cp-the-nerd

50 minutes ago, TaurusSHO said:

They really need to drop the XTS.  I find it hard to believe that XTS buyers wouldn't move to the CTS or CT6.  Now they're giving it a (ugly) refresh in a down sedan market.  Makes no sense unless a good majority of those sales are fleet.

XTS sales are fleet-heavy. Even if 50% of its sales went to the CTS alone, it wouldn't give that car the market share it deserves, IMO.

53 minutes ago, ykX said:

Anywhere else in the world bias toward domestic brands created artificially by local governments taxing foreign automakers or subsidizing local ones.  US doesn't do that.  However, as a benefit most foreign automakers build their cars in US using US parts. In 2016 American-Made Index put Camry as number one, Accord as number two.  First US manufacturer car on that list is only in the six place with Chevy Traverse.

The "American Made" index is a crock of sh*t. They don't take into account engineering and design as well as corporate headquarters location. When you factor in actual global economic benefits, the list of best cars to buy in the interest of America is DOMINATED by Ford and GM, with a fair amount of Chrysler as well.

Source:
http://kogodbusiness.com/reports/auto-index/

10 minutes ago, ykX said:

Same way some people buy only Ford or GM, others buy only Toyota.  Maybe because their previous two Toyota's while boring were bulletproof and they could care less if they don't handle well or have old engine.

Anywhere else in the world, the auto markets are heavily biased toward domestic brands. America should be no different. The sad thing is that even among Japanese brands, Toyota doesn't deserve the sales crown.

It makes me nauseous seeing the Camry and Corolla selling over 30k every month while being near the bottom of their respective classes.

The longevity and sturdy sales of the Challenger in this competitive market are mystifying. Even if like 30% of its sales are fleet, it's doing incredibly well for a model originating roughly a decade ago on the strength of a refresh and annually added content.

It kills me how poorly the CTS has done since its release. Especially now when the model is so dialed in with the new V6 and 8-speed transmissions across the board. I hope Cadillac can find the right balance of price and features with future sedans because the A6 and 5 series shouldn't be outselling an American car this good on its own turf for the same or higher price.

Took some nice high res shots of the Cruze this morning, I'll post them tonight after work. Didn't have time to upload them to my webspace. One minor downside to graphite metallic is that it looks the same as my nightfall gray SS at a glance. When the light hits it right, it's got pretty turquoise undertones you'll see in the pics.

I'll be happy to let my wife drive DD to parties in this car. I am floored by how comfortable the seats are, it feels like they were designed with an inch of mattress topper foam built in. Taking a spin around the area after bringing it home, it's not as quiet and refined as my old Malibu or the Encore, but it's acceptable. Very cool compact car.

Props to Lincoln for selling the MKZ and Continental in solid numbers. Their crossovers are doing well, too. The Navigator could pump up numbers across the brand when it comes out.

2015 S4, not even close (or fair comparison, haha). Those old Chargers are trash. It's like asking would you rather have a 2015 Focus ST or a Cobalt SS Turbo. There's so little reason to get the much older car. The only thing the Charger has is the intoxicating V8, and maybe the seats. S4 clobbers it in interior, performance, and handling.

It's an OK car in a dying segment competing with great cars (Impala, Avalon, Lacrosse). At $45k, you can get a loaded Lacrosse that will dust this thing in acceleration, luxury, and fuel economy, not to mention available torque vectoring AWD. At $35-40k, you're squarely against the Impala and Avalon with better V6s and great road manners.

I see the Cadenza as the car getting passed over for Kia Optima Limited models (which I see regularly) on their own lot, which is unfortunate because it's better than the Optima. It's not the segment buster it has to be to succeed.

57 minutes ago, ykX said:

Congratulations!

I understand your reasoning, and I am sure the new Cruze is an excellent car.

I used to own Mazda 3 hatchback and the hatch is incredibly useful.  People don't realize how much stuff you can fit once you put the back sits down.

I have recommended new Mazdas to other people car shopping. In particular, my wife's mother was car shopping CUVs and I told her to test drive the CX5. Nope, she ignored me and bought a loaded 2.5L/CVT Forester. Guess what? Nobody in the family likes the car and she regrets trading her old car for it.

My best friend desperately wants out of his 2009 Corolla with 160k miles. It's basically falling apart at this point, and most people wouldn't expect that from a Toyota that had been refining the same engine and chassis for 10 years. I have him looking at the Mazda 3 hatch and Mazda 6 because he wants affordable style, sporty character, and a possible manual transmission. The Buick Regal is a possibility for the upper end of his price limit, maybe a 4-cylinder Acura ILX/TLX too.

To conclude the comparison:

We spent a while looking at every Cruze and Encore listing within 150 miles on cars.com with her preferred equipment. The Encore was in the $31k range, most listings for the Cruze Premier w/Sun and Sound pkg were $28k. The added luxury/quiet tuning is absolutely worth the Encore's price difference and my wife kept going back and forth. I can see why Buick sells the crap out of that model.

