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balthazar

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Everything posted by balthazar

  1. balthazar
  2. balthazar
    No other segment of the auto industry has seen such leaping change over the last 30 years than trucks- there's no 'complacency'. Aluminum skin remains to be seen AFA how it lasts under typical truck usage. It may be fine (likely) or the associated costs may turn many buyers away. It's not that great a deal because it's a non-functional intangible- it's just lighter.
  3. balthazar
    F-150 was HEAVIER than the Silvie; Ford 'reacted' on that count. The truck market is very much different than the car market- for example; the German lux brands WISH they had loyalty stats anywhere close to domestic truck buyers.
  4. balthazar
    Well... WRT CR primarily picking foreign makes.... Ram is Italian, so....
  5. balthazar
    Yet... in fact it is not 'double' a single cab, is it.
  6. balthazar
    ^ That the current 'extended cab' configuration, yes? If so, shame on GM for going away from the suicide doors. I was hoping beyond hope those would expand to the crew cabs.
  7. balthazar
    I followed my updated exhaust theory and started at one muffler and worked forward. Cut & hung a piece of angle iron, used some universal strap hangers I know I've had on hand for 20 years, and ran the exhaust tubing forward. This (passenger) side was much easier, as the factory pipe ran thru the crossmember on this side and it all lined up behind it neatly. Not much 'slicing' under neath on this side. It's good, going to weld it up this week, then hang the other muffler and work the other side. -- -- -- Truck also had zero in the way of mirrors, so I bought a period Ford rear view off eBay for $20 and mounted it up. It's tiny, but looks pretty good up there: Those are vacuum-powered wipers. Not sure if they're operational; for sure the rubber hoses need replacing. Truck has a laughable TWO fuses in it's fuse block- with no dome light, no radio, no heat & vacuum wipers, there's nothing besides gauges to power inside the cab. These trucks had long-stemmed side views that arched off the upper door hinges. Haven't decided yet if I'm going to put them on; with no rear vision obstructions, I'm leaning toward 'no'. -- -- -- One last thing to note in the last pic : I had to add another panel & replace the tracks to the shop garage door to get the COE inside - you can see the next bay's standard height door. The sacrifices we make for love....
  8. balthazar
    No camera, and I kicked myself for it : A late model black mercedes sedan. Someone blew their paycheck at Pep Boys: on both front doors, in those adhesive-backed chromed plastic letters was : BENZ MERCEDES E430 4MATIC AMG It filled, height-wise, fully half the door skin height. This is the perfect candidate for a (pre-owned) "Clah" sedan... and more plastic letters, of course.
  9. balthazar
    Or.... Chevy uses a Cadillac engine at half the cost of a Cadillac, that's Chevy's appeal.
  10. balthazar
    Maserati came back to the U.S. market with ONE car- not much to get anyone 'excited'... except, of course those looking for that ONE car. No one comes into a new market with 10 models right off the bat.
  11. balthazar
    15 MPG is pretty awful, but mercedes has over a dozen cars getting in the mid teens in the city. Should really have at least a 9-speed trans if not a 10, this is seriously behind the times. I'd like to see a 12-spd box for ultimate bragging rights... because you know this segment of car buyers like to get together, pull out their owner's manuals and talk about how many gears they have. Let's see, with a sticker of $164K, one can probably grab one new off the lot for $130K or so. Or wait 12 months and get one for the average sticker price of a new S470. It's pretty tough to kiss more dollars goodbye due to depreciation on any other car.
  12. balthazar
    Doesn't make sense to me. The concept is usually notably better looking than the production version, but this concept was awfully ungainly. A-M didn't seem able to decide if they wanted an SUV or just a bloated sedan- I cannot remember another notchback 4-dr SUV.
  13. balthazar
    ^ Stupid, also, because it's just smacks of trendiness rather than good portfolio planning.
  14. balthazar
    plug in hybrids are neither 'special' nor dramatic.
  15. balthazar
    CTS-V Sport & XTS-V Sport are 2 different vehicles; individual preference is given 2 choices here. No mystery.
  16. balthazar
    CTS-V has NOTHING to do with the sales charts, just like halo products & convertibles. I thought you thought you understood the marketing here. BTW : the CTS-V absolutely is "dramatic" AND an obtainable halo vehicle in one.
  17. balthazar
    I've bought new vehicles before. You spend a few hours in the dealership, and 5-8 years in the vehicle. I'm not saying smartly located & operated Cadillac dealerships aren't a necessity, but I am saying people overweight the dealership experience, IMO. Cadillac absolutely needs European stand-alone dealerships in key cities, but if I was a disillusioned Euro consumer and fell in love with a CTS V-Sport, I WOULD buy out of the back of an Opel dealership if that's what it took. Here's to hoping the experiment shows measurable results.
  18. balthazar
    pffft; I was staring at a new 1500 Denali in traffic tonight- white, it was gorgeous.
  19. balthazar
    Should be an effective tool- sounds good. European luxury retail numbers are awful and loyalty numbers aren't great either; that's a lot of unsatisfied consumers looking for something else. CTS & ATS will open a lot of eyes over there.
  20. balthazar
    Exhaust work sucks; trying to cut slices of curves, tack it and get two exposed dual pipes to align both in height & spacing side to side isn't necessarily the snappiest job on a vehicle. The one pipe goes thru a hole in the rear cab crossmember, so it has to be there, but the other side never intended for a pipe to run in the space where the linkage rod for the rear runs, in addition to being right near the master cylinder. Years back I had bought (6) 180-degree U-bends- I have just about the entire dual system cut (needs a lot more tweaking), and I only used 3, so I have plenty on hand to try again. I may start nearly over on both sides. A lift would be a tremendous help. EDIT :: "The way to do it" is to start at the headers and thread your way backward. With a cab/chassis truck, the mufflers are visible in/under the frame; I'd like them to align & the exposed pipes to look like (flipped) copies. Going to look at hanging the mufflers and working forward. The headers have different contours, meaning the pipes off of them orient differently, and I don't care what the contours are under the cab. This is now feeling like the 'way to go HERE'.
  21. balthazar
    '70 Malibu 2-dr hardtop, skunk-striped in a rather putrid 2-tone electric green, in shop for top end & tire work (coming out of garage retirement). '57 Chevy Bel Air 4-dr hardtop, turquoise, connie kit, stock restored.
  22. balthazar
    Well, if that were true & widespread, all the OEMs are in deep crap because they've all made huge investments & taken the long-term public stance that buyers will "trade up" to bigger & more expensive cars. It's how mercedees has justified the cheap crapbox the CLA is. Of course, that lil' chestnut is handily disproved by owner loyalty stats. Your mother has a particular, very limited restriction, size-wise, on vehicles she likes. It has nothing to do with Cadillac there, but sounds like ANY vehicle that exceeds that criteria. In other words, according to you it's a "problem" for mercedes also. -- -- -- But your sentiment, only ever directed at Cadillac as a "problem" is true for any & all makes. Seen the recent commercial from audi that shows a BMW driver intentionally splashing water on bystanders; for a great many people BMWs= pricks and mercedes = old money/old men and for them, they have no desire to own that brand, either. Not sure Cadillac needs a 3rd SUV, some folk will only endlessly bleat about GM having too many SUVs, or something. SRX is doing a fine job outselling the M-class, must mean the SRX is automatically the better SUV.
  23. balthazar
    At one point or another, that's been said about 1. convertibles, 2. high power outputs, 3. inline engines (over 4 cylinders), 4. V8s, 5. diesels in cars, 6. digital dashes... and the list goes on & on. "And Cadillacs are big" lol- what is this; 1976? ATS & SRX are small, CTS is only mid-sized. The days of 'big Cadillacs' (Escalade aside) are long gone. Your mother's 1980 impressions need updating.
  24. balthazar
    This whole nambly-pambly theory that no automaker "follows" another is ridiculous, it's the very backbone of the industry. Without it, cars within a segment would never be 'competitive' with each other.
  25. balthazar
    Yet another '73-74 Road Runner, med blu, nice shape, parked at a tavern.
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