touches that differentiates a build quality of a true luxury brand versus a mainstream one. The Continental's body gaps look like they belong on a Ford. Not worthy of a Lincoln and certainly not worthy of the Continental badge. Continental Fusion The gaps look tighter on the Continental. Which is a step up on the Ford. As it should be. But on the concept, from Lincoln itself, Lincoln KNOWS how luxury should be, yet did not follow through on the production Continental... Concept It makes a BIG visual difference for someone spending huge coin on a luxury car. I think a longer wheelbase would have helped too.

Because Europeans are very patriotic towards their cars. The French will only buy French cars. Italians will only buy Italian cars Germans laugh at everything that is not German. Hell, the Japanese are the same way. They only buy Japanese cars Only the Americans, and the British, are not that way towards their automotive industry... Maybe you need to see other places? Germany is a beautiful country. Europe is a must at least once in your lifetime... THAT is what I am sayin...Mercedes ALWAYS built other things in Europe. Mercedes Benz is NOT just a luxury brand. They are everything in Europe. Cadillac is JUST a luxury brand. They dont do anything else but luxury since the 1st day they were makin' cars. Over 100 years ago... Cadillac is not, should not, be about volume...

Yes. But in Europe. Not here in North America. Cadillac was NEVER a full line brand with commercial trucks, military trucks, buses, taxis... There were Cadillac hearses and ambulances, but those were aftermarket outfitters that did the conversions. Not from the factory. Mercedes, if marketed properly, could succeed as a full line brand in North America. They keep slippin though. Cadillac cant. No amount of marketing would make Cadillac a full line brand. If Cadillac succeeded in making an alternative to a Chevrolet Malibu Premier, People would not buy the CT6 Blackwing if Cadillac would succeed to be an alternative to a Malibu Premier. And honestly, do we, the people of North America, really want Cadillac to sell us their version of the Malibu Premier and their competitor to the Mercedes Sprinter? I dont think GM CEOs want that either. Maybe owners of Cadillac dealers want that... I fell in love with the Mercedes Sprinter this past summer on our family vacation to Greece. But its not the Sprinter that inspires me to own a Mercedes one day... Is this how we should look at Mercedes and Cadillac? Boy, that Sprinter hauls so much stuff...I must buy the SL Black Series right now!!! In Europe, there is no disconnect with a Mercedes in every garage philosophy. There is no lapse from traveling in the subway and then getting on a Mercedes city bus and then seeing a rich dude pull up in front of the bus in his SL when you get off the next bus stop. In the US...we havent seen that, have we? Cadillac tried that sort of thing and failed, because Cadillac should ONLY sell to the 1%ers. THAT is how we view Cadillac and we should continue to do so...because Cadillac always sold dreams to us and actually sold those dreams for real to the 1%ers...

Oh...I think Mercedes cares... In Europe they dont. Because in Europe Mercedes has a history of re-building European confidence and sold cars to match a re-building Europe after the war. Hence the W123... Cadillac was never put in a position like that. Well, the idiot CEOs of the 1980s wanted a Cadillac for every American garage with the likes of the Cimarron and look what happened to that Cadillac image... Mercedes tried that too over here... But it did not go too well, they since changed their strategy with the CLA...but its still a cheap econobox. Cadillac has not done that with the ATS but its Cadillac that gets shafted by the badge snobs and the shyte American automotive press... Point being... Luxury cars are just that...luxury cars. Not meant for the masses... Taxis and luxury cars are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Limo service is to cater to the affluent. And they need the Escalades and the S Classes. Taxis are meant for the masses.

Sure, the old W123 was built like a tank. Especially the diesel. Lots of those in Africa and in Europe. But you know what? The 1977 downsized Chevy Bel Air/Impala/Caprice was also built like a tank. The thing is, today's Mercedes is nowhere near that level...

Maybe they do... The problem with the Mercedes Taxis in Europe is that they are built and sold like Chevrolet taxis here. And...there are trim levels of those Mercedes cars that are EXACTLY how the Impala LTs are over here. In fact, an Impala LTZ is miles ahead in terms of luxury where those E Class Mercedes cars of Europe are... Sure, the E Class of Europe is also sold with the same high end luxurious stuff we get in North America. But the E Class is also bought and sold like an Impala LT as well...

