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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    But an ATS-V engine and chassis would be a good match for the Macan Alfa Romeo and coming GLC63. And where is the X5 M and Cayenne competitor? Those things have been anoint a dozen years. If Cadillac said the next CTS will be on the Malibu platform and the CTS-V will have a 3.0 TT V6 with a Haldex all wheel drive system, GM fans would flip out. Yet Cadillac builds crossovers (which out sell sedans) with this philosophy and GM fans praise it.
  2. smk4565
    And yet Mercedes is charging around $500,000 for the G650 Landaulet. I don't see any Cadillacs selling at that price. The RX, NX and RDX are top sellers because they are cheap. I guarantee that people buying a Porsche Cayenne or BMW X5 care that it is a rear drive based vehicle especially those buying the 500 up V8 versions. If they didn't care they wouldn't spend $90k on a crossover the same size a $45k Lexus. Sedan sales are dropping across the market, last month mid size sedans dropped like 24% while crossovers were up 18% or around there. The future is crossovers but Without rear drive you can't do performance. What Cadillac is doing with their crossovers is the same as using the Cruze and Malibu platforms to target the 3-series and 5-series. The problem Cadillac fans have is they never had a good crossover (with exception maybe being the Northstar SRX) so they don't miss it. Imagine BMW without the X5 M or Porsche with no Cayenne Turbo S, or If Land Rover decided to scrap all the Range Rover's off road ability and build it on a fwd mid size Sedan platform because most people don't go off road. But Cadillac never had a true off roader or a 650 hp supercharged V8 SRX so their fans don't miss what they never had.
  3. smk4565
    Cadillac's number 1 selling SUV and #1 selling sedan are front wheel drive, and XT3 and XT7 are coming with more front wheel drive. The dealers will pressure them for product volume, they'll get that with crossovers based on Chevy/Buick products because it is fastest and cheapest to do, that is just how GM works.
  4. smk4565
    I think it is very luxurious.
  5. smk4565
    Cadillac and Lexus sell way more front drive cars than Mercedes, I guess they are not luxury brands either and compete with Chevy and Ford, given the above logic. The Australian army didn't commission this, Mercedes made it just because they could and they aren't afraid to build something ridiculous and over the top. The GM board would never approve a convertible Escalade with a CTS-V engine, they would have 6 committee meetings with bean counters, then kill the idea.
  6. smk4565
    A good addition to a growing segment. This car should be pretty good, even though it often gets overlooked. I bet they put that engine in the F-Pace also to compete with the Macan and AMG GLC models.
  7. smk4565
    Mercedes makes the best engineered vehicles in the world. And I think it pretty widely accepted that they are a luxury car brand. And they build performance versions of everything, and they build the dream cars that others never have the guts to build. Who else would make a 6 wheel drive SUV, or a V12 convertible SUV, or a road car with a Formula 1 powertrain and suspension, or cars like the Pullman S-class, or McLaren SLR or SLS Gullwing. That take the concept car stuff and actually sell it. I actually thought coming out of the bankruptcy, GMC should be Denali only so it wouldn't overlap with Chevy. Most GMC's however are priced identical to the Chevy counterpart, sort of pointless to do that.
  8. smk4565
    In response to Casa's post (I didn't want to quote the whole thing), I agree that Cadillac has heritage, but they fail to capitalize on it. Mercedes talks about their history all the time, Cadillac wants people to forget theirs. I mostly agree with the 10 products they need, but I don't think Cadillac needs 4 sedans when sedan sales are tanking, 3 is enough. They do need coupes, convertibles and sports cars, and I believe they need alpha and Omega crossovers with V-series versions. They need electric cars in the 2020-2025 time frame to hit. XT5 is priced like a GLC now, an XT3 is going to have GLA level pricing, so the haters of the GLA better get ready for that, and XT3 is front drive just like a GLA, they are going after the same market. I'd rather see Cadillac go up market and sales volume will come later. Cadillac lacks prestige, if they want to get it they have to go up market. If Buick is really so strong, they should be able to take on Lincoln, the Lacrosse can go up $10k in base price and replace the XTS, Regal can go up in price and take on MKZ. Make the ATS and XT3 $39,950 base, CTS,and XT5 $53,000base, CT6 and XT7 $84,950, Escalade $99,950 base model. Good luck getting dealers to accept 20% price hikes to Buick and Cadillac models though.
