balthazar
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Everything posted by balthazar
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• Fit outsells the entire brand of Tesla year to date. Nothing wrong with that stat, right? • Bolt is a 'hot hatch'- something people have badgered GM to build. The shape is very nice- a good blend of compact hatch and slightly funky EV-ness necessary to stand out. It's already killing the i3 over 2:1. Nothing wrong with that stat, right? • Bolt has a good chance -with expanded distribution- to move to #3 in the segment by the end of the year. What's fantastic for Chevrolet is all the free advertising- just about every article on the Model 3 mentions the Bolt! It's advertising and implied cross shopping. Getting the Bolt out first was a stroke of genius knowing the Model 3 was coming- got 2 rounds of publicity and a head start on sales in the segment.
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^ Stuff is how the lowly pickup went from a bare-bones single cab work machine in the '70s to $80K techie luxo boats. I looked over a '17 F-150 Platinum on the dealer lot and it was hella gorgeous... but a million miles above my '94 F-150 XL RC with it's rubber floor mat & bench seat.
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Ya. That's what it is. The question is- why does it appear so crude and 'exposed'? - - - - - Just read elsewhere last night that Musk stated the lowest sticker Model 3 for a while is going to be about $44K. Jacking the price by $9K is a bit of a 'bait & switch' move. AWD-folk are going to have to wait a full year. This appears to be shaping up like another typical Tesla launch.
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• B-class CANNOT be a "bad" car; it's a Mercedes!! Don't you think Daimler learned anything from decades of crap-tastic SLs and s-classes with Rubbermaid interiors & no amenities?? B-class is 'engineered like nothing else' (or whatever the tagline was), dontcha know! • Bolt doesn't come close to "copying" the Playskool-esque i3, which is why the Bolt -still in limited release- is slaughtering the i3 in sales. I mean; isn't that your go-to metric; the better car sells more? • If cargo capacity 'doesn't sell', why the plethora of fold-down rear seating, the move to CUVs / SUVs, the steady upgrading of towing capacities, the return of mid-size pick-ups & the proliferation of mini cargo vans?? People. Got. Stuff.
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To be honest about it, really only the top 8 of the field of 35 EVs / PHEVs AREN'T "flops"... but the 20th century mindset that Chevrolet must build each model in the 100 thousands or it's a 'flop' obviously is dying hard. I struggle to recall the same judgement leveled against the BMW 330e or the hyundai sonata PHV or the Kia Optima PHV or the 2 dozen other hybrid 'flops' out there... but maybe I just missed those opinions...
- 21 replies
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- quick drive
- 2017
- chevrolet
- malibu
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Tagged with:
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Chevrolet Bolt June '17 sales : 1642 / YtD : 7592 MB B250e June '17 sales : 46 / YtD : 317
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The whole 1st & 2nd gen "issue" with the CTS being "too big to compete" was utter BS. There is a LOT of unmitigated BS used in auto reviewing to validate a disfavorable opinion of a given product, and the same going the other way.
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• So Tesla didn't put a hatch on the car because they didn't want it to cost $65K. Meanwhile the car has potentially half the trunk everything else in its segment does. 6-in doesn't put it in a different class- there's 6-in of variance in the segment as it is. • Why no AWD & battery upgrade & self-drive and other options at launch? Because Musk 'said so'? A LOT of people wanted those options.... hope they come online before their number comes up. Everything else in the segment already has AWD... • Tesla stated it will produced 500K vehicles in 2018 but only built 46K in 2016. Good luck!
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It's not 'rear motored'- on the Model S the entire motor assembly fits between the rear tires. Trunk is aft of that- the problem is Tesla should have put a hatch on the 3 like they did the S or given the car another 6-in of length. 7-8 cf is the smallest trunk in the small sedan segment by far. If you can't fit common boxed items in the car other than the back seat, that's definitely going to stop some buyers. Might as well have been a 2-door. Perhaps Tesla will incorporate a hatch in the next generation.
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You're still ignoring that the total cargo volume is the front AND rear trunks added together. A minor inconvenience for smaller items, but larger items are going to be a hardship. Coupled with the absurdly small opening and an implied half the total volume makes it sound like the rear trunk is 7-9 cu ft. That's ridiculously small. ATS has a small trunk and it's 10.5 cf on the exact same overall length. Consider the practicality if Tesla -not requiring an engine block out front- had shifted the cab far forward and allowed for a long rear trunk of 14 or even 18 cf! Repackaging could have shifted the pendulum back toward making small sedans an alternative for the cargo advantages of a small CUV. Electric power could have revolutionized the packaging of the mainstream sedan and buoyed it's falling market share. Opportunity missed, IMO.