From all of these I would take: (and Im adding my own) In order of preferance In responce to the Gateway Bronco and in reality, to the original Ford Bronco...and if I had Jay Leno money, Id have a 4x4/truck/SUV section to my garage with all these inside it. Along with a Ferrari section, muscle car section, Cadillac section etc... JL, JK, TJ, YJ, CJ, original Willys. Rubicon, Sahara, Unlimited. It dont matter to me and the two Dodges tied

I remember a decade ago, when the politicians and the greenie folk were scolding the Detroit Big3 CEOs why do they keep on producing gas guzzling SUVs and the Detroit Big3 CEOs defended themselves by saying that that is what the consumers want. The politicians and the greenie folk all said bullshyte on that and forced FoMoCo, GM and Chryco. to produce smaller more economical cars... This is how Obamas new mileage standards came to be... THIS is how we got small displacement 4 bangers with turbos in our cars. THIS is how FoMoCo. got the name ecoboost from... https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19emissions.html As you coud see, a decade later and the consumers NEVER gave two shytes about what greenies and politicians cared for...

I do not think its the car manufacturers that are pricing the consumers out of new cars. I think its the consumer itself that does it. Why is it that Ford is cutting its sedans in favor of producing and selling CUVs and SUVs? Why is GM almost doing the same? Why are Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords selling at a slight lesser rate than once before and why is it that Toyota's and Honda's CUVs outselling their sedan counterparts? When was the last time you actually saw or heard a suburban wife talk about how she wants to buy (not lease, because leasing too causes the consumer to out-price himself out of a new car) a base bare bones compact car? It seems suburbanites all want the most recent, option filled truck or SUV and who cares how much it costs... There was a time when down and out folk used to buy pick-up trucks, no options pick-up trucks, because these were the cheapest means of transportation anybody could buy... The consumers DEMANDED fully equipped cars over the decades and have migrated to higher priced CUVs and SUVs and 100 000 doallr work trucks to outshine their neighbors... Even if car manufacturers make and produce "affordable" no frill CUVs, the masses will NOT buy them or lease them. America has become a voracious consumer oriented society that just wants to outdo their neighbor...

They got volume. Gateway does not! Irony becasue Ford Bronco: 'Twas Henry Ford who perfected the assembly line to produce more vehicles in a time frame to get volumes of scale to be able to reduce the unit/price to pass it on to its customers etc... Listen, either you want to fork over the money for a Gateway Bronco or you do not. You could try to duplicate what Gateway does with its product by doing this yourself and you could either fall short, duplicate or exceed what Gateway does in all the categories. Price, build quality and time delivered. Yes, those are very high priced indeed. The PRODUCT itself is worth that much. You are paying someone else do it for you. This person has a certain level of expertise. As far as what you deem as worth it...well, a brand new Jeep Wrangler is a quarter of that price. Buy that and be done with it! Save some money and buy a used Jeep Wrangler. Not much money to be saved as Jeeps keep their value... Well, buy a 1980s rusted ole YJ and play with that!!! Fix it up, not quite restoring it as we will fall into the spending money in a money pit game... So...you see, its a never ending cycle of spending loads of monies into cars. Gateway probably does a 150 000 dollar job on its 200 000 dollar Bronco. Gateway probably does a 50 000-75 000 dollar job on its 100 000 dollar Bronco. Gateway needs to make a profit and a name for itself. You will either be a client of theirs or you will not. But...a Gateway Bronco product is worth the money you are gonna spend on it. The whole buying a beat up classic car, restoring it, or buying a restored classic, using it and fixing it when busted is NEVER a value proposition... Either you want to spend tons of money or you do not on a thing like this. There are other companies that do such a thing for cheaper, but you probably do not get the same levels of quality or guaranteed workmanship. There are other companies that charge you a lot more than what Gateway does.

This kinda of thing has become some sort of passion for me. Well, a daydreaming passion! I sooooo want a 1970 Olds 442. (and/or a 1970s Trans Am (1973 or 1979)) Numbers matching or a not too far gone barn yard find Cutlass that I would be able to restore into a 442 clone as a restomod and/or protouring car. I watch those restoration TV shows, and dream of my day one day to own that dream car(s) of mine. I study the prices of those crate engines, I try to see where I could find body shells (like Dynacorn) to make the restoration process easier, I see for similarities for what I want to do like Gateway Broncos or the Year One Trans Am or the Trans Am Depot SD455 Trans Am, Ring Brothers builds, ICON, Singer Porsche. etc... Those Broncos and those 2 Trans Ams are all in the 150 000 dollar range mind you. The others go well into the 200 000 dollar range. Restomods and Protouring cars mostly all run in the 100 000 dollar price range to build also. What I learned is that NONE of these are worth it! ZERO! Not a Gateway Bronco, not a Year One Trans Am, not a do-it-yourselfer restomodded car. Not even a Singer Porsche. When compared to what you could buy new off a Ford or Chevy or Dodge or Porsche dealership lot. Brand New... But its the level of car craziness that one has and how much is he willing to spend on that one dream machine he always wanted that makes this hobby what it is! And obviously if one can afford this madness. Jay Leno can afford 100s of these dreams. And to drive them and brake them and fix them regularly too! Others, cannot!