oldshurst442

Its one thing to humanize a dog. At least its living and breathing. Its another to humanize an object. If you really want personality in your transportation medium, horses are the way to go. Im not trying to be funny, just pointing out that an inanimate object have no personalities... Trust me, I know what you mean though about "personality". Different engine's have different horsepower and torque curves and different sounds they make... However, it is also wrong to think that all electric motors in different types of cars will be "tuned" the same. In fact, Tesla Model S and Model 3 cars, and Im talking about personal experience here, both have different settings on how the cars accelerate and use up battery power according to what setting the driver has chosen... Coincidentally, ICE cars have that too... But, such as like ICE cars, small "personality" differences between the model itself that the driver chooses. Do not mistake though, that a Prius drives differently than a Bolt that drives differently than a Tesla Model S that drives differently than a Model 3. Coincidentally, ICE cars have that too... So...the sound is missing on an electric motorized vehicle? A Corvette in Tour mode, AND with all the NOISE pollution hardware that was made into law sometime ago for cars not to make noise because public nuisance, and the LT5 755 horsepower V8 could hardly be heard outside the car AND even inside the cabin. And THAT is on a super fast sports car. When we are talking about current FWD Chevrolet Impalas or 4 door modern Dodge Chargers with our without the V8s, or Honda Accords or Cadillacs or especially Lexus and Buick cars, there is virtually no engine sounds being heard anywhere, unless we open up the hood of the car while the engine is turning. So much so that BMWs, the Mustang and others pipe the engine noises through the car radio speakers. And in some cases, like the aforementioned BMWs, FAKE engine noises... But, I aint here to convert you...just here to keep you informed.

Could be true what you are sayin Sauv that a 35K model may never arrive. What Im asking here is: Will it really make a difference in sales if the Model 3 never gets to be 35K? I said in the past that when Tesla makes their base car ready for production that their sales for the Model 3 will be that much greater, (that is why I quoted Balthy as he thinks that too) But, if eventually 40K becomes THE base model for mid-range and no lesser range model exists for 35K, I do not think people will care and sales of the Model 3 will continue to grow. It is proven that people accept a 50K and more Model 3. So why lose 5 000 dollars on transaction prices when @40 000, Tesla could sell just as many Model 3s. The image of Tesla is high enough that people would be happy to fork over 5 000 dollars more for a bigger battery as opposed to be driving around in a 35 000 dollar version with a lesser battery. This is how I view it.

The 3.5 liter ecoboosted V6 may be a factor... Im thinking a V8 is what is needed in this. An ecoboosted V6 Ford F-150 is one thing. To say to your Jones-es neighbors that want to keep up with you, or that you want to keep up with them, that your Lincoln land yacht halo SUV is an ecoboosted V6 is another. That Jones-es neighbor probably has a 6.2 liter V8 Escalade, or a 5.4 liter V8 Mercedes GLwhatever other letter...in his drive-way...so...what are you gonna do as a Jones-es person yourself...buy a halo SUV with the top engine being only a V6... V8s still command respect. Especially when very few of them exist nowadays. I do not know how many V8 Chargers and Challengers are being sold over at FCA, but it seems like both Dodges are selling quite well. And Im assuming that the V8 versions of those are probably significant in the overall tallies.

The Edge is pretty good too. Disclaimer: By me saying that the Edge is pretty good and agreeing that Explorer and Escape are good in no way does it mean I like CUVs and SUVs. I havent been inside GM's latest CUVs and SUVs or driven them for me to form an opinion on them, but I can say that if I was into CUVs and SUVs, I would without a shadow of a doubt trust Ford's CUvs and SUVs. Back to GM. I really like Mark Ruess. Something about Dan Amman I did not like. I do not know what it is about Dan that I did not like. Probably his lack of vision on the marketing of his brands and vehicles. I hope Mark does a better job at that. Mark is a true car guy. It may pain @ocnblu, but maybe the electric future GM is betting on, Mark could put some car guy DNA into them. Make them more Tesla in terms of sporty ride and acceleration (on certain EV models), rather than bland Prius...maybe he could better differentiate which EVs need to be more Tesla-like and which ones need to be more Prius-like and execute them properly. Hopefully, he would not be spreading himself too thin as GM needs to have Cadillac running at a superior pace in terms of quality and vision, and the whole EV thing. Well, GM is literally betting the farm on them, so the EVs HAVE to be nothing but the best!