Cruze advantages:
-Plush leather bucket seats
-Exterior design
-Price
-Wife's instant comfort level from the driver's seat with seating position

Encore advantages:
-Wonderful quiet tuning and ride
-Legitimate luxury appointed interior and dash
-Steering

At the end of the day, we rationalized crossing the Buick off our list for several reasons. First and foremost, Chevy is running memorial day offers on the Cruze hatch that Buick isn't. We were able to get $2000 off MSRP and 3% financing. Second, but no less significant, Encore inventory isn't great. A vast majority have the wrong 1.4T (138 hp/148 tq) and even less have a good interior/exterior color combo. We certainly aren't paying a serious premium for a weaker, 8-year-old engine. Buick should have made the new engine standard after the refresh, period.

My wife said she will absolutely consider Buick in the future, her perception has changed from meh to wow. Right now the Cruze hatch suits her needs and the price is right. Had the right Encore been available for the right price, she'd still be flip flopping. At the very least, we'd be test driving again.

We pick up this Cruze premier hatch in Graphite Metallic tonight!

58 minutes ago, ykX said:

@cp-the-nerd haven't driven the new Cruze, just the previous one so can't comment personally but all the recent comparison tests I saw Cruze finishes either last or at the bottom.

If you are not hell bend on getting Cruze, I would test drive few others just for comparison before you cross them out.

The Cruze hatch that got last in a recent test was a manual transmission in a comparison of optional engines, it was a fish out of water in an enthusiast test. The Cruze automatic compared very well for exactly the attributes my wife needs.

http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/2016-chevrolet-cruze-vs-2016-honda-civic-2017-hyundai-elantra-2016-mazda-3-2016-nissan-sentra-comparison-test-2016-chevrolet-cruze-lt-page-4

Neither of us have time to go out test driving half a dozen cars that have the deal breakers I listed above. Again, I'm a GM guy. There are two perfectly suited vehicles in my preferred mfr. I'm not so biased that I won't admit when there are objectively better cars, but in this case there aren't. If she was looking to autocross or drive nothing but twisty back roads, it would be a different story.

2 hours ago, ykX said:

Nice review.

Are you drive testing only GM vehicles or are you open to other brands as well?

I'm a GM guy, but if you want a break down of other possibilities, here you go:

Focus: too old, I'm not comfortable in them, DCT.
Any compact Honda: CVT = nope.
Mazda: great cars, the best looking, but not ideal highway commuters because of noise.
Toyota: lol + CVT = super nope.
Nissan: see above.

It's not biased to say the Cruze and Encore are pretty ideal for my wife's needs. They excel at highway miles. Also, I have HPTuners, so when she gets bored or annoyed with something, I can tune the transmission to her liking and add a couple pounds of boost.

It's funny, I personally was never completely sold on downsized turbo engines until hearing my wife's reaction. These things are ideal for average women drivers that are weary of redlining a car. She thought the low end torque felt lovely, versus in the Cobalt (despite having more power and less weight) she didn't like how hard the engine had to work to merge on the highway.

Our Cruze Hatchback impressions:

My wife didn't expect to like the Buick that much. She agreed to test it out for variety sake, and now she was totally second guessing herself.

We pulled into the Chevy dealer and were greeted quickly by a stereotypical fat, sleazy-looking salesman. I don't know what job position he held, but after hearing we wanted to test drive a hatchback premier, he pawned us off on a younger guy. They brought around the Cruze and let us go out on our own.

This Cruze was in Graphite Metallic, a dark teal gray that looked great on the car (that would be my pick for this car). My wife's preference was arctic blue (pictured above) or the in-your-face kinetic blue, which were visible on the lot (not premier trim) and looked good.

We got in the car and left the dealership. Two impressions right off the bat: 1) it's a full step down in luxury/quiet tuning, 2) the seats are phenomenal. My wife felt right at home in the driver's seat, I was incredibly comfortable without adjusting anything. The powertrain was identical to the Buick, but a bit more buzzy sounding in this application. Still good NVH and road isolation for the class. She didn't like this steering as much as the Buick, used the word "floppy" which I later figured out meant it wasn't as accurate as the Encore. Fair enough.

Features included heated front *and rear* seats, heated steering wheel (color me impressed) and a 9 speaker bose audio system. The stitched dash, large 8 inch HD touch screen, and color gauge cluster were also pretty nice touches.

The Cruze lived up to her expectations, but the Encore was a shock to her expectations. The added level of luxury and road isolation were major selling points for her 30+ mile daily commute.

I'll drop back in with the conclusion to the comparo tomorrow!

Our Buick test drive impressions:

We went to the Buick dealership first, because the Cruze was her preliminary favorite and I wanted to get her into the Buick first to genuinely appreciate it.

I had a caveat: this had to be the new SIDI 1.4T with 153 hp/177 tq like the engine in the Cruze. This is made incredibly confusing because the Buick inexplicably offers the much older, less powerful 1.4T standard and it's difficult to discern on paper, but is a full second slower 0-60. Well suited to the Sonic, not so much a 3300 lb cute ute.

