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balthazar

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Everything posted by balthazar

  1. balthazar
    Didn't mercedes copy audi there? Remember; Cadillac has FWD first, now all the germans are copying Cadillac there.
  2. balthazar
    I just asked my wife if she had heard of a Tesla car and she said 'yes'. 'Where do you know of it from?' 'One got towed from the parking lot at work last week.' 'How did you know it was a Tesla'? 'It was a "Tesla" flatbed'. 'So you saw the car itself well enough, what would you guess it cost?' 'I dunno, $35K?' 'No, it's MSRP is $71K. Now that you know that, did you think it looked like a car that costs that much?' 'No! It looks like any other car out there, just a little bit larger.' 'Do you think any car is worth $71K?' 'No, but if I did spend that much money, I'd certainly want other people to notice my car.' Now, she's not a car enthusiast, but I tend to agree with her; the Tesla, while looking nice, is rather generic. Out on the road, if I am paying attention, I notice the emblem in the grille, not the rest of the car. It really should have been more expressive/unique for an upstart independent. Some angles of the shots of the ELR look really dynamic; if the car in person looks that good, it's going to drive a surprising amount of sales. Plus it's a 2-dr in a roiling sea of 4-drs. I think it'll do better than a lot of people think. It would be interesting to know what Cadillac is hoping to move (tho I in no way think they should say publicly).
  3. balthazar