Well...that is great!!! Still does not change the fact that counting chickens before they hatch and the powers that be that regulate stock market prices is just that...speculation on nothing and the price goes up or down...yet Apple as of now is of no danger in folding....not with an 84 billion dollar year that they had. Correction in the stock price you say? What correction? Are we supposed to forget that Apple has been making tons of billions of dollars the past decade? How many billions did Apple make so far in the last 5 years (never you mind the last decade) that a mere 5 billion less for one year shock anybody? That 5 billion is pocket change... and keep in mind that it is not even a loss. Its just that they made 5 billion less than what the powers that be PREDICTED that they would make...and the stock prices go up and down just like that... Like I said, CEOs and top tier share holders counted 5 billion chickens too many for whatever King Midas reason they saw that many chickes and now they have to make do with only 84 rather than 89... Anyhoo...like I said...greed. And yeah, the most given by any other company...Ill just say, not nearly enough. For all of these corporations. They should be contributing more to our society with all those billions they make year after year after year.... Ill be careful as to not make myself look like a commie... How much? 5 billion? The check is in the mail....

I do not have a horse in this race. Just asking a very honest and legit question. AND...Im not only just asking CCAP, but ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY that reads this post of mine. 1. What difference does it make where you read this article? Fox News or CNN... If the article is indeed biased free. Or if it leans slightly to the right or left. I said slightly leaning, not blatant #fakenews... And another honest and legit question. 2. How does one know how the article leans if one does not read it? 3. How does one know what really is the truth if one avoids "the other side's" news outlet? Especially if one ONLY keeps reading and engaging in his political leanings news outlets... 4. How does one form an informed and non-biased opinion if one ONLY listens to news outlets that are the same as his political leanings just keeps on high fivin' what obviously one WANTS to hear all the time? 5. And finally, last question. What the phoque is this right and left, democratic and republican, liberal and conservative bullshyte I keep on hearing about? Life is NOT JUST about being left or right and all that bullshyte...Life aint black or white...life is a whole bunch of colours actually...and one need not only choose one phoquing colour. The beauty of life is the phoquing freedom to EXPERIENCE ALL THE PHOQUING colours there are!!! I find it ridiculous all the accusations and the mud slinging thrown around in American politics both by the leaders of your country and the voting public, yet NOBODY is actually LISTENING, DEBATING, and actually COMPROMISING and COMING TO A CONCLUSION and a SOLUTION... Its only about insulting the other side, trying to discredit the other side. Arguments are just semantic driven just to discredit on technicalities and more insults are thrown yet NOBODY has a bloody solution for ANYTHING... Its sad really...

