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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    Well all the MB-tex colors are no cost option, going to leather or Nappa leather on a GLC or GLE is an upcharge. So it does give the customer choice and also give Mercedes and opportunity to make extra profit. Even looking at the Escalade and Escalade IQ, there are 2-3 seat color options depending on the trim and the Escalade IQ is only faux leather. An Escalade should have 10+ interior colors to pick from. They have offer more customization, kind of like the Celestiq customization but in Escalade, Vistiq and Lyric. That's what Porsche does.
  2. smk4565
    Home run on the power and performance at that price point too, with the tax credit while it lasts this is a 3.5 second 0-60 car for like $61k. There is lot to like here. 300 miles would have bene nice, I don't know if they could make an eco mode to decouple a motor to increase range. Faster charging would be nice, but I think most people charge at home and won't care about that. Where this car misses, like David said is the interior choices. There are only black and that light gray leather and the dash is the same on all of them. This is a problem with a lot of Cadillacs. Every Cadillac should have 5 leather colors, 5 different dash trim options, 5 different wheel options. You have to give luxury buyers customization choices. The Lyric-V is black interior only, unless you get the Premium trim you have an option or tan. Can't have 2 choices only on an $85,000 car. The Mercedes GLC has 10 wheel options, 6 MB-tex seat options, 7 leather choices, 6 dash trim choices. And that is a bottom end Mercedes, on par with Optiq. Even if the Optiq offered 10 seat covering choices instead of 2 they still have less than the competition.
  3. smk4565
    I think that is with Employee pricing and not including the $1695 destination charge. $29,840 + $1695 destination is the new price without the employee pricing.
  4. smk4565
    The Maverick has been a hit, but the base price of the XL model was about $25k last year and is up to $31k after the first round of tariff price adjustment and I suspect the 2026 will go up again. I think in that $25-35k range the Maverick is a hit, when it gets over $40k it gets a bit steep. Much like it's Ford Escape sibling, in the low $30s it is a good deal, but not at all at $40k+.
  5. smk4565
    The problem with Infiniti (aside from they have no performance like the old days), is this car when this car is 5 years old, it will be worth about $20k, and when it is 10 years old it will be worth about $7k. So you have to be nuts to spend $50-60k on one of these.
  6. smk4565
    Staying pretty true to formula here which is smart since they sell 475,000 of these a year. And the price will go up since they are all hybrid now, but that won't slow down the sales.
  7. smk4565
    The Lexus ES is getting a FWD EV variant with about 215 hp and an AWD 338 hp EV variant. So it looks like they will use same EV powertrain for a lot of Toyota/Lexus products.
  8. smk4565
    I don't think they care about losing investment in red states, they want to cut medicaid to people in red states. They can just say the tariffs will bring back manufacturing and use that as the excuse. I think the Chinese car companies can set up factories in India or Mexico or Africa and get the same 25% tariff that Toyota, Ford, GM, etc are paying and then it is probably game over. I think the 400 volt vs 800 volt matters less for Tesla as having dated designs and bland interiors will. Tesla was the hot new item for a while, but their product is kind of stale and everyone else has fresher product. Then there is the Elon issue, I saw a Tesla today with a No Elon sticker on it, I imagine a massive amount of their current owner base isn't going to buy another. A couple years ago Tesla had like 70% owner loyalty, if that swings the other way to 70% leave, I don't see how they ever grow.
  9. smk4565
    Agreed. If this is $30k or even low $30s, and maybe a FWD only follows later for $29,995 this pretty much kills Tesla's sub $30k model they hyped up but will never come out. Especially if GM brings back a Chevy Bolt for $30k. Although if the tax credit goes away next year, then the CHR at $32,500 is way less appealing than $25,000. And if they do take the tax credit away, I wonder how long before the low cost Chinese EV's show up and just take over the market.
  10. smk4565
    If pricing stays the same as 2025, this would probably sell well. This is probably the 2nd fastest Toyota after the Supra which really is a BMW anyway.
  11. smk4565
    Mini and Rolls is probably 30k units a year. Land Rover is the most since Jaguar is near zero at this point. It could create a weird race for BMW to push out a year's worth of Mini's in Q1 to try to beat Land Rover to get the lower tariff.
