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Suaviloquent

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Everything posted by Suaviloquent

  1. Suaviloquent
    Not bad. The lower bumper is a little over complicated given the rest of the car, but new cars these days always have some quirks. Now here's the deal. How will this be received? I think people looking to buy a Volt will have an even harder decision to make in the coming year. However, I will put out there a valid demerit of a quirk of the interior for the same reason people don't like the Toyota Prius's interior. The white porcelain type plastic trim is too unconventional, being space-agey for the sake of being space-agey. At least they use less of it. The car seems well thought out. Excellent packaging. But this reveal is but a lip-service. We won't see driven reviews for the press for a while. Here's a little nibble I gleaned from the press photos. Look closely and you'll see in the background what must be a hell of a villa on an estate. Clearly the target buyer can afford any electric vehicle there exists out there.
  2. Suaviloquent
    Perfect. But this industry is just too damn dynamic, and it seems like it isn't just VW gunning for glory. They are presenting nifty regimes of hope with BUDD-e of how they'll reclaim themselves, but I want real product out there now for someone to say the preeminent leader here, Tesla, is defeated. And that just isn't happening at the rate I want it to. The conventional makes are still too slow. Faraway Future (I like this nickname I give them) will have an electric car with 200+ miles of range before VW will. That's the big problem.
  3. Suaviloquent
    Ahhh well, I going off the assumption that even though one day I might be filthy stinkin' rich I'll still be a scrooge and I guess if I do get rich, Casa himself can point me out as a sellout for buying a Mercedes when I clearly never intend to if I do get rich - because the *hypothetical* money fund is reserved for Camaro SS and CTS-V.
  4. Suaviloquent
    Well, with the two model lines the market positioning of certain GM models in Buick and Cadillac fulfill the same role as Mercedes or BMW with their single branded products. The new Insignia/Regal when they appear should be ritzy competitors for the budget conscious, and moderately equipped versions of the CLA and 1 Series sedans that aren't AMG or M Sport models. And the Buick Envision is a competitor to the Q3 or GLA in many respects. And it's sized larger than an equivalent MKC and those two, and will surely be on the minds of someone wanting a domestic branded luxury small crossover. And the new twin-clutch AWD system is pretty nifty. I'd reckon it's just as advanced as anything out there. Then you have body styles of the same model approach. I think it's great that the Germans have figured out a way to make them so distinct in the buyer's minds when it really isn't substantiated in the products themselves. But I feel it would be a very difficult for Cadillac or future D6 Lincolns to implement that well from a marketing perspective. Buick should be the styling pinnacle of GM. Be the most fashion forward, but maintaining sensible practicality of its core models - the Lacrosse and its crossovers. I feel Cadillac should remain the stately brand, that it shouldn't delve too much into this reskinning of the same sausage routine used by the G3. Unless it's just a boon for all automakers, then damn they need some product strategy like that as soon as possible.
  5. Suaviloquent
    See, that's the core of argument I'm trying to present. Why get the E-Class when I can do myself a favour and coddle me some more with a barely used S-Class? Prestige and panache, at a lower price.
  6. Suaviloquent
    Nice. But I'm starting to not like the rounded styling as much as I first did. Maybe different colours might help.
  7. Suaviloquent
    I like the underlying tech. But, big detractors. Near-future? 3-5 years seems likely as to when it'll arrive in a product we can see. But where will they actually realize the 15 minute charge times? They have ZERO infrastructure in North America to do so right now, and I guess automakers will collaborate eventually to have it. And what there is isn't usually free or placed in strategic places of the large traffic corridors of North America. And vehicles plugged in at home, there really isn't an issue of charging if you charge every night with even a Level 2 capable charger installed at home. Then there is no functional difference in results with a charge time of even 6 hours or less.
  8. Suaviloquent
    Right, and when you were confronted by myself and other posters on the issue on your qualifications to make such an assessment you gathered only information consistent to your pre-existing beliefs. What I like to see is investor confidence. And it's there in spades. They are bearing the burden of building infrastructure on their shoulders. They shouldn't be, but they are. They are pulling off feats of engineering crazy at any price. And most of their detractors have a past history with their current, and future competition. It's easy to take shots against a company that they internally envy.