    HEAD STOPPER

    balthazar replied to Lucerne06's topic in Buick

    Car packaging really hasn't improved much. Greenhouse tumblehome & windshield rake, in the name of aero, has really reached an extreme, and it does impede entry/exit on the bulk of modern cars. This surprises me, because cars have only gotten taller on average in the last 20 years. I thought we were onto something common sensical when the doors used to curve into the roof some, but that's been abandoned.
  4. balthazar
    150 in THREE years?!? This eclipses the Edsel, hands down.
  5. balthazar
    Well, the roof is all there, I think the floors were fine, There were only thumb-sized rot holes in the front fenders... but it's a full resto project rather than a spit-shine flip. Price is supposedly 1200, my buddy is a master wheeler-dealer tho; he' says he's going to offer 300. The shop wants it GONE and no one else seems to be looking. He'll likely get it... but it will likely be stripped. C'mon Bill, this is you- save it!
  6. balthazar
    Was in the back lot of a repair garage, saw this motley crew: The last one, a '73 Gran Ville, was the one I went to look at, but it's far too rough. Plus, the 455 appears to be stuck and "threw a rod" 9 years ago. What a waste of an hour or so. I didn't bother to take any pics of the 2 bentleys there; just squint your eye at the accord in the one shot and you get the idea.
  7. balthazar
    Micro look at D.C. here; doesn't matter if it's not within their authority, politicians & business individuals become vehement to impose their opinions on everyone else. Somehow, they know bestest.
  8. balthazar
    Those that thought the fiat was the next Mini? Weren't a lot of mini dealers stand-alones?
  9. balthazar
    Yet hybrids do encompass electric propulsion, do they not? WRT 'unfounded rumors', they certainly were subject to that, and no doubt some still subscribe to such rumors. Will/does 'unfounded rumors' affect market performance of pure electrics? I believe so, at least initially. Electrics also still require 'fueling', but with less availability of public stations to date, and usually with notably greater frequencies. That is also a potential factor WRT consumer acceptance, until the frequency of public charging stations become as common as gas stations. I hear & don't disagree with the 'average daily miles driven' claim, but OEM advertising still state fuel ranges as if it were otherwise, and some quantity of consumers give weight to those numbers. Self-drivers face a much higher price mountain to beat down than hybrids did/do. Of course it'll come down, but if the tech/equipment currently costs $150K as stated elsewhere, there's not going to be a 'mass release' anytime in the near future. Could be, but something is going to have to change somewhere. I agree it probably has a widespread intrigue factor, but a palatable price is going to have to be offered or forget it. You do recall all the flap over the Volt's MSRP of $40K, yes? Further, what will combining a pure electric powertrain AND self-driving computers do to price? They're not going to be $30K unless heavily subsidize or sold at a screaming loss.
  10. balthazar
    I believe that those interested in an electric will do the small degree of research required to find out all about range & charging requirements & see if it suits them. But we're already on a decade-plus trial run with hybrids; so far they have extremely limited appeal, and there's no where near the degree of unfounded rumors around them today. I harbor no illusions that electrics are suddenly going to take off and reach even 15% of the market within the next 20 years. It would take an earth-moving turn of events to do that.
  11. balthazar
    ^ September BMW X6 sales were a measly 375 units, or around what the R-class was selling at when canned. Is mercedees SURE there's a business case here?? I didn't think so.
  12. balthazar
    Electrics will never serve my needs until possibly retirement (which is never), but I'm not against them. Seeing the massive market penetration of hybrids (3%), it's clear pure electrics (0.3% IIRC) will take decades to even be a strong niche, never mind commonplace. That's fine; the market work things out at it's own pace. In a perfect world, I'd prefer a turbine. My daily miles are different every day, one day last week it was 180, and It has been as low as around 10. Farthest distance was about 140 miles one way, but I drove down Monday mornings and drove home Wednesday evenings. This was a few months, over 2 winters, and about 8-9 years ago. A fluke.
  13. balthazar
    The Jeep concept above is really cool, but the jacked MB looks like a West Virginia backyard special. I didn't think there were anywhere near enough X6 sales to warrant a (rebadged) "answer" from MB, but legitimate business cases are not something that MB worries about much.
  14. balthazar
    mudmonster :: >>"Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz called and they want their front end for the GLK back."<< Mercedees obviously misdialed : Perhaps they were trying to reach hyundai.
  15. balthazar
    It's not wow'ing me, but it looks like a decent step forward. Grille looks colossal. Interior looks very nice. Waiting for clear video.
  16. balthazar
    ^ Correct on the '6-on-one-side'. Buick commonly used 3/side on lower series, and 4 for upper. If BMW ran this system, there'd be 1 per side of the 1-series and 7 per side on the 7-series, because BMW is just that hurr durr.
  17. balthazar
    Saw a late model BMW 7-series with (3) Buick VentiPort knock-offs, evenly spaced across the upper third of the front doors. The noobs are going to think it has a 6-cyl in it.
  18. balthazar
    I keep waiting to see model consolidation in the times we're at (development cost & similarity, among other factors), which points right back at what Drew posted above. Instead, OEMs keep splitting hairs.
  19. balthazar
    Have seen a bunch of XTSs, over 15 I would say, but no cloth tops yet.
  20. balthazar
    The 1-series continues to be a massive flop.
  21. balthazar
    Wiki states the equipment currently costs about $150K per car, so I don't see this going much farther than in special, subsidized handicapped applications. As it should. It's not coming soon to the family sedan segment, if ever, so we're not going to have to deal with this anymore than we 'have to deal' with a Lamborghini on the street. Sure, costs should come down, but just look at all the bitching over the Volt costing merely $10K over the segment... Yep- all the increasing nanny garbage makes me yearn for another '64 Catalina.
  22. balthazar
    ^ Whoa, whoa, WHOA! OK, you're mostly right, there. However, shopping is a chronic over-compensation, not a lack of. There's a Target 7 miles to the NE of me, and one 6 miles to the SW of me. To me, that's one too many, being 13 miles apart. Not according to Target Corporate; they're putting one in across the street soon. 3 Targets in a 13 mile stretch? There is a LOT of really beautiful Jersey, but you're not going to see it flying thru low on the major highways. There are 2 major cons to Jersey- the congestion, and the taxes.
  23. balthazar
    It doesn't interest me physically much beyond the engineering. As a footnote of auto history, I could maybe see someone paying... maybe $25K.
  24. balthazar
    Pre-'92 Cadillac Brougham..... station wagon. Light blue, vinyl roof/roof rack, not bad, but starting to deteriorate. '72 Dodge Polara 4-dr hardtop, yellow, moldering in a side yard. '47 GMC coach, diesel-powered. Very rough looking, buddy told me it's been in the same driveway a good 35 years.
  25. balthazar
    Wow- a straight lift off of the $29K CLA for the nose here?? Usually, that sort of thing is (sensibly) done in reverse. Bizarre. Frankly, it's overwrought. I feel like we're seeing the '2014 Grand Am'.
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