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regfootball

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Everything posted by regfootball

  1. regfootball
    that actually is a tossup. the Verano is a really nice car. And it feels great. However, after driving both, I think of them almost equally in terms of appeal. They are really just different, malibu has a little more girth and a little more of a planted solid feel. The Malibu rear seat would be a deal killer if my kids were bigger. If i had to sit back there much, I would cross it off the list. What I like about the Verano is how the cabin atmosphere is just right, the right balance between vault and open air interior, and the size for one person commuter is just right. The back seat is pretty ok for a compact. I really like the interior environment of the Malibu however, as well. Where I really would not tweak any of the interior of the Verano, I do think I would change a few things inside the Malibu. But the most important part of the Malibu, the view forward, the panorama of it I like a lot. The sides and rear feel a bit bunker like but i think it also gives it a sporting personality and intimacy of a smaller car.....which is in ways in direct conflict with its nature of mid size family car. I would change the steering wheel and the straked dash and gauge setup in the malibu and get it a little more typical and refined. The center stack is bangup and the seats are fine imho. SOme interior materials on the plastics and seats need help also. But overall the Malibu interior is still very ok with me. I really do think GM hedged their bet on the whole 'if people want space they will buy an IMpala'. That could be the only way they could sell IMpalas going forward, to make sure the iMpala was still the big car. Ford might be able to sell a Fusion and taurus so close in size, and Toyota might be able to sell camrys and avalons in a similar fashion. But the Malibu if too big would cannibalize a more expensive Impala. And GM needs to have impala+malibu volume come close to fusion+taurus volume etc. GM needs the combination of those two together to make the math work. Buick is darned lucky the Verano turned out. It was a big gamble, and so far it's worked. But I don't see droves increasing on the Verano. Its more a function of the economy and the fact that no one can afford as many regals and lacrosses. And they don't want to be stuck in a chevy. The verano hits the sweet spot where it is cheap enough but actually nice and won't suck gas. I was at the dollar store the other day and this old couple (old folks and weirdos go to the dollar store in droves) pulled up in a new verano. They both had trouble getting out of it. I am sure they were likely the type that liked LeSabres and such, but now the Verano is the only Buick they can buy that is not a Chevy that they could afford on retirement income - medical bills. I was going to ask if they liked it but i didn't want to slow them from getting in and getting their fudge stripes and stuff. Malibu vs. Verano to just me is almost a wash. I would not lease or buy a more loaded Verano. I could see popping for a Malibu turbo if the deal was set up right. To me there is a stepping point where if you want a maxxed out Verano, just step up to a Regal.
  2. regfootball
    I think I would rather have a Kia Rondo.
  3. regfootball
    There seems to be quite the flood of lightly owned Captiva Sports on the market now. Some may recall these as Saturn Vues. How does everyone think these compare with the small-mid crossover market, with all its new contenders? The Captiva got the 6 speed auto. Its a solid ride. It didn't have the foibles of the Escape. But how can it compete when there is already an Equinox too? I think its a nice choice to have it in the pre-owned stable. The ones I have seen are too pricey though. I would get one over an Equinox maybe, but not a Terrain.
  4. regfootball
    GM can't have the next Malibu be on Epsilon. It will get crucified. GM really needs to pull an ATS here, a new chassis, lighter, dynamically superior, but with economy, price, and room the main concerns. Said platform needs to integrate AWD option, and hybrid possibilities. It needs to account for cars of multiple sizes and vehicle types. It could be crossovers, etc. Everyone is kind of doing it. VW, etc. Pretty sad when jettas and sentras have much more leg room than malibus with an extra almost a foot of open space under the hood. I still believe GM needs to fleet the snot out of the Malibu and lease the snot out of it. Saw an ad for 129 camry leases today. How can you compete with that?
  5. regfootball
    sounds good!
  6. regfootball
    i can't imagine being stuck in one of these things.
  7. regfootball
    pretty much. the new Malibu sort of has old school GM look to it.....short wheel base, bad packaging, long overhangs. And then there is all sorts of wasted space under the hood when you don't have a v6 in the engine lineup.
  8. regfootball
    Fusion's look grows old fast. Out of the gate problems I hope don't ruin the Fusion. I know two people who bought the last gen fusion before this new one came out, specifically because they did not like the new one. The Malibu is a decent driving car, quieter and better road car than the new Altima and Accord. But if no shoppers even consider going to the chevy dealer...... If the new Mazda6 hits market, is the best thing since sliced bread, and still doesn't sell, then we know what car companies are up against from here on out. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai / Kia all have reputations and marketing that at this point can almost not be overcome. Its amazing to figure on Chevy's history and see how they screw up not being able to leverage being in business so long. Malibu's rear seat as a practical concern will kill more sales than people car to admit, followed by not class leading mpg in the base car. Hard to know the response on the styling when so few are on the road...... GM would do well to upgrade the chevy warranties to duke it with hyundai.....
