balthazar
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Everything posted by balthazar
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I also saw a new Sierra a week ago or so, a Denali but it was a kinda icky beige color. Looked great tho. Stopped at my Chevy dealer yesterday- saw they had 2 more '19 SIlverado LTs (still hiding them on the back lot) so I had to fog the windows a bit. Nice dark blue and the Canjun Red, both 5.3L/8-spds. 49K and 55K. Both had the $900 'Safety Package', which I wouldn't want, and the blue job was on 18s... I think these need the 20s to fill the wheelwells better. I occurred to me that it's possible I could move to a double cab/6.5' bed... just not sure yet. Don't know if I would regret a (crew)/5.5-bed- it's so small.
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Its interesting, but perhaps premature, to see journalistic sources continue to zip tie electrics and autonomous vehicles together, when 1. they really don't have anything to do with each other technologically, and 2. at least EVs are real and finding a few buyers. The autonomous thing is still a pipe dream WRT building a whole different type of car from a manufacturing standpoint. True AD vehicles are going to trail EVs by decades. There's plenty of time.- 239 replies
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Right- Statistically flat month/month (+0.6%), so that breaks the decline streak. Sort of. I'm surprised that mathmatically the Y-t-Y is only down 6%. The 2nd half of this year has felt oppressive dark. MB will do their usual all-out sales push for Dec so I expect the number next month to be up slightly.
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Stumbled over this building- Brookhaven Miss. How cool, esp that slightly curved 'porch wall' under the overhang. I would love to have a derelict commercial building like this.
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China sold 770K EVs in 2017, not "millions". But that market is also 70% comprised of smaller than 1.6 liter cars. It's not comparable to the USDM, where we're struggling to move 200K EVs and have loads of 6 and 8 cylinder vehicles. China is not a template that fits the USDM. Mercedes has pushed numerous hybrid cars that have done poorly among other hybrid cars. I have not seen any evidence their next attempt with EVs is going to do much better, but we'll see. They are playing catch up, and have been showing steady slipping sales; perhaps buyers in those price tiers are growing tired of mercedes.
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Don't think there's not a level at which Audi pulls it from the market- it's not cheap importing, servicing, certifying, stocking parts, advertising, etc for a car selling 375 copies per year and sinking like a stone.
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Better hurry up & get your A8- they only sold 32 units last month. At least the Conti is still near 700. I remember when I predicted the A8 would fall under 200/mnth= those were the 'fat days' at Audi. Now it may slip under 20.
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So your choice is an A8 with a 6-banger for STILL way more yuan, or a twin-turbo V8 CT6. I know where I'd put my money!
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A LOT of 'spires' on mid-century architecture- really cool.
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Ugh, 6th month in a row of declines month-over-month: core brand down 6%. Looks like the future of the nameplate is at the CLA/GLC level; the only 2 nameplates to increase volume.
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70% of the Chinese market sales is under 1.6L. Still, the Chinese consumer is hit with so many taxes it's ridiculous. Chinese consumers lack understanding of taxes at purchasing and using phases, and scarcely pay attention to taxes within price such as vehicle CT (consumer tax). Actually, vehicles with different displacements pay different CT, and CT is included in ex-factory price, incorporating into the bases of VAT (value added tax) and surtaxes. Thus, CT and VAT are included in Manufacturers’ Suggested Retail Prices (MSRP). Besides, the amount of VPT (vehicle purchase tax) paid by consumers is 10% of vehicle price exempted of VAT. ~ Overview of China’s Automotive Tax Scheme, 2017 CT6 is an aspirational & expensive full-size luxury car in a very small segment of overall sales. Buyers expect the price to be high, and buried in the MSRP, it's not obvious. Other cars it competes with already start much higher in price. Audi A8, only available with a 3.0L, starts MUCH higher in price- "do they expect to sell any there"??
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First Impressions: 2020 Toyota Corolla: Comments
balthazar replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in LA Auto Show
If it's 'only $15 of leather', then why not request every single vehicle GM makes, including an $18K Spark, have a leather wrapped wheel? I mean; why not, right? I for one have no desire whatsoever to have 'blind spot/cross path detection' on any vehicle I own. Not only that, I don't want to pay for it because it's standard, either, so 'just disable it' (if even possible) is not the answer there, either. I say brands who have overloaded their vehicles with mandatory features are astray, and no wonder the average ATP is something like $35K. Wonder how that happened? -
Went to a 'celebration of life' for a relative taken too soon yesterday, he was into music all his life and so they had a bunch of people playing up on a stage at the Elks Club, it was a great party that he would've just loved. Anyways, was taking with a friend there about the songs, and one was 'I put a spell on you' so I youtubed around on that and found this fantastic bit, which might've been either a follow-up or a B-Side : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvUU44SmjnA >Somehow I seem to have forgotten how to have the vid embed here- help plz<
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^ A-duh. Point was; WOULD Germans have an issue buying a MB s-class in Germany that was built in the US? Or China? Perhaps journalists there wouldn't harp & harp & harp on the COO of such a vehicle, unlike US journalists, and it wouldn't be an issue. Then again, private ownership in Germany runs well south of that in the US --vehicles there seem to be moreso appliances/taxis/fleets-- so maybe consumers wouldn't care if it was spun that way there.
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Let's go ask Germans if they had any issue buying an S-class built in South Carolina, USA.
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That would be an excellent approach- discontinue the XTS and pump the CT6 volume up. Put it in another US plant, because I'd never buy a Chinese-built version and I don't think it does Cadillac any favors to import it.
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In working on my Pontiac dealer code project, I have been neck-deep in Pontiacs of all stripes online. My amazement at the streak of top tier appeal they executed over decades has been renewed- the Division really did have a stellar, perhaps unmatched run of product that hobbyists/collectors continue to embraced with great enthusiasm. My son & a few buddies here have been on me to do something with my sleeping '64 GP- perhaps I have grown jaded toward it and they see it fresher than I do.
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Prototype for the production '69 Trans Am. Fully documented, sold for $310K recently ~ And what it led to ~
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Everybody is ASSUMING that the supposed discontinued cars don't make a profit. When/where was that ever stated? A vehicle can be 'profitable' yet still not meet the goals of the OEM and be discontinued. Happens all the time.
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Dozens of these efforts thru the last 50 years ~