  9. Suaviloquent
    For all we know Tesla is data-mining the hell out of every vehicle it produces and looks for anomalies with pride as a hunter searching for prey. Such as a car continuing to slide even though brakes were applied at a point in time well before they actually activated to slow the vehicle down. Imagine if every vehicle could continue to get iterative updates over the ownership of the vehicle. Recalls and TSBs do a lot of that as well. But they're cumbersome, time consuming and there really is no effective means of getting high rates of compliance with vehicles. That's the hurdle of conventional automakers and their struggles. For Tesla it's as easy as making sure the vehicle has a data-connection with a mobile hotspot or a wireless access point at home. Of course, the car could also tell you when it needs to go to the Service Centre for a hardware fix. And yet automakers can't even manage something as simple as that. For example: GM has 4g LTE wifi its vehicles but GM still sends its recall notices on dead-trees. Are they the rookies this this realm or what?
  10. Suaviloquent
    Yes. And this is how technology evolves. When hybrids and electric cars (or any alternative fuel/powered vehicle) become superior, they'll have faced waves after waves of competing cars that run on gas alone. And it seems like even with over a century of updates, there's more to come. The economy has come back, certainly not all the way, but inextricably gas has become cheaper when it doesn't make any sense. (Well it does if you do all your homework, but hey school's just started I can schmooze my way back. Got triple A. AAA. ye!!!!) I did a course this past term - it was about Science and technology. I loved the article about use-based histories of technology, not innovation based histotries. That at times reserve technologies fight back for relevance because (very quietly as well) they offer reliability or ease of use and ubiquitous understanding. Or how mechanisms of control on the previous technologies are sometimes transplanted onto the new ones or to achieve a similar result. For example - there's a very current debate to start taxing electric vehicles for the miles driven because they do not contribute to the fuel tax. It sets the story pretty clear - it seems like there will be no free lunch for any driver. What does this mean for Chrysler? Well, aside from the looming CAFE updates, their biding of time with excellent transmissions and some forways with diesel is coming to an end, fast. This is a time where automakers have to respond quickly to disruptions in the marketplace, and they can come from anywhere. Pushing product back, if there aren't any modifications will lead to products quickly becoming obsolete. And fixing a product near the delivery date is extremely expensive. I hope, for the love of god that Marchionne uses the Ferrari money for things that will plant the seeds for a lot of future product for the money-making brands in the portfolio. Spending money to fix an uncompetitive Fiat at the expense of letting FCA US LLC brands slide would be very stupid. He'd be compared to Piech for empire-building if the plan doesn't work. On his side though are gifts from automotive heaven - cheap gas in the near term and the rest of the industry picking up the gasoline slack to produce even more hurdles for alternative vehicles.
  11. Suaviloquent
    Yup, yup, yup. It is about as difficult, if not more than trying to build a diesel engine without exhaust after-treatment to comply with U.S. emissions regulations. But it's the key to unlocking an new wave of efficiency for gas engines. It might permanently make diesels irrelevant for passenger vehicles.
  12. Suaviloquent
    But somehow their mistake is just stupidity and substandard work, not a rookie mistake of course. But a problem in a Tesla vehicle (yes they exist) is not the eligible for same kind of excuse for other automakers. Well, I guess admitting that other automakers trade their rookie status for stupidity and substandard work in every aspect makes me feel even prouder that Tesla is still a rookie. If you can't be a rookie - you can always be lethargic, complacent, contemptuous and most of all stupid!!!
  13. Suaviloquent
    Yup, and I salivate over the new Lacrosse because of it. $h!, since China is the reason why some of our favorite brands still exist today... we should be thanking them duly for it. They have embraced the American way of excess and capitalism in a heavily regulated and manipulated economy. There's always a bright side to things.