I agree wholeheartedly on your above post Balthy. What I was meaning about greed was that the stock market evaluates how well a company does by future predictions. There is an old proverb that says "dont count your chickens before they hatch" yet in today's world, which in fact is a corporate world, wealth is being built (or wealth is being lost, but somebody does in fact still manage to pocket millions off the backs of the poor old worker.) by counting the chickens before they hatch. So, the people that trade the stocks, got a "scare" so, decided to sell off their shares, at a lower price??? Just because of a 5 billion dollar difference? I know! I Know! 5 billion dollars is a lot of coin for Apple CEOs that they have less to buy expensive personal toys in their already huge stable of expensive toys. The thing is...how much money did Apple rake in the year before? And the year before that? And the year before that? and the year before that? The other thing is...how much money (counting chickens, but still relevant without the fear mongering...) will Apple make next year, and the year after that? And the year after that? This is all fine when big corporations do fail because the CEOs running this particular corporation failed to get within the times or had piss poor management. Sears comes to mind. But...all those billions made by Sears over the 100 plus years of their existence is GONE... If a corporation is like a person in a legal sense for tax purposes and the like, to shelter CEOs and share holders and the like, well, humans pass on their wealth for generations and humans create a dynasty for their future generations. Yet corporations, do have a war chest, when they do go bankrupt, that war chest somehow disappears. It goes somewhere, but it definitely does not go to the factory workers and salespeople that have given their entire lives. Their pension funds also in some cases disappear also. So yeah. That is what I meant by greed. 5 billion dollars less than predicted. Boo hoo hoo for the CEOs and the top tier share holders that will pocket 5 billion dollars less for XMAS this year, because we sure as hell know that Apple factory workers in China or Apple sales people in NYC Apple Stores woundnt have never gotten a dime regardless of a 89 billion dollar year or an 84 billion dollar year... Yet us as ravenous consumers that we are, we do not even blink an eye in giving our hard earned money to all corporations year after year after year while they take our billions and run away with it. We do not question why we are ravenous consumerism when we throw out are 2 year old 500 dollar iPhone that we bough or leased 2 years ago, that we go and fork over another 500-600-1000 dollar iPhone just because its the new one, and we do not question why we do this and we forget that our 2 year old iPhone is still good to use... We buy into their advertising brainwashing lingo to keep on buying and we get scared just because they made 5 billion dollars less than predicted... I do agree though, when their magical advertising bullshyte ceases to brainwash and another cutesy company takes over, then yeah, the scare is real at that point in time...but do not forget, the people that run these billion dollar corporations have their dynasty money under their mattresses, in off shore tax haven bank accounts, etc...

My dad always hated Wallstreet type financial statements... That example of not making 89 billion but 84 billion, well, he was always aware of that type of greed and mocked it endlessly. Thanx Balthy for pointing that out. It sickens me that so many of us do not see the blatant greed...

I read on the internets about a conspiracy that SA wants to buy out EV companies so they could bankrupt them so they could continue to sell oil...LOL!!!

Yes....it was Lucid Motors that I was thinking about. I confused the two. I honestly do not believe Faraday nor Lucid will succeed therefore when I read news about those two, I do not really pay that much attention to the information given. This explains the mistaken identity. LOL. Thanks Bill (and Drew) for the explanations!

I thought a Saudi Prince billionaire bought the company.. Now its a Chinese company that has it??? And that ownership group is also iffy on keeping it? OK. Future so bright, gotta wear...shades?

Yes. Not all engineering solutions are viable for all scenarios. (gasoline vs electric motors in today's junction in time and reality). Both @dwightlooi and @dfelt brilliantly defined both advantages of ICE vs induction motors vs magnetic motors and their disadvantages. Areas where hydro-electricity is being used, there is an added benefit where the production of electricity is even cleaner for the environment. (Yes, no propulsion system is 100% earth friendly and clean. Unless we use horse and buggy. Wooden buggy as trees are a re-usable resource, if we replant that is and wooden boats to travel by water. And no traveling by flying, ever...) (No usage of iron and steel and aluminium as shaping and producing these resources causes...pollution...bronze too, is an iffy material choice as there are 7 billion of us today...if we really want to be 100% clean for the environment that is...) Therefore, there will always be some sort of compromise, whether its environmental or efficiency. But by picking and choosing what solution best works for our immediate and personal surroundings, then that is all us humans could do. Dfelt mentioned Los Angeles and Shanghai and air pollution. I remember as a young kid, living in Montreal Quebec...very far away from LA... that even on Montreal news stations, the news got out and told us that Los Angelinos would be advised to stay home certain days because of how bad smog was in the 1970s and early 1980s. Today, I see Shanghai residents wear those medical face masks in pictures when they go outside.... I guess that is why the Chinese government has taken measures to abolish the internal combustion engine in their country. China is also the world's biggest hydro-electric producer. Makes sense pollution wise for them as well as a monetary one. Also, China has plenty of the rare earth metals we were talking about...

