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balthazar

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Everything posted by balthazar

  1. balthazar
    no way, it's the BESSTESTEST! Still, everyone knows those 'orders' don't all pan out. smk makes it look like MB is going to move 144K s-classes (vs. even 2012's 5000-some units). It's just sad that the supposed measure of the 'best lux sedan' is sheer volume...
  2. balthazar
    Yet they only moved 841 of the current s-class last month (and at heavy discounts).
  3. balthazar
    DeLorenzo missed a big, huge piece of the PR tho, didn't he?
  4. balthazar
    ^ "1954 & next 10 years" equals 1964- still different. Too many like to brush off Divisional engineering with an offhanded 'they've always been the same damn thing'. I've watched this with a focused eye occur on the internet over the last 15 years, but it needs to be corrected before we get to the point that 'the Cadillac V-12 was just 2 Chevy straight sixes welded together.' Slippery slope and all that.
  5. balthazar
    mercedes is also no where near ready to go after rolls/bentley- they tried & failed. mercedes cannot even get sticker on the s-class. 5-series/e-class 'challenge' has already been met & matched with the 3rd gen CTS; 3-series has been eclipsed by the ATS. Volume should follow, but the german twins have already reached mainstream volume levels- they have whored out exclusivity for profits. Cadillac should keep their volume contained, avoid the gab-ass minivans/ econoboxes/ cargo trucks and build on exclusivity. Lower volume, higher profit should be the goal. While Pontiac did many things to change them they still started with the same damn platform Chevy was given as well as Buick and Olds in most of their cars. They learned to get the look down, how to market it and used performance and racing to present it. If you are referring to the period I mentioned, they certainly were not "the same damn 'platforms'" (no 'platforms'; BOF cars). Each Division in this era (thru the early '60s) designed their own. Buick's was totally unique out of the five '59s. Only thing Pontiac & Chevy started out with was the same damned body shell mounting points & the same greenhouses... the rest was proprietary.
  6. balthazar
    ^ It's HEAVILY discounted and HEAVILY fleeted, that's where the volume comes from, not retail demand.
  7. balthazar
    ^ You are incorrect and ignore the Eldorado Brougham Drew posted, leaps & bounds over any Rolls that decade or the following TWO. World's better car with a better image to boot. In the '30s Cadillac had V8s, V12s and V16s while all Rolls offered was a 6. "Competed" then? More like 'blew out of the water'. Rolls existed sheerly on quality of craftsmanship, but that's hardly enough to be 'competitive'. Which it wasn't. Image is made on the back of product. Build the product and the image always follows, not the other way around. You know Pontiac & their image circa 1954, and what occurred over the next 10 years, right?
  8. balthazar
    "Rolls" has enjoyed some true longevity in the cache of the name, but the factual matter is that the brand slipped far behind being any sort of class leader sometime in the 1920s. Rolls didn't get an 8-cylinder until 1959 IIRC, or FORTY-FIVE YEARS after Cadillac introduce theirs. A/C didn't appear until sometime circa the mid '50s, or around 15 years after Cadillac. By the mid '60s, a Rolls had circa a whopping 215 HP and couldn't lumber out of it's own way. Most of the styling was a full decade behind the industry and there was no engineering department... at all. It was a well built car; well built but boring, archaic and spartanly-equipped with poor performance in every metric. The only buzz up to that point was the short-lived appearance of the ungainly Camargue in the late '70s. Google up a pic of the interior and gape at that black rubber school bus steering wheel (finish/design, not diameter). Whew. To state it accurately, Rolls first ceased to be competitive with Cadillac about 85 years ago. But, as with the case with Rolls today, a proper product can turn things around 180 degrees. I actually like the current Rolls (via pics; I've yet to see one in person). A proper Cadillac could absolutely compete in the ultra-lux / Rolls level... but whether now is the time, is another matter. Agree that the s-class level is much more important, now & long-term.
  9. balthazar
    Of course, the Crown Vic & it's trim variants had something close to a 60-yr run (or 20-some years more than the s-class). And in that it generated huge volumes over it's lifespan, absolutely was that segment 'gone after' by others. The delicious (yet unpopular with da fanbois) irony here is, mercedes is likewise a heavy fleet brand pushing volume... or MUCH like the Crown Vic in that respect.
  10. balthazar
    It's not like the vehicles we're talking about are 70/30. The XTS is 58/42, the 550 is 53/47, and the way both are driven, owners are very unlikely to see any plowing differences during braking in turns. These are NOT hard-driven sedans and are very close in spec, esp vs. decades ago. I'd be very interested to see how the XTS with it's MRC 'feels' vs. the older suspension tech on the 5-series.
