smk4565
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Everything posted by smk4565
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Probably handles a lot like an Equinox or Envision. Because it is.
- 110 replies
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- spying
- spy photos
- cadillac
- xt3
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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.
- 110 replies
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- spying
- spy photos
- cadillac
- xt3
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I agree with all that. FCA doesn't really have any new product, so they just try special editions of dated cars or drop a big V8 in a dated car, at a time when V8 sales are falling off a cliff. Sure enthusiasts like performance, but if this thing is like $60-70k there are a lot of other high performance options for that kind of money. It might look good in a commercial or create some attention which is all well and good, but FCA lacks the bread and butter products. There is nothing exciting about a Camry or RAV4, but products like that have made Toyota one of the richest car companies there is, they literally sell millions of them around the world every year. You have to be able to make money in the core segments. In January small cars outsold large cars by a 9 to 1 ratio, and I don't think gas prices really have anything to do with it, but incomes aren't rising and car prices are. And I think most buyers don't want a large vehicle, even most crossover sales are small to mid-size. You have to have cars people can afford to buy if you are a volume brand.
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I think it looks good. I am not a big SUV fan, but I like the looks of this more than a Tahoe or Armada or whatever else is out there. The 10 speed and ecoboost is a nice combo, I am surprised the base model doesn't have a 2.7 ecoboost V6, but I guess they figured the model mix would be low. I still remember when the original Expedition had a 4.6 liter V8 with 210 hp, they have come a long way in 20 years. The interior looks pretty sharp too for a truck and the class they are in. I think this will do pretty well with market share in the segment. As far as the GM 5.3 and 6.2 V8s, GM needs to start looking at turbo engines. Even the 6.2 V8 makes less torque than Ford's 3.5 V6. Just like time caught up to the 3800 V6 in family sedans, time is catching up to the pushrod V8, it may have passed the 5.3 V8 by already.
- 62 replies
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- chicago auto show
- 2018
- ford
- expedition
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They sell a lot of Fiats globally, that brand isn't going anywhere. Chrysler should be the brand to die, they only sell them in North America, they have the smallest line up, really they could just make Dodge vans. I don't see a need for Maserati and Alfa Romeo, but they need one of them because luxury cars equal profit. Or at least they should assuming you can actually sell them.
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If Sergio really wants to merge with someone he should consolidate brands. The reason no one will merge with them is Jeep is all that the other car companies want. These rest actually makes them less attractive to a Honda, Toyota, Ford etc to buy. And more dealers doesn't make them look like a better buy either.
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I agree with what everyone has said. A 475 hp crossover is cool, but if it costs $65,000 are there that many people that want an expensive Dodge? Plus this is a bit of a dated vehicle now, they they are hoping putting a big engine in helps pump life into it but that usually doesn't work. FCA has no real strategy to sell to the masses, the 500 hp Alfa Romeo is fast as hell but they will sell like 50 a month. Mostly of FCA's product is designed for what the market was, not what it is or where it is going.
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They should build 380 Alfa Romeo dealerships. They spent like $6 million last night advertising a car that won't sell. The Guilia I'm sure is a good car, it gets good reviews, I just don't see them selling them in mass quantity to justify the cost to develop it and market it and distribute it.
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Daimler isn't even really mass market. They don't even operate where the bulk of car sales happen, like where Civic, Camry, Rav4, Pilot, Traverse, etc sell. Smart and Vans are a relatively small amount of Daimler's business. Mercedes-Benz cars is their #1 business segment and #2 is heavy duty tucks from Mercedes, Freightliner and Western Star. I guess Rolls-Royce must be a mass market car company too, since BMW owns Mini that sells for $22,000.
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I am actually a democrat, not that that has anything to do with car talk. I think it hard to say Mercedes competes directly with Chevy and Toyota when they don't sell $15-25,000 cars. The cheapest Merceds costs more than an Impala or Avalon, I don't see how Mercedes is mass market appealing to all buyers. Especially when the A-class line doesn't even sell much.
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They make a heck of a lot more profit than Cadillac too. The sell more $50,000+ cars than Cadillac, more $100,000+ cars than Cadillac, they make more 500 hp cars than Cadillac, they make more 600 hp cars than Cadillac, they make faster cars than Cadillac, they make more capable semi-autonomous vehicles than Cadillac. And you can replace the word Cadillac in the above paragraph with Lexus, Lincoln, BMW, or Audi as well. Saying "sales don't matter" is what dying brands say. If sales don't matter, then Alfa Romeo is the most successful car company in the world. And in September the Hypercar will be revealed with track performance that no other road car can match. I hope they crack the 6 minute mark on the Nurburgring, untouchable.
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Bulk of their sales from the Ford, Chevy Toyota range? 2 of Mercedes top 3 sellers base at $52,000 and are like $70k when equipped how they really sell. In January Mercedes was a few hundred cars away form outselling Lexus and Cadillac combined, who about 15-20 years ago were the top 2 selling luxury car lines in the USA. Mercedes is launching 9 EV models by 2025, they are going to bury Cadillac and Lexus both because neither of them will be able to keep up with the product onslaught.
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BMW's sales slide still has them as the #2 luxury car maker so it isn't all doom and gloom for them. The CLA-GLA I meant are selling to non traditional Mercedes buyers, people aren't trading in e-classes on them, they are attracting different buyers and welcome to the family I say. Those CLA buyers might get an E-class next time. They won't cancel the CLA/GLA, they have European and Chinese volume plus Infiniti using that platform too so they have easy economies of scale there. Mercedes will be getting a 10-15% fuel economy bump on all gas engines with the 48 volt system starting with 2018 S-class. And that gain is V6 to I6, V8 to V8, while the new I6 could really replace the Current 4.7L V8 in most cases for bigger gain. The new S-class 4.0 V8 makes 476 hp, 516 lb-ft, I don't think they really need that much power in the base car.
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Not larger than an Escalade, more expensive. Mercedes most expensive SUV is not their largest, Audi's Q8 is smaller than a Q7. They could make some sort of V-series high performance 4 seat crossover that costs more than an Escalade. Sort of the Corvette of SUVs if you will. It could be electric even.
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Not only did the C-class outsell the 3-series, which almost never happens, but the E-class outsold the 3-series. That might be a first ever. I never saw 5-series under 1,000 either, I guess model change over is to blame.
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GLA and CLA don't appeal to Mercedes customer base. The reason they are there is to compete with Audi, Acura, Volvo, etc. Their purpose is to get people that otherwise aren't Mercedes buyers, I don't think Mercedes ever expected a lot of sales out of them, most of their sales come from the middle of the line up, which is always has. The CLA and GLA help their CAFE situation too. Mercedes outsold BMW by over 7,000 cars in January, and BMW was the #2 luxury maker by a comfortable margin.