  9. smk4565
    Good points by Riviera. i picked the $70,000 number because a full size Sedan or SUV at Lexus starts in the 70s, at Buick a full size sedan or SUV starts in the $30s, big difference. You can't compare Lexus and Buick when Lexus has a $95,000 coupe, an $80k sedan, an Escalade competitor (that doesn't sell), etc. Cadillac is the Lexus fighter, XT3 and XT5 vs NX and RX, ATS and CTS vs IS and GS with V-series and F versions each. LX570 vs Escalade, CT6 vs LS460 on the last 2 Lexus does the car better, Cadillac does the truck better. As as far as MB profit margin, theirs around 9%, which is strong but Audi is 10% and Porsche and Bentley are like 20%, this why I said VW's luxury group sets the standard.
  10. smk4565
    I specifically said Buick is not a luxury brand, because they aren't in the higher price points. GMC only gets there with a luxury full size truck, but you can spend $60k on a Ford Super Duty, which I wouldn't call luxury, it is expensive because it is a commercial truck. The "bottom feeder" CLA costs more than a Buick LaCrosse. More myth busting: It was said that Mercedes relies on FWD GLA's to get sales which is false, the GLA is their worst selling crossover, the GLE is #1, GLC #2, GLS #3. Another fallacy is that the high end cars don't make money. Tell that to Porsche who makes $19,000 profit per car or Bentley who makes $25,000 profit per car, Lamborghini is higher still. Audi makes over $5,000 per car profit. The VW luxury group is the gold standard when it comes to profit margin
  11. smk4565
    $12 billion will only make a dent, that is over 5 years or something that they get that, they need more like $25 billion not 12. The ATS and CTS are dying on the vine right now, and the Escalade is the only reason Cadillac has high ATP. Cadillac should have a Porsche Cayenne competitor mid-size SUV with a CTS-V engine, they need a sedan above CT6 with a twin turbo V8, they need a Tesla Model S fighter, they need 2 convertibles, one could even be an ATS convertible, the other needs to be $75k car, and they need a super car in the $150-200,000 range to compete with Lamborghini Gallardo and Audi R8. Where is all that? Where is the high end stuff? And I know the argument will be that they need to fill out the bottom end of the line, but the bottom end of the Cadillac line is just overlap with Buick. That doesn't help build the brand, it just makes them like Lincoln.
  12. smk4565
    But you are comparing the top end Buick to the bottom end Lexus. That is pretty much like saying Chevy competes head on with Cadillac because the Impala LTZ is as expensive as an ATS. Also comparing a full size Buick to a mid-size Lexus. There is a laundry list of things Mercedes has done, whether it be semi-autonomous driving tech, luxury features, 9-speed, plug-in hybrid, coming soon 48 volt inline six, 7 SUVs, 5 convertibles, 5 coupes, over 30 AMG performance models, a coming soon Formula 1 car for the road, etc, etc. How may V-series cars are there, like 3? The money goes into giving the consumer choices and giving them what they want.
  13. smk4565
    GM is an international company that sells roughly the same number of cars as VW. GM's entire R&D spend is half of VW's.
  14. smk4565
    Here is some bad news for Cadillac from a Bloomberg article: "After overhauling Mercedes’s lineup in recent years, which revitalized the brand’s stodgy image and lifted its sales to the top of the luxury-car segment last year, Daimler is planning to push even harder. Research and development spending will rise to 8.1 billion euros ($8.8 billion) on average this year and next. That’s 22 percent more than the level in 2015, which the company said was already “very high.”" No way will Cadillac spend $8.8 billion a year on R&D. GM's total R&D budget in 2015 was $7.4 billion. Volkswagen's was $15.3 billion. Johan is fighting a battle he can't win.