  9. regfootball
    I am still not convinced they are out of this for good.
  10. regfootball
    in no way did the 2013 accord or the ones before that ever felt -nimble-. the constant impression that car and driver and such gives of the accord being a sporting car, i just don't get. the accord sucks.
  11. regfootball
    disagree. some sort of sport trim could really distinguish this car. it's not like they couldn't do improvements to the other trims.
  12. regfootball
    LTZ plus 19 inch wheels really is a knockout. Turbo, if they ADVERTISE IT and keep the price within reach, I think will bring new buyers in looking at the Malibu as more of a budget sport sedan. How about a nonsense turbo sedan.......18's or the 19 inch wheels, heated cloth seats, available MT? Play with the interior some and see if you can introduce some european austerity, give it the cheap sport package....heck let's make a 2.5 sport package also. The 2.5 is quite nice. All the competition has become dramamine, it's time for Chevy to bring the swagger back to this class. IMHO something akin to the original Taurus SHO or something that can outdrive the Accord (and trust me the press gushing over the accord is way overdone). I have a feeling an 8 speed tranny would help the car a lot with mpg numbers. A 1.6t Eco with some lightened bits ala Cruze Eco might be a neat trick too. Although its not like there is a cheaper version of a rear suspension to stuff in there. But take a base 2.5, find 100 pounds to lose, gear top gear for high speed cruising, give it stop start also, now you are talking. The key for a Malibu will always be how good a deal will it sell for. More than ever now. Currently all the other competitors are whoring out their cars with cheap leases and crazy give away incentives. Malibu's MSRPs are too high and so yes they need incentives like everyone else to move. I have no problem with GM cheap leasing the car or throwing 1500 on the hood. If there is one car besides the Cruze that GM needs to sell buckets of, its a Malibu. And Malibu + Impala sales together has always been GM's tack. But Malibu from 14 on will have a greater chance of taking away a sale from a midsize competitor than the 14+ Impala will. I have no problem with this Malibu getting fleeted also. Where can a Malibu lose 100 pounds? Wheels and tires could find 20-25 pounds. Seats, 5-10 pounds. Wiring, 5-10 pounds. A couple aluminum panels, 10 pounds. That's about 50 right there.
  13. regfootball
    Verano greatly impressed me on my test drive. Can't wait to try the turbo. Buick needs the 3 door, and 5 door in the stable also. I still prefer the ass end of the asstra....... to be honest, to me, malibu vs. verano is an interesting comparo....because the pricing is often similar.
  14. regfootball
    at the minimum though, the two very biggest flaws are mpg and back seat. If they can correct those two, and package it with improved pricing, that would help most.
  15. regfootball
    mpg- i have a hard time believing that in real world usage, the new malibu has a significant deficit over competition. But it lacks a high mpg figure on the highway. 26 combined is quite good! But the highway is 34. Altima is 38, Like realtors and square footage for homes, the competitive battle is often reduced to things that are easy for boneheads to compare. MPG is the new horsepower. Maybe we need the 8 speed auto pronto.. Maybe the Eco model should be a 1.6t. Current Eco should top 40 mpg to really make a marketing splash. Warranty and price - again, misleading. Chevy has a big powertrain warranty. But that and the BTB cannot match the hyperbole of the Hyundai. Styling- unfortunately a good design concept is hampered by the short wheelbase epsilon architecture. Lesser overhangs, a more aggressive windshield, longer wheelbase, shorter hood and trunk may have helped this car a lot. As it is, they did quite well with what they could. The interior is improved over the past but maybe not enough. At this point there is not a lot you can fix to run out the model.....just knock em dead on the next one. Electrification- current stop start is a great idea (as long as I can defeat it). But it doesn't compete as a hybrid. Chevy, despite the Volt, needs a hybrid malibu....or a larger volt. Price- all new cars are getting too pricey. But GM pushes it luck more than most with ambitious pricing. GM needs to play dirty with the biggest market whore and really pimp out incentives, leasing, financing and great MSRP on this volume model.
  16. regfootball
    the way chevy needs to look at this is from a sales guy point of view (trust me, if a shopper has an objection- real or put in their head by the public or press- you just can't really get over it until you gash the price. so, let's look at perhaps each of the biggest Malibu objections. rear seat room. this actually is part of a larger packaging problem. a looksy under the hood reveals probably close to a foot of open air between the engine and radiator. imagine what that room would do in the backseat. now though, all they can do is fix soft things. the rear seat positions are designed in with the crash structure and air bags. GM's seats are really bulky and thick, and have intrusive mounting points. there is no footspace, and typically GM roofs are low. there are too many problems here. But look at the new Fusion seats, very thin. If Chevy could redesign the front seats to be less bulky and return room to the back....dish out the rear seatback a little farther, and get the seat mounts off the floor to provide a flat and long surface to stretch out your feet, then they could steal two or three inches of room. It still does not fix poor ingress and egress. But at least it begins to diminish the sales objection of the back seat being useless, if it's the only objection. I think Ford improved the rear seat on the contour when they had the similar problem. The difficulty is in doing it within a body with a diving roofline and a fixed rear shelf.