  11. balthazar
    Ride & handling are 2 different criteria. Ride has zero to do with which wheels are driven and everything to due with suspension/rolling stock. No problem to have a worse-riding RWD car than a FWD car. Handling is another matter, which -all else being equal- is generally true (that RWD will handle better). CTS is already on par with the 5-series & e-class in handling & ride and is notably lighter, so your theoretical backpedaling to the handling of your nebulous, so-called 'dressed up Impala' isn't even a legitimate concern.
  12. balthazar
    b-b-b-but they cannot remotely compete with each other, because -as you have illustrated ad nauseum- one is FWD(/AWD) & one is RWD(/AWD).
  13. balthazar
    ^ same platform (stretched), same engines; you're kidding yourself. Unfortunately, they made it look like a melted edition of a 10-yr old s-class, with a sappy 1970's 2-tone paint job. Or maybe it was simply the ancient 5-spd automatic that torpedoed it... you know how you like to attribute an entire car's market performance on a singular feature, so that must be it. Any way you color it, a flop. And now they're going to try and pass off maybach 2.0.
  14. balthazar
    ^ HA, you also said 'no one will buy the XTS' and you were quite wrong there. Consumers don't buy cars on the singular factoid of which wheels are driven. Most mercedes & BMW owners have no idea which do.
  15. balthazar
    merecedes already tried the market with a thinly-veiled stretched s-class, it was a fantastic flop they just pulled from the market. "Interesting to see what it is" - we've already seen their effort here... and the rear seat was already 'like a jet'. It needs to be a fresh, ground-up car, not just another badge job with a hopped-up interior and a stolen pedigree.
  16. balthazar
    All today: 1973 Eldorado convert, whote over white, top up, nice shape, parked by the local upholster shop. 1971 Buick Riviera, gold, split bumper treatment, super sano, 22" donks, parked. 1970 Cadillac deVille convert, white on white, top down, great shape, rollin. 1968 Buick Skylark 4-dr sedan, silver, a bit rough, rollin. 1966 Ford Mustang convert, black over yellow, minty, some sort of circular sticker on the doors, rolling, right behind a 1970 Buick full size convert, maybe a Wildcat, gold, minty fresh, some sort of circular sticker on the doors, rolling, right behind a 1956 Chrysler Newport 2-dr hardtop, turquiose-y over white, super minty, some sort of circular sticker on the doors, rolling.
  17. balthazar
    '80s SLs are built really cheap. One could do much better in product/investment. South of the 560, you are looking at 0-60 times around 12 seconds. According to NADA, an '87 560SL, originally MSRP of $55K, is worth an average of $11K today. Frankly, you look the car over in person, and you won't think it's worth 1/2 that. You want a good '80s car for collectibility/investment, get a Buick Grand National. GNX was 29K new, average retail today is 72K. That's one vehicle (and from the '80s too) that may have never averaged lower than it's MSRP, ever. Plus it'll blow a 560Sl into the weeds (on the straights & the curves). I like this era Rivieras, never see them around anymore tho. I'd only look at a T-Type, tho.
  18. balthazar
    I see no 'sport trim' package... I bid $3500... $1500. It's certainly not collectible or museum-worthy. Use it up & toss it.
  19. balthazar
    Yeah- the narrative talks like it's an even, or even close, exchange. Reminds me in a way of the hilarity surrounding 'Buick was picked to survive because Buicks sell so well in China' (just ship 'em Opel parts). At some point the brand will be completely hollowed out, but that's "branding" for you.
  20. balthazar
    Too bad the pipeline only flows one-way.
  21. balthazar
    and
  22. balthazar
    Malibu :: MSRP 21995 / average trans 19927 altima :: MSRP 21760 / average trans 21123 camry :: MSRP 22235 / average trans 21038
  23. balthazar
    http://autos.yahoo.com/photos/steve-mcqueen-s-1969-baja-1000-racing-truck-slideshow/steve-mcqueen-s-baja-racing-truck-photo-800075986.html
  24. balthazar
    The 7 series is just a bigger, more expensive 5 series, but that seems to work fairly well. Audi runs the Volkswagon 2.0 4-banger in the A2, A3, A4, A5 AND the A6 aaaaaand that seems to work fine, too. The way you spin things, you give the impression audi couldn't move more than a few dozen A6s annually based on that lil' factoid. Most consumers --and this certainly includes the average dolts that buy bmw/mb on badge alone-- have very little car knowledge. In other words, the fact that this 3.6L is the same basic motor as that 3.6L over there doesn't register.
  25. balthazar
    Buick is flat May vs. May and solidly up 2013 vs. 2012.
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