But.... But... Im also equally giddy about AC induction motors. Tesla's version for me as of now, (other manufacturer's automobile AC induction motors to follow I guess) would be like the equivalent Ram Air IV 400, or Pontiac's-Olds'-Buick's respective 455s. Or Mopar's 440 six pack of the good ole days.

These are a few OHV pushrod engines Im currently salivating after. They are not exactly factory OEM engines. Well, one of them is a crate engine based on a production engine and the other is a hopped up, souped up, bored and stroked version of a production engine built by a reputable yet unnammed NASCAR engine builder. A legit 426 cubic inch "HEMI" from Mopar. I could do without the supercharger and have it naturally aspirated but if you twist my arms for half a second, Im sure Ill be convinced to accept this set-up. This next one is a legit 455 cubic inch V8 based on the LT1. Trans Am depot's SD455 percistant effort on selling us Trans Ams even though there are no more Trans Ams. But I think they bought the rights to use the name and logos so I think this effort is as legit of an SD455 Trans Am as there ever will be. Both on the 455 part and on the Trans Am part.

LOL!!! Skippy? Ive been called and nicknamed many things over the course of my 45 years on this planet, Skippy was never one of them. Its a first for me. Skippy... Nerdy, yet cute, but invisible to Mallory because not Alpha male. He probably became a billionaire by creating a techie company start-up in Silicone Valley and is having the last laugh as Mallory probably is divorced with 2-3-4 kids living in a trailer park because she chose a Nick type ignoramus...(Nick was lovable though) Yeah...Im not seeing Skippy in me. Back to the Giulia. Yeah, had I understood the 4 cylinder part a tad better and not been blinded and biased towards that Ferrari engineered and tuned V6 , I would have not referenced it in the first place. So I kinda feel like Nick at this point in time. Without the earring of course. PS: I was always more like...no, not an Alex P. Keaton type, but another Michael J. Fox character. Like Marty McFly. Nerdy, yet cool. Cute, but not a hunky beef steak. Calm yet jumpy. Sporty and athletic but clumsy at the same time. Shy and introverted yet rock-n-rolly and arrogantly loud. laisser faire but aggressive That is why I love Oldsmobiles. They capture me perfectly. Sporty and classy. Not too sporty like Pontiac. Not everyday man's Chevy. Not 1%er Cadillac and not a Doctor's or Lawyer's professional job Buick. But Oldsmobile. A bottom end Olds could be bought by an everyday blue collar man if he was a hard working soul and played his cards right. A muscle car 442 could be as sporty as a Pontiac. A high end 88/Delta 88/Super 88 and the like could be a professional's ride. It could also be bought by a 1%er that wanted to stay stealthy and not advertise. The Giulia and BMW and Acura and Buick after Olds went away, want to play in that former Olds playground. Apart from BMW, all others have failed. Even BMW is faltering somewhat. Audi has success, but they too are becoming what Olds became in the late 1980s to early 1990s. What is amazing with Oldsmobile, they kept that high image for a good 80 years straight. Lost it but kinda regained again just before GM pulled the plug on them. Back to the Giulia. The a ONLY redeeming quality it has is that V6. And the suspension set-up on it that out does BMW. But Im not so sure people care for an ultimate driving BMW-like experience anymore. In the 1990s, this car would most have definitely have dethroned BMW and would have stolen market share from BMW 3 series buyers. Not so much in 2018. OOPSIES. 2019. Another Nick moment.

I just read this post from nearly half a year ago. Is your heart in Havana...na, na na? Im eating a banana...na, na, na just before going to bed right about now. No joke!!! I DVRed Scarface the other day and watched it yesterday for the millionth time! (No kids. Or wife. Not a very family friendly flick...) So...say good night to my little..um...OK...maybe not a very safe quote...people might get the wrong idea about you and I. I cannot think of any other quote from Tony Montana. Na, na, na so...Good Night!

