balthazar
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Everything posted by balthazar
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Seattle was massively & extensively regraded in the early 20th Century- the old street used to be up where the building was. Engineers moved on the order of 50 million cubic yards of material and razed a lot of buildings for a number of reason (filling the tidepools at the water edge, enxtending available land, aiding water lines coming into the city, lessening grades, etc. Pretty amazing operation.
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Let's do what people like to do WRT Cadillac- pull one really significant product out then damn the whole enterprise: 'Without the Q5, audi sales "crashed" 7%.' Whee- that was fun! :D
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Maybe Daimler should go to quarterly sales reporting. ;)
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As I stated elsewhere; a tax credit cut of $3750 and a MSRP dip of $2000 means the (effective) Tesla price just INCREASED by $1750. 6 months from now the price will 'increase' yet again by $1875. That's $3625 in a year or so; a considerable chunk for an already expensive vehicle.
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Plug in hybrids are a decaying segment. Esp as a V8. It's another stop gap when their BEV should already be at the top of the ladder, but they have none. They have pissed away valuable years in market presence to Tesla.
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The troubling sign for Daimler is every product except for the CLA, GLC, and the cargo vans were down for the year. And the c-class, SLC, SL, GLE & GLS are getting killed. That leaves the bottom 2 cheap models and the GLC as the only growth and a recession could curtail that in a hurry. - - - - - Regarding Tesla, unfortunately mercedes is way late to the game; they've hawked some terribly lackluster hybrids to date that they found impossible to sell, and it just makes the brand look like they are unable to remotely compete. They will always be playing catch up to Tesla, who has lightning in the bottle over in CA.
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GM News: Mark Reuss Takes On Role of President of GM
balthazar replied to William Maley's topic in General Motors
Who stated GM was using "all" it's resources on future tech??- 57 replies
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GM News: Mark Reuss Takes On Role of President of GM
balthazar replied to William Maley's topic in General Motors
Dave- you keep trotting this out as if it were unequivocal. 1. Early 1900s autos were not taken on long trips- there was zero highways and very very few paved roads; you actually couldn't get very far if you wanted to. They were only used for occasional local drives; they were not depended on as transportation by & large. 2. You discount the then-plentiful farms having various fuels on hand, and early cars were simplistic enough to run on a variety of fuels. There was no range anxiety back then. Still, a number of determined motorists completed cross-country trips in the very early years: https://www.wired.com/2016/05/tale-epic-coast-coast-road-trip-1903/- 57 replies
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wait. I read on these pages that the V-12 S650 (or whatever the alpha-numeric) was there to sell CLAs and C-classes?? How is MB going to sell 1. ANY of ANY other models lines without the V-12, and 2. Are they truly ready for a 95% drop in sales of the s-class?
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GM News: Mark Reuss Takes On Role of President of GM
balthazar replied to William Maley's topic in General Motors
1. I am against 'humanizing' animals. I like 'em, there's a couple living here, but they're not 'children' and they're not 'human'. And in case anyone was wondering, I also hate 'talking dog' commercials. 2. Inanimate objects sometimes DO have personalities. Frankly, I get more enjoyment out of a choice inanimate object than I do out of an animal. And the inanimate object doesn't even have to make noise/run for it's personality to shine out. I thought you guys were car people? ;)- 57 replies
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Bolt did have it's best month ever in November, but I would also welcome another variant and a power upgrade ('Bolt RS'?).
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Another ever-increasing stock market factor feeding volatility strongly is robo-trading.
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Right now Tesla is straining to meet demand, back orders AND production marks. They have zero incentive or WANT to bring out a lower priced 3. Maybe in the future when sales trail downward and capacity exceeds demand, but not within the next 2 years, I'd bet. I agree with Suav- I don't see a backlash coming if they don't... but we'll have to wait & see. There WAS a backlash at the lo-ooong ramp up of the 3, so....
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While pertinent to the discussion, hard facts aren't really 'points' in that they are non-variable, IE; the 'president for life' fact. The article does ignore the very real costs to China on some of those tactics, something China has been reluctant to embrace as SOP. Other points are possibly overstated, such as monopoly prosecution within China (when most American companies there are partnered with Chinese entities).
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In fact, Apple gifted $2500 of stock to all of their 120,000 employees in Jan of 2018. That would have been right about 16 shares, which if the employee sold it at the peak during the next 12 months, they would have seen the $2500 plus another $1100- or a $3600 bonus. I can't say/don't know if that 120K figure includes whatever sweatshop Chinese labor Apple contracts or not, but even at face value that was a $300,000,000 disbursement. Yes- nothing compared to the $59 billion 2018 net income , but I'm sure greatly appreciated by all who received it. Apple also upped their stock dividend payout in 2018 by 10% to a total disbursement of $13 billion annually, the largest dividend outlay in the world.
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It's not about greed, 442. I mean; I guess Apple could, conceivably, lower all their prices and only make a billion/quarter, but what individual or entity ever does that? Would it make anyone 'feel better' if Apple only made a billion/quarter, or would that then spark comment it would be better at 1 million? Some folk would like major corporations to merely break even, I'll bet. A commodity/product company cannot juggle their prices in order to maintain a set profit margin- it just would not work. Consumers need to 'not question' the price- once a commodity is established viably, a sustainable volume of consumers will buy regardless of that price. Once the price is in regular flux, so will sales be. Incentives are a minor market nudge. The issue as I see it is the frothing panic when a company/the economy ticks off by 5%. So much of the market looks thru a 24-hour window instead of long-term. It becomes a self-fufilling prophecy to a large degree- a week or a month down only effects the day traders, but they scream the loudest, and the news cycles pumps up the drama 10-fold because; viewers.
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Just read a Yahoo finance op-ed. Headline is "Apple just confirmed the stock market's biggest fear". The bottom line?? Instead of making a projected $89 billion in said quarter, Apple 'shockingly' only made $84 billion.
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In my observations, a primary cog in that degeneration is the ever-increasing refusal of moderation of opinion. People no longer listen or consider other opinions; they run into the room already screaming, convinced the other is evil incarnate. A middle ground is a 1000 miles between 2 opposing opinions anymore. Can it ever get better? I don't expect it to.
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Consolidated Coal Company, Lake Creek Mine, Johnston City, Illinois, Pic taken in 1939 (already abandoned).
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Chart I'm looking at says NV's April 2008 unemployment was 5.8%. Market crashed in September. - - - - - Click to choose files