Right off the bat, the salesman told me smugly "There's only one engine, they're all the 1.4T." I said go check your inventory, we only want to test drive the new engine." Lo and behold, he had 3 on the lot and had to eat crow to start our awkward interaction.

Anyway, from my perspective, I was VERY impressed with this car. The interior is 100% on par with the $30k price tag. It was so quiet, my wife didn't think it was on when we got in, but it was indeed idling. One drawback for both of us was the seating. It felt a bit like sitting on top of the seat driving on your tiptoes looking out the windshield. We both prefer being lower in bucket seats.

We got out of the car.

"Sh!t."
"What?" I asked.
"I REALLY liked that car."

She thought the electric power steering was great, the brakes were a little touchy, but the powertrain was smooth as butter and offered silky torque. She loved how quiet it was and the quality of the interior.

My wife's Cobalt Sport is at 140,000 miles and it's starting to nickle and dime her. It's been efficient (29 mpg average mostly highway) with a bulletproof powertrain (2.4L/4A), but it's loud, it's ugly inside, and it's run its course. Besides, it's not fitting of a young woman with a doctorate in pharmacy making good money.

Her requirements for her next car were:
-small/maneuverable 
-more efficient with longer range between fill-ups
-peppy acceleration (Cobalt had a reasonable 173 hp)
-good for highway commuting
-decent tech features like good stereo, heated seats, remote start
-reasonably nice inside and out
-light color interior (tired of burning her ass on cheap black leather seats)

She already liked the looks of the new Cruze, but she initially was only considering sedans. Thinking pragmatically, since I already drive a sedan, I suggested she consider a different body style for versatility sake. Memories of dowdy hatchbacks from growing up in the 90s and soccer mom CUVs made her recoil in fear, but I sent her pics of the Cruze hatch when it was unveiled and she made an instant 180 on her preconception.

Given her highway commute, I sent her pics of the new Encore and said she had to give it a try. I knew the Buick's quiet tuning and interior would be really appealing in person. She wasn't in love with the tall styling, but admitted it was good looking for a crossover, and the compact size was nice.

The Contenders:

Chevy Cruze Hatchback Premier




Buick Encore Essence Trim

6 hours ago, dfelt said:

Wonder when GMC performance will offer a Twin Turbo Kit for the Yukon Denali? That would really set it apart from the Escalade which should have a V edition Escalade with the Supercharged V8 engine.

You say that like it's not a totally random idea. If GMC does a wild turbocharged sport truck, the clear choice is to shoehorn the LF4 3.6TT from the ATS-V under the hood of a 4x4 Canyon and call it a Syclone!

Elsewhere in the world the S-class, 7-series, and A8 are sold in two wheelbases. The CT6 compares to the short wheelbase. That does not mean it competes with the E-class, 5-series, or A6/S6, that's dumb. The CTS is the direct competitor in the midsize luxury class.

I think Cadillac was trying to find a fullsize niche at the right price, leaving room for the "true" flagship that never materialized. Hopefully it will, since the project is constantly on again/off again.

If given a second chance after hindsight, I bet Cadillac would have built a more dramatic looking long-wheelbase CT6 and focused the saved R&D on the crossovers they need.

The Demon is cool in theory, but I think the Hellcat is their best muscle car as far as bang for the buck. My personal favorite is actually the Challenger 392 for practical, everyday performance.

Solid review. I want to see the CT6 taken further with the long rumored new V8 in development and teased in concepts.

I disagree on one count, because every Cadillac review seems to repeat the same "finally no more excuses" theme. Besides the questionable CUE system, both the CTS and Escalade are already no-excuses excellent products. Their interiors are very well executed with leather,  suede, and wood trim. I'm particularly smitten with Cadillac's brown leather options.

Cadillac has been building great cars for a while, and the CT6's greatest weakness IMO is the way Cadillac's rapid evolution and stunning concept cars set expectations so high that the warmed over Art & Science sheetmetal and simplified interior were underwhelming.

Michelin Pilot Super Sport.

On 5/5/2017 at 0:41 PM, dfelt said:

Much appreciated Drew, while I know the HP # is lower and I tend to ignore it as Torque is much more important, I was surprised that the Torque number was 16 lb-ft less than the old engine. I was hoping to maintain or go higher on torque to really make it scoot especially in AWD mode. Wait and see how people think when it comes out.

The 1.5T is not identical to the Malibu's engine. I believe I read that It has a different turbocharger, but in any case, it makes 203 lb-ft of torque, which is also documented in first drive reviews of the new Equinox. The GMC will get a 9-speed automatic standard, the Equinox 1.5T only gets a 6-speed.

http://www.motortrend.com/cars/chevrolet/equinox/2018/2018-chevrolet-equinox-first-drive-review/

"N Performance" is super cringy to me. It sounds like a 10 year old kid inventing a performance car brand based on how cool he thinks BMW "M" cars are.

They make winter gloves with touchscreen friendly fingertips.