  14. Suaviloquent
    Well, nobody said they had to be perfect. They just had to build the best car in the world. And they did. It's tough act for anyone to follow. but some folks like Faraday Future (which I like to car Faraway future) think they can give 'em a run for their money. Except their platform is a carbon-copy of what Tesla uses. Probably because Tesla released its patents, and therefore this company owes its existence because of access to a lot of development work already done. Some rookies can only copy, they can't create. What I will still look at how much value for investors Tesla has created. Their share price has increased about 600% in a little less than 3 years. I'd love to see GM do that. Because that is explicitly what Mary Barra wants GM to do. Create value.
  15. Suaviloquent
    The problem is that with the manipulated currency in China and foreign partner restrictions... any profit any foreign automaker makes in China gets taxed, split a little more than evenly against them, and then reduced because of foreign exchange rates. Very few automakers earn more than a billion dollars in Net Income in the Asia-Pacific Region. It's not as much as automakers make here in N/A, but yeah, with the impressive sales of certain brands in China, it is easy to see why they still survive to this day. I'm fine with more products being made in China. The great thing is that above all, most Chinese middle-class and above consumers actually aspire to own foreign built vehicles as a matter of pride. Seriously, they will sellout to Germans and American cars if they could every time, all day, every day.
  16. Suaviloquent
    Mazda is also working on HCCI...
  17. Suaviloquent
    I start to babble or drool when I'm sleepy. I think I am doing both right now.
  18. Suaviloquent
    The marketplace is pretty good at reminding us is that overall there are no precedents, and you can't predict it. This slow sales period might also be affected by the Polar-Vortex of 2016. I certainly am not going to buy a RWD coupe if the temperatures drop over 20 degrees Celsius in a matter of hours in the evening, like it did this past weekend. We had some epic now storms and floods recently, again, a lot of factor that aren't directly attributable, but they certainly played a part.
  19. Suaviloquent
    ATPs are a weighted average... You'd have to look at the distribution of price in intervals to get a better idea. Is it skewed? Bi-modal? Uniform(totally unlikely here)? Approximating a normal? But there is a common practice in the industry to have actually quite generous incentives on flagship sedans - just that they are at times paltry as a percentage of the MSRP.
  20. Suaviloquent
    It's not like regular cars don't burn down to the ground at gas stations. And it's not like Volts haven't caught on fire...three weeks after they were crashed. I can say confidently that quite a few electric cars will catch on fire by 2050 because of accidents. But certainly not nearly at the rate that it occurs in ICE powered vehicles.
  21. Suaviloquent
    The 2016 Camaro hasn't reached its full sales potential yet. I always am amused at how people can be 'worried' for an automaker or even truly 'happy' for one either. I get it, you may be salient to them - either their decisions, product, internal/external stakeholders...but seriously, to assume the fears or joy of an automaker or any separate, legal, commercial, corporate entity as one's own is just deeply confounding. There's going to be huge sales surge pretty soon for it.
  22. Suaviloquent
    Well the Malibu seems to be hitting the value quotient nicely in the lower trims. It's a mid-size sedan that hits home its performance of intended function well, and intends to perform its function with purpose.
  23. Suaviloquent
    I fear this thread has gone into some nonsensical theatrics mode. Anyways, to nip it in the bud, kill it before it is grows any further, squeeze the life out of it... The criminal trial is done and over with. These civil suits are for people who still have grievances. GM already accepted culpability for the criminal cases. Here however, the plaintiffs will have to make their own individual case. We won't know what the outcome of those trials (6 of them) are until they are over one at a time...any speculation or support of or against them is ultimately a dead-end.
  24. Suaviloquent
    They obviously need to pilfer more from Mazda. ActiveTiger or...er SkyShark. I like SkyShark. Yes, that one!!! Mazda will rake in the monies, and again it proves... being the biggest, isn't always best.
  25. Suaviloquent
    People don't give Subaru credit for their marketing enough. To their fans, it's not as ubiquitous as Jeep, but it certainly is potent.
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