  12. smk4565
    First 100,000 total cars or first 100,000 per manufacturer? Still 10% is higher than the old 2.5% so prices will go up, from before. And if this is foreshadowing, are they going to put a 10% tariff on the first 100k cars from Mexico and Canada? And it used to be 0, so no matter what, the 2026 car prices are going way up.
  13. smk4565
    Ford Maverick, Bronco Sport and Mach-E prices all went up $1100-2000 today. The 2025 Maverick is now $5000 more than a 2024 Maverick. That's a 20% increase in 1 year.
  14. smk4565
    Raising the gas tax also hits low income people the worst. Although if they are going to make the EV fee a thing then they should raise gas taxes also to balance it. They can let the 2017 tax cut expire, that will create a trillion dollars and do a lot more than trying to discourage EV purchases with a $250 annual fee.
  15. smk4565
    I could see maybe if they add a $250 federal tax on all new car purchases as a 1 time fee. But to charge it every year is both a ripoff and unfair. Fast forward 20 years and 90% of cars might be EV, so the fund roads through gas tax will be totally obsolete. And it will be a tax more so on lower income and working people. And the gas tax basically works that the college student driving a 10 year old Corolla because that is what they can afford, will pay the same road tax as a pro football player in an Escalade.
  16. smk4565
    Bad idea for 2 reasons. First the avg amount paid in gas taxes for a person is about $100 a year, so you are penalized for a hybrid or EV. Second, if you are someone who doesn't drive much, or has a couple cars, maybe a fixed income senior with a Chevy Bolt that drives 4,000 miles a year, now you are paying $250 to drive 4,000 miles vs about $20 in gas tax.
  17. smk4565
    I am buying a car in 2029.
  18. smk4565
    In about 90 days when dealer lots start to run dry, those Hornets might actually start finding customers. I have only seen a few on the road. Mostly they just sit on dealer lots.
  19. smk4565
    Prices on all these will go up. I see ads from manufacturers saying they are protecting MSRP though May or 2025 model year. But they probably all had 60-100 day supply of vehicles which almost gets them to when 2026 models would start. And they are going to pull incentives in the short term. I suspect 2026 MSRP’s are going way up.
  20. smk4565
    Toyota makes money through and Stellantis kind of struggles and has a lousy stock price. @Drew Dowdell @G. David Felt Question on the Buick Encore and Lincoln Nautilus, are they 25% tariff die to imported auto or 145% tariff due to Chinese goods?
  21. smk4565
    Porsche, Mercedes and BMW are 3 of the most profitable car brands, I am pretty sure they know what they are doing. Cadillac sold 160,000 cars in 2024 (US sales) Audi sold 196,000. Mercedes, Lexus and BMW are in the 300s. I think Cadillac is on the right track with their EV's and they have to keep advancing the tech, going into Formula 1 is a right move. Cadillac is doing a lot of correct steps, but there is still a long journey ahead to overtake BMW.
  22. smk4565
    Doesn't BMW sell more EV's than Cadillac and Genesis? And once Mercedes redoes their EV's they'll be fine. CLA this year, the AMG EV sedan is being shown this year, electric GLB and GLC I think next year, electric E-class in 2027 and so on. And not that I am big plug in hybrid believer because I think it adds a lot of weight and complexity, but Mercedes makes 11 plug-in hybrids, Cadillac and Genesis don't have any. And a lot of people think PHEV is where the market is going in the near future.
  23. smk4565
    BMW has come down, Cadillac Lyriq interior compared to like an XT6 is a big leap forward. Still some cheap bits even in a Lyriq interior. Buick and Cadillac have about 15 models combined, pretty close to BMW. But I would argue back why doesn’t Cadillac make a coupe or a convertible or a sports car, etc. Because they probably fear it would not sell because they are not on par with a Mercedes or BMW.
  24. smk4565
    The Optiq isn’t made in the USA either.
  25. smk4565
    The EQB is a bad car, and the Optiq is the best of that group but also the newest. We’ve seen the new CLA that charges twice as fast as the Optiq, that will become a new GLB in a year and there will be an electric GLC in about a year.
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