Id like to add: 1. Cadillac chasing BMW was NOT a good idea. At first it was. In the 1990s. But they went about the chasing the wrong way. The FWD STS and Eldorado were good cars. Wrong wheel drive though. In those days, RWD was a must. Torque steer was not. 2. Cadillac saw that FWD was a losing battle so they tried the Cadillac that zigs angle. Right idea, shytty execution. The Opel Omega that would later become the Pontiac GTO should give you an idea how bad of an idea the Opel Omega was. It was clear as water that the Opel Omega was better suited as a Pontiac than a Cadillac. Which leads us to much bigger problem that seems to be repetitive for Cadillac the last 30 years or so 3. Shytty executions that have impacted the North American psyche about Cadillac's relevance in the luxury world and how the general public view Cadillac... a. Cimarron b. Allante c. Catera d. XLR e. ELR f. RWD STS g. canceling of STS to CTS and introduction to ATS h. CT6 From a to h. All those models coulda, shoulda been game changers. Cadillac drop the ball big time on them. Always some sort of lethal (in terms of potential customer acceptance of them) miscalculation. Each of them had a bad judgement call that was unique to only that model. But it was such a bad judgement call that forced the cancellation of that model after a short production run. (This is what Suave was saying) 4. Never having the right product at the right time, always chasing the trends and never in the forefront of change. 5. Still chasing BMW when that ship has sailed. Even BMW stopped being BMW a decade ago. Sure BMW has some "M" models that evoke some sort of ultimate driving experience, but that ship has ultimately sailed. That could be because BMW has also dropped the ball. Be as it may, a FWD Seville Touring Sedan and Eldorado could really be what Cadillac needs to sell more sedans and let us not forget a land yacht CT6 named Deville or Fleetwood... It seems that Cadillac is not realizing that their #1 seller, and actual current icon the world is salivating on, the Escalade, is exactly what the Fleetwood and other Cadillac land yachts were all about, hence why a FWD Seville Touring Sedan with real Cadillac luxury, not Cimarron luxury, could be their ticket to success...WITH A REAL NAME!!! People KNOW what an Escalade is and people KNOW ITS A CADILLAC! Supposedly, that is what alphanumerics are for. For BRAND recognition rather than specific model admiration. The brand being exposed and revered more than the model itself. Yet the Escalade, with a REAL name does both...GO FIGURE!!! #5 is more of an incoherent rant, but there is some truth in there somewhere too...

There is a new remix version. I like it. But the originals alsways seem best. Ive been on an Elvis binge as of late. This is but a sample.

I also just realized that the Alfa Romeo is the only one with a real name. And I also just realized that Alpha Romeo is rich in historic....alphanumerics. Like every brand mentioned here...with the exception of...CADILLAC. Whatever that means. I aint implying anything. Other than... For Pete's sake Cadiilac, go back to actual names already!!!

True!

That Cadillac pic is just a rendering... The Alfa Romeo beats all of them in one category though. I do not know how reliable it may be, but Id buy the Guilia Quadrifoglio over the others JUST for the sounds it makes. I do think the Infinity has the nicest looks and silhouettes of all of them. (Didnt Infinity name their cars "G"...before Johan took over?) (And now "G" belongs to Genesis?) (What a strange automotive world we live in today!!!)

I like the sounds the Quadrifoglio makes. The V6 on this is awesome. Ferrari engine tuners really know how to make an engine sing. The Guilia's silhouette has a lot in common with a BMW 3 Series. And it does not help the situation when BMW 3 Series cars have looked the same since about 10 years now. This might explain some of the blandness. I do think the Guilia is sexy enough, but maybe the glorious sounds of its V6 have me blinded with how sexy it might really be in the looks department.