balthazar
-
Posts
40,855 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
583
Content Type
Forums
Articles
Garage
Gallery
Events
Store
Collections
Everything posted by balthazar
-
I told U who I'd pick from the era; great looks and a killer smile/persona. I think I self-vindicated. The Tillis Special custom is Buick powered, but people like to have a name to hang onto. 'Tillis Special' doesn't convey much to the general populous, but everyone's heard of a 'Buick'. A 'stickier' label. IMHO, a "Buick" has to be either a unquestionable visual recreation, or built/comissioned by Buick Motor Division.
-
^ All you could ever want to know, and plenty of pics : http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Norman_Timbs'_Buick_Special
-
VW News: As the Diesel Emits: Volkswagen Steps Back from Diesels
balthazar replied to William Maley's topic in Volkswagen
So VW thinks their containment issue is just the diesel engine?? That's like punching your girlfriend in the jaw, and saying the problem was your knuckles. -
http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/5687683047.html Factory PW & A/C. What a stellar candidate for a 455 transplant. Leave the patina; go take people's money.
-
-
WRT Porsche; they only have 1 assembly plant (plus the cayenne is built with its tourag & Q7 platform mates). Overhead is a paper-thin sliver of GM's.
-
High trim levels are where the profit PER CAR lives. LOW volume keep the profit revenue from those high trims low. How many Range Rover Autobiographys do the sell? In general I agree- the 'high-zoot' trim levels gather some interest, sell some vehicles. But a lot of profit on the bottom line? Doubtful. For those people fixated on the balance sheet of corporate manufacturers, I don't see this as of much interest to them. - - - - - Your porsche example seems to imply that that $69K in options was ALL profit. It's not, of course.
-
So post a chart of 328, 335, 340, 350 (whatever), up thru the M3, let's see if the sales volumes support your theory. Should be pretty close volumes since the model lineup has been around a long while; should be plenty of M3 buyers having climbed that ladder by now. Expecting to see M3 sales at least 60% of 328 sales……...
-
The very demonstrable problem with this theory is car buyers DO NOT do that. They don't continually trade up & up on models, it's an anomaly if it happens. Look at BMW: 5 series sales are 50% of 3-series, and 7-series sales are 20-25% of 5 series sales. Where did all the trade up consumers go?? Answer: they keep buying the same class for the vast majority. People aren't buying a 300HP Class X, then a 450HP Class X, then a 600HP Class X.
-
From article in Hot Rod, April 2016, with rep from VP Racing Fuels ~ > "Believe it or not, the technology of the machines used by the industry to measure octane have not been upgraded since the 1930s when it was anticipated that 120 would be the upper limit of any fuel formula. As a result, current fuels that exceed that level can only be reported as '120+ octane'." < VP currently markets 5 fuel formulations at '120+' octane (R+M/2).
-
I read that Mercedes is considering dropping the AMG versions of it's sedans. Falling percentages, you know. - - - - - The reasons the BMWX3M is being build is besides the point. The 'performance' SUVs handle & drive terribly vs. sedan equivalents, and the video of the X3M shows it readily. If you are going to apply your in-house 'performance' moniker to a CUV/SUV, it had better meet the bar, or forget it & just offer a BMWX3MSport instead.
-
In the u-tube of that BMWX3M, it sounds terrible, gets twitchy in a few turns, and it's plowing / overpowering its tires in others. BMW still has work to do to get their vehicles back to handling like they used to, but more to the point, an M version of the X3 is the answer to no one's question.
-
Consumers don't want RWD CUVs, they want AWD. They don't care about 0-60, the quickest aren't anywhere near the top of the #thereisonlyonemetric chart. The demand is moving downstream, that's why the X3 is sucking sales from the X4, X5 and X6, ALL down heavy double digits YTD. It's why a X3 and GLA (and to a lesser extent: Macan) exist, to pull from the mainstream. #thereisonlyonemetric Luckily, XT5 driving dynamics have been widely praised, so again; it's very competitive in product to the German 3.
-
Wait : the Jag F-pace, Macan, X3 and GLC "can't compete" with the SRX or XT5; it easily outsells all of them. Superiority proven! #thereisonlyonemetric
-
Cadillacs are completely competitive in design, amenities, tech, mileage, & performance. The Germans have been 'caught' in the major segments.
-
Tho MB -as usual- cranked out a lot of Gullwings, they had very middling finish, and they couldn't outrun the new Chrysler 300. SL wasn't competitive with cheap american brands in quality, never mind the luxury brands. And just when they were getting some publicity mileage out of the Gullwing, it was dropped. Maybe if they hadn't cost-cut and kept the alloy body on the SL instead of the heavy steel one, they could've kept it going. It started out at $11K in '54... The grosser was not a consumer vehicle, it was a limousine. They had no impact here, esp when massively overshadowed by the uncompetitive, stripped-down, 85-MPH tin can mainstream models MB was pushing. Those were the cars consumers knew. It took MB what; 40 continuous years to surpass the American 3 in sales? Let's see what Cadillac does with truly competitive product this time.
-
Not true.
-
We've gone over this before. Mercedes came to this country with NO reasons for people to look at their cars, perhaps the worst dealership experiences in the history of autodom, and it took decades upon decades to achieve any success here. Cadillac actually has a better chance since their products are far more competitive than MB's were then. Let's wait & see how it plays out. I can allow ONE CUV under the XT5 (it's ATPs are going to be comfortably over the MSRP), but NOT TWO!
-
Jump to 1:20 : I want one.
-
Whatcha cuttin up, DD?
-
Article does mention that Cadillac introduced the cross-plane V8 crank, IIRC in the 'teens.
-
Piece is too long to quote here IMO, but here's the first 3 paragraphs : All I want for Christmas is a flat-plane crank. Everyone’s talking about them. All the cool kids have them. Ford even put one in the new 2016 Mustang GT350. It says “flat-plane crank” right there on the valve covers, and just about every blog and magazine article ever written about the GT350 can’t stop talking about it. Per Ford’s press release, “Unlike traditional V-8 engines, the all-new 5.2 liter uses a flat-plane crankshaft more typically found in a Ferrari sports car or in a racing application.” Sounds mighty impressive, doesn’t it? But here’s the thing. My wife’s minivan has a flat-plane crank. The mail truck that delivered my delinquent HOA bill this morning has a flat-plane crank. Every ricer that ever put a fart can on his Civic has a flat-plane crank. Even my three-year-old daughter’s bicycle has a flat-plane crank. Mind you, this is a machine so fierce that only training wheels can harness its fury. How is it possible that these flat-plane-crank-equipped technical marvels somehow flew beneath the radar? That’s easy. Before “flat-plane crank” became a sexy new catchphrase, no one cared if an engine’s crank was flat, quasi-flat, semi-flat, kinda flat, or not flat at all. If you want really want to buy a new Mustang, and it really needs to have a flat-plane crank, why not get the 2.3L Ecoboost model for half the price of a GT350 that also has, you guessed it, a flat-plane crank? I’ll gladly take a small cut of the $24,000 I just saved you. The inconvenient fact that the GT350’s flat-plane crank layout “typically found in a Ferrari” is also typically found in fire-breathing grocery-getters puts the silliness of all this flat-plane hype into perspective.
-
I was an '80's teenager' also; I just don't remember Samantha Fox, and I don't recall the song, either… but that's not my genre of music. Or it could just be my 'powers' of recollection. Going to have to think who would've been my 'dream' in that period… prolly Catherine Bach.
-
Here's a stock flathead idling :
-
It's just typical marketing ploys; create buzz… which is fine if there's something to buzz over.
