smk4565

There need to be more EV's and lower cost ones. Once the Chevy Bolt, Kia EV2, EV3, EV4 type cars come out with lower costs the EV market should pick up. And Mercedes has a whole new EV line coming, GM is still expanding Ultium, Toyota isn't even in the game yet, so once all those guys ramp up there will be a lot of options. I think a lot of the EV pushback is from people that don't want to lose their V8 or sports car, which is a small % of the population or people that know nothing about EVs. Sure people don't want to lose their gas 911. But I can't imagine anyone is saying the 3 cylinder Ford Escape, 3-cylinder Nissan Rogue, 3-cylinder Chevy Trailblazer, are some sort of excellent driving experience and they are going to hold onto poor NVH, underpowered engines that the turbos blow after 100k miles and "you'll have to pry it away from my cold dead hands." Most sub $40k cars are just appliances that an EV with a bad driving experience. Once they get $30-40k EV's out, you'll have Rolls Royce level NVH compared to a Nissan Altima or something it will be night and day.

I have heard people saying they like driving the EQE and EQS, but the looks are just so bad there is no price at when they become desirable. I am very excited for the electric E-class though because it will have the 800 volt NMC battery and it will look the same as the ICE E-class which looks great.

Xiaomi SU7 Ultra - 5,291 lbs - 1,527 hp - 1,305 lb-ft - 391 mile range - Top speed 217 mph - 0-60 in 1.98 seconds - starting price $73,000 Granted the SU7 is a sedan, but this SUV is coming. Based on those specs, Cadillac and the Germans have work to do.

The iX is 0-60 in 4.4 seconds, it is a lot slower than Lyriq-V and $10k more money. I don't know how the interior quality of the iX is, but recent BMW's I think are not as good as the old days. The Lyriq has some cheap materials here and there, but overall is pretty good. I don't care for the rear end design of the Lyriq, but if you want a big 2 row electric SUV it is a good option. I think the Optiq is pretty nice inside for the price, they need a v-series version of that. And I still say, replace the CT4/CT5 with an electric sedan/coupe mid-size car, maybe a little bigger than a Model 3. BMW has an iX M70 with 650 hp, it does 0-60 in 3.6 seconds and priced at $111,000 according to their website. They have the xDrive 60 at a 4.4 0-60 for $88,000. I think the Lyriq is pretty good value. They could up the interior a little bit, but at the price it's okay. It would be nice to make the V-series lighter somehow, but all these EVs are overweight.

The EQ cars are not good. Too heavy, not enough range, too expensive, interiors aren't as nice as the gas equivalent, etc. Luckily they are being killed off in a year or two. The new Mercedes EVs are coming starting this year, CLA with 268 or 375 hp, GLC with 483 hp in 2026, E-class EV in summer 2027. AMG electric super car, AMG sedan, AMG SUV with the Yasa axial flux motors start arriving next year. And the EQS test mule with solid state batteries is on the road which is over 600 mile range, so they can put that into the EV S-class when it arrives. Their EV future all of a sudden looks great.

I meant low cost cars like Sentra, Jetta, Taos, Trax, Maverick, Mazda 3, etc at are made in Mexico. And Honda and Toyota definitely sell Canadian made cars here, I've even seen UK built Civics here. Yes, but even a Pilot or Odyssey is about 70% American parts, 30% of the parts going in will be tariffed. Honda could be okay, Tesla, the VW Buzz are all high American parts content. But no one is immune from the storm, and the tier 2 and 3 suppliers could get hit hard too.

Yeah, Toyota is really strong globally, and has a lot of cash, they can weather a storm. Honda is screwed because their top 2 sellers are made in Canada, but they have a lot of US manufacturing. The Xaiomi SU7 smokes the Plaid all day long, and it outsold the Model 3 in China last year. Tesla is starting to fall behind the Chinese, the Model S should be $45,000 and Model 3 at $29,000 to compete with what the Chinese have. Tesla can't turn profit at those prices. And Elon is scaring the customers away which doesn't help them either.

Agreed. All the low cost cars are made in Mexico, the Civic, Rav4 and CRV are made in Canada so you hit 3 of the best sellers hard. Stellantis is screwed for sure, they have a lot of Canadian production and they already have a price problem. GM and Ford will be weakