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balthazar

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Everything posted by balthazar

  1. balthazar
    '69 GTO, white with black Judge-esque stripes, been parked outside at repair garage a few miles from me for most of this past week. Brand new BMW sedan (3 or 5- hard to tell in profile), driver was easily 80 yrs old.
  2. balthazar
    Ford made $8.4B in profit last year; Lincoln could sell 1000/mnth and FoMoCo would be just fine. Only American brands are held to this unyielding white hot spotlight on 'volume'. Put another way; guess how many cars Lincoln sold the first year of their iconic, oft-emulated, suicide-doored styling tour de'force (1961) : 25,164 units.
  3. balthazar
    They DO support 4 sedans on 350K units, not "could".
  4. balthazar
    Buick; traditionally the 3rd best brand for quality. I suppose it could be Range Rover good, or in other words; at the polar opposite of high quality. We always called it 'Pig Not', BTW.
  5. balthazar
    Lincoln was down 23% last month, to 6700 units/mnth. I still don't think that's bad. Mini sold 3000 units with only 1 less model (really; it's 6 variations of the same cheese sandwich). Ford's volume can easily cover Lincoln. The suicide doors is tremendously interesting- another major stepping stone to monetizing their heritage. Have to see what happens.
  6. balthazar
    I tend to think they only priced it at nearly $150K to mask it's lack of appeal as an EV 'sports car'. It's down 34% from last year.
  7. balthazar
    Holy crap; BMW sold 39 copies in February, and it's freshly updated! I realize it's $143K, but there are so few buyers for this. So BMW decides it's going to 'fix' the problem by splitting the 'puddle' of buyers into 3 models that sell 15 copies/month?
  8. balthazar
    63/64 are great track numbers- that's Wide Track Pontiac territory. WOuld like to see the width grow by 2 inches, tho 74 is in no way narrow. Escala would sit pretty at 77" wide, 215" long, 128" WB, 65/66 track.
  9. balthazar
  10. balthazar
    'cut 10 inches off' - nonononoNO! Everyone wants Cadillac to 'stop trying to be a BMW'... then here it is: fuck matching exact dimensions. Cadillacs should be larger, this one is larger. Lock-stepping is why the German trio are so interchangeable. Cadillac should stand apart. The size is perfect for the segment. And Cadillac here is providing multiple options for someone considering a 5-series; a slightly smaller lighter CTS or a slightly larger CT6 (which is also a viable option to the 7 in many consumer's books).
  11. balthazar
    s-class doesn't have that fixed quarter window- it's not the same way.
  12. balthazar
    Consumers certainly could go either way here. But to say they're 'really not' competitors- that I can't see.
  13. balthazar
    Other than a 9" length advantage of the CT6, they run the same dimensions, 5-series goes from 248-335HP (M5: 600), CT6 goes from 265-404HP (V-Sport: 550), start at same price tier, pushing performance & tech, luxury brands... my God, how could they be any LESS of competitors???
  14. balthazar
    Cadillac ISN'T trying to outdo MB, and they absolutely HAVE targeted younger buyers (obviously the analyst crossed-up those 2 & how they are accomplished). Also unfortunately glossed over by the anaylist is the fact that MB & Cadillac are within a few years of average buyer age. Sounds like a poorly researched article. The other fallacy is that Cadillac (or any other brand) does not have to pull buyers away from other brands, only to capture those moving into the luxury segment from outside it. Since most luxury brands are above the ABA, that's where the younger buyers are coming from- its a lateral move from other luxury brands.
  15. balthazar
    OK : we wrapped this up today, thank God. '16 Sonic LTZ hatch, 1.6T, 6-speed auto, 35K miles. Got some minor dings outside (I don't care), interior is excellent. Pretty loaded up as a LTZ, drives better than I expected. It was $9700.
  16. balthazar
    • ^ See that fixed black pillar above the rear wheel? IMO that's not a pillarless roofline. • RE the '59 vs. the MB as pictured above- the MB has a much higher relative beltline & shorter glass, and both cars have the rearward point of the window ending well over the rear wheel... but only 1 of those 2 engineered a way to lower that whole pane of glass- the one with the bigger challenge to do so logistically. • Not seeing anything (modern) pictured on this page stirring my soul. I kinda like the Audi out on the road, it sometimes catches my eye, but in the pic above it just looks... weird/unpleasant. Also VERY depressing how --other than the Challenger-- every modern car is doing the exact same thing with the upper & lower horizontal bodyside peaks. Anyone going to try and do their own thing, ever?? The infiniti is easily the worst/most awkward, the BMW is the most dated/boring. Base ATS in that straight profile also looking a bit boring. The white MB looks decent, but there's a noticible distortion in the photo making either end appear truncated. It seems tough to balance clean vs. cluttered design and still get everything cohesive. Most of the above still look like pieces from multiple vehicles pasted together. The red MB is clean, no wierdness, but it looks like it could have been built in 2005. Probably the MOST cohesive design here is the Challenger, and I do like it, but it's also been around a while. No 9s or 10s for me.
  17. balthazar
    MB came SO CLOSE but still had to 'cheap out' & have that little fixed quarter window there instead of engineering a pivoting pane. Like this: fully retractable side glass, no fixed panes ~
  18. balthazar
    Between the 2, #1. Beyond that, I personally would've preferred something typographically more condensed & with tighter, better kerning (look at 'C-h' and 'a-r' between the 2 versions, for example). Most computer as-typed fonts have marginal kerning that needs manual tweaking. Also would've liked to have seen such in all caps, with 'we love' a few points smaller (or even in a different font). It's fighting a bit with being read continuously with the upper line; could use a visual 'separation'. EDIT :: I hate whatsoever to stomp on anybody's work/time spent, but in looking at these again today, I think both are... poor choices.
  19. balthazar
    A-Body stuff is often under my radar but no; can't say that I've noticed these before. Looks like a close cousin of the Olds Super Stock 5-hole rim. EDIT : They appear in 1 photo in the '72 full-line brochure, but it's hard to tell for sure. This one. [not color-keyed here, were these instead gold or black-finished?] Seems like 99% of Buick A-Bodies in '69-73 were on Road Wheels for the upgrade over hubcaps.
  20. balthazar
    Looks like another whole car is backing out of this one. Toyoyo really has very little design direction.
  21. balthazar
    If we're drawing a hard red/black line, I strongly doubt there is ANY profit for BMW at this point or the very near future. For sure the unique i3 cannot be in the black, and the ridiculously priced i8 hybrid can't be either (has it been cancelled?)
  22. balthazar
    Interesting. To my eye, the Q60 looks like pieces from 10 different cars were glued together, with a thin coat of bondo to try and smooth out the seams. It's a bewildering array of disharmonious lines. Those little plastic 'mud flaps' behind the wheels, the tacked-on scoop on the front fender, the way toyota couldn't be bothered to make the quarter window 'black out' match the shape of the glass - too many pieces/lines; it's hugely incohesive. The lexus RC above (which could easily be from the same brand it's so remarkably similar) is noticably better... but we can't see either fascia from the profile view. Like I stated- the ATS coupe isn't knocking socks off, but it's got a 'carved from one piece' look without being overwrought.
  23. balthazar
    Being brutally honest; I'm totally amazed by this.
  24. balthazar
    A6, A7, A8.
  25. balthazar
    I saw different numbers. No matter; the 2 are statistically identical in weight, so your theory that the Escalade is too heavy is invalidated. Next gen E will get lighter also, so "problem solved". BTW, I did read elsewhere that the 4.2TT is, in fact, going to get under the E's hood.
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