  17. regfootball
    who can afford all the high end stuff? Plus for its volume, Audi has a lot or way too many models.
  18. regfootball
    just a couple notes here this vehicle in a way replaces the endeavor, even though it did coexist with it. large suv market is not as big a segment, so i think Mits is expecting to pick up the End. volume with this. likewise, the vehicle is styled to look larger and put distance inbetween it and the outlander sport, which is now more smaller. one advantage to the outlander sport, it's cargo area and cargo height is much better than others, and i think it still has the third row also. even though they redid the tailgate.
  19. regfootball
    this is terrible
  20. regfootball
    the new RAV4 is hideous, this is at least more attractive
  21. regfootball
    was in a new santa fe in the hyundai showroom recently. interior is cheap and too similar to all the other current hyundais.
  22. regfootball
    Chevy is hoping the new Malibu picks up the price slot the current impala is in. Current impala really sells for closer to 20 than 30k. Malibu frequently sold for under 20 now the new model they are trying to make a go without incentives and the prices are up. Not selling well, not when the larger impala is cheaper. Once the new Impala is out and is several thou more, the malibus will be incentivized to get them moving. Over time, Chevy wants more $$$ from the Impala line, but they will incentivize each line and option them such they see good volume out of both. Malibu was getting killed at retail by the Impala because the Impala provided easier ingress and egress and more of a feeling of room for not a lot more car.
  23. regfootball
    verano's a good car. But regal is also. ATS appeal is it's ability to have the unique chassis. badge engineering an alpha to buick makes little sense on the surface. if we want distinction between caddy and buick, why would a buick get alpha? even if it ends up an inbetween an ATS and CTS in size. And RWD only cars get killed in the market place in snow states. Caddy is priced high enough that they just now say, let the customer pay for AWD. Buick is not in that place. It only became 10x more evident what i already knew before i did the car sales gig, after i did it, maybe 5% or less of buyers came looking for RWD. Nearly without exception, FWD was the expectation and really nearly a majority now want AWD too. If we are trying to sell lighter weight cars with better FE that customers want in bad weather states, making a large percent of your cars RWD only makes em unsellable in bad weather states. No amount of marketing, etc to the customer to the contrary will convince them otherwise.
  24. regfootball
    I sat in an ATS and found the front seat intimate but roomy enough and non intrusive. Basically I would consider it appropriate to the size of car. The rear seat I sat in, yes it's tight, but footspace was ok (whereas on a Malibu it's not). You could 'slide in and down' to the rear seat, very much like a 3 series or C class rear seat. Even the sides of the rear seatback and cushion are shaped to 'funnel' you into the middle of the seat. I did notice the roof and side pillars and windows are right there. But overall, it's snugness, once you are in, did not make you really contort or make you feel really twisted up, it's just not roomy. Again, this reminds me of a 3 series backseat from generations ago. For a single person with infrequent to no rear passengers it's fine. One example I could contrast it with is a Saab 9-3. The 9-3 IMO has a more intrusive rear seat. The headrest and backrest are unreasonable and the legroom is not there with the front driver in most positions. In the ATS it seems a decently workable backseat, even with more flexibility as to the driver. You could take coworkers to lunch in the back of a CTS....not sure I would frequently bring people for an hour trip. I think kids would be just fine in an ATS back seat. Regal rear seat is more accommodating. Malibu may be bigger but harder to sit in and get in and out of. Verano, probably a little better.
  25. regfootball
    on a certain level, there would be some benefits to factory direct sales. One that i can think of, it may allow manuf's to develop a more beneficial custom order and special order process. one reason so many makes and models have color and trim problems is the dealer's misinterpretation of what customers really want. but having worked at a dealer, you do see the effects that those dealers who do make the investment in the land and facilities pay off. And the dealers that do well do their best to be competitive on price and leading on service and experience. A lot of the features of factory direct sales could be realized if the dealerships would come into the new era and be open to new ways of providing the cars. But they are skeptical of change like everyone else. The internet already has changed the game so much in the last 15 years, but their are still customers out there that would not be able to function in a factory direct manner. There also would be problems selling factory direct without the factory basically duplicating so many functions that already exist at dealer level. Manuf's need dealers, and vice versa. I would like to see a more factory direct option for those who want it, but too much of it would erode the whole experience for everyone else who still treat the process in a more traditional way. I would like to see 'test drive centers' where you can go drive new iron, no questions asked, no sales pitch.
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