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• Issue with the Model 3 is that the cargo space is SPLIT at either end of the vehicle, so large items can't fit in circa 7 cu ft of space. • Bolt is currently the #5 EV/PHEV in sales and it's not nation-wide yet. It's in relatively high demand; my local dealer only has 2. The over-production works out to only a few cars per dealer.
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IMO, the Bolt has kind of hit the appeal nail on the head WRT styling. It's not the comic weirdness of the BMW i3, but it's not also the bland simplistic look of the Model 3, yet it's still unique so it says 'I bought an EV'. I don't find it's styling/proportions to be an issue; it's a short/tall hatch, these are the shapes that comes in. It doesn't look dated or cheap IMO... Model 3 at times looks sleek, but the current trend in styling is to ADD details/ gimmick/creases... and this goes in the opposite direction. Interior is HUGELY opposite in that regard. Can something like this compete on interior with the ATS/3-series/c-class?? Jury is out on whether that will be a factor or not. The range is good on it, more than initial guesses were pegging it at, but the lack of the major options many people wanted, and charging a grand for any color other than black is not a great move. I don't question the allure of "a Tesla" but in courting mainstream budget consumers... it'll be interesting to see the success/take rate of options in specific and the Model 3 in general.
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If Nissan's leaf can sell with 107 mile range and BMW can clean MB's EV clock with a 180 mile EV, I think the Bolt with it's 240 miles range is completely competitive. People do not buy a singular 'best' feature of a car more than any other- vehicles have always presented a plethora of attributes to gain a sale. It's exactly why the mid-size luxury segment doesn't consist of ONLY the MB e-class, ya get me, smk?
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I'll repeat myself, I don't mind. Many critics think Cadillac somehow needs to echo every German segment but they don't. A3 / CLA are nasty little penalty boxes for a luxury brand. MB needs the CLA for CAFE (because the smart is a failure), but Audi shouldn't due to VW/others. Cadillac has ZERO need to be in the bottom feeder 'entry level' segment. it's not worth the time & money; either for a sedan of a CUV- too cheap, too small, too low-priced, too counter to the mission statement.
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Mercedes has more EV models NOW (4), but no one buys them. BMW is solidly ahead of MB with 6 EV models, and is outselling MB in this category by a factor of SIX, ( just the gnomish i3 outsells all MB EVs combined) but still; no one is buying BMW EVs. Cadillac ATS sales are neck & neck with BMW EVs so far in 2017, and we all "know" the "ATS isn't selling". MB S550e sold 81 units in June, vs. 2350 Tesla Model S's. Daimler had better fix their EV image before they bring 10 (or whatever the claim) models to market.
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• Cadillac is not a stand-alone brand like BMW & MB are- individual model sales performance is not in any way as significant. Escalade and XT5 aren't burdened with "carrying" the brand, which is supposedly highly profitable. If by "small" you mean number of sales- that's not the prime judging metric in the luxury segment. • IF the V-Series runs counter to CAFE AND it's sales numbers are low, CAFE is of no issue. Remember; Cadillac does not have to meet CAFE targets on it's own. • I will say I see numerous Vs are numerous different car-related public events (cruises & at the drag strip).
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• LaCrosse is a different brand & mission- these two aren't cross-shopped. • Reuters merely stated what the current CT6 starts at ($55K), not that the price was decreasing any. • V-Series isn't going anywhere and a CT6 variant is a natural given it's chassis. • CT5 is unlikely to start south of $40K, but until we know at least some specs on the vehicle, blindly guessing is a waste of time. • Most of the online publications are grouping the CT6 into the 7-series class, right or wrong.
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• Camry sells a lot, relatively, but it's not a great car from a terrible company and it's off it's 2007 peak by a full 25% (2017 on pace for 352K vs. 473K). • E63 had better benchmark the quickest & best handling sport sedan, not the #2 car. • A4 is only 4 inches longer than the ATS- the CT5 is not going all the way down to the size of the ATS. • CTS was an entry-level car in 2002, not in 2014. I could see it notching down a few thousand & adding content/features. Tho there'd be one plus IF the CT5 was A4-sized, it would mean anything smaller would be pointless- "no one is buying" the A3.