  15. smk4565
    Any crossovers are a step in the right direction for Cadillac who has been crossover starved for years now. However, Johan was supposed to right the ship and make them competitive, and you "expect it will not be the full product" I mean how many generations of vehicles will it take? Cadillac will never break the "good enough" philosophy that they have had since the 80s. And as sedan continue sales drop, CTS and ATS will probably get merged to one product, CT6 and XTS eventually merged, so you have 2 sedans like Buick has and 3 front drive crossovers and the Escalade, and that will be your post 2020 Cadillac brand line up.
  16. smk4565
    I actually didn't even think of Buick or GMC, as I don't see either as a luxury brand. When the Lacrosse and Enclave are $70,000 like a full size Lexus is, then Buick is a luxury brand.
  17. smk4565
    To dfelt's point, I meant the Euro SUVs/crossovers have better handling dynamics, better performance, more luxury, etc. The same traits that allowed BMW, Mercedes and Audi to take over luxury sedans will allow them, and Jaguar/Land Rover to gain advantage in luxury SUVs. All those front drive crossovers max out at like 300 hp, the European crossovers can offer are 500 hp and more. This is no different than when Cadillac, Lincoln and Lexus tried to push front drive sedans, the 3-series, M5's and E-classes of the world ate them up. I did pull luxury crossover/SUV sales from last month, Europe with 35,062 (BMW 9,421, Mercedes 8,940, Audi 7,228, Land Rover 6,163, Porsche 3,310) plus whatever Jaguar did Japan clocked in at 24,056 (Lexus 10,436, Infiniti 7144, Acura 6,476) USA with 11,557 (Cadillac 6,049, Lincoln 5,508) Problem is Cadillac doesn't have the money either, maybe not as bad as Lincoln, but not what they need. Mercedes R&D spend is more than all of GM, so unless GM wants to divert 100% of their R&D to just Cadillac, they will never catch up. At least Cadillac tries with the resources they do have, Lincoln and Acura are basically just doing badge jobs of Fords and Hondas.
  18. smk4565
    I agree that the masses that buy small crossovers don't care about drive train, Lexus IS proof of that. But the masses also made the Taurus the number 1 selling car in the country, not they won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Jaguar, BMW and Mercedes make better crossovers than any from America or Asia, only a matter of time. The Jag has got great reviews this far, Alfa Romeo is entering this segment too and they have a 505 hp Ferrari V8 based V6. The Lexus RX and NX are yesterday's news, the Euros will take over luxury crossover just like they did luxury sedans.
  19. smk4565
    They both handle well due to the chassis. They should build XT3 on Alpha and give it the ATS-V engine. But they won't do that. This is no different than Lincoln trying to say the MKZ has upgraded suspension and sound deadening and premium steering rack or whatever BS they want to say, it is still a Fusion underneath.
  20. smk4565
    Probably handles a lot like an Equinox or Envision. Because it is.
  21. smk4565
    They need more crossovers in a bad way, the sooner they can get this the better. I do remember when Johan took over, he said the future of Cadillac was rear wheel drive, yet we've have the ELR, XT5, and now XT3 since then, and the XTS is sticking around for who knows how long. And you have to figure front drive XT7 and XT1 are coming down the road.
  22. smk4565
    Mercedes is spending something like $10 billion in their electric car platform, they expect to have 10 electric models by 2025, so they just need some electric Smarts to be a place holder for compliance purposes now. Daimler already warned shareholders that they are sacrifitprofit for increased R&D spend the next 3 years.
  23. smk4565
    Makes sense actually, they pretty much are a city car anyway so electric only makes sense. They need a Smart For 4 product with a back seat if they want to widen sales they had one before in Europe. They need Smart for compliance reasons, they are right on the line now for CAFE and emissions and those standards are getting tougher.
  24. smk4565
    Impressive numbers but I have to imagine the sales volume of a diesel and manual car will be dismal. Manuals have like a 3-5% take rate to begin with. Diesel is declining in popularity also. i am surprised the 9 speed auto can't beat the manual in fuel economy. I do think they'll sell a decent number with the automatic.
  25. smk4565
    I don't like chrome everything, I just don't like black out trim and black wheels. I don't like gold wheels on the Subaru WRX either, or red wheels. It all looks tacky and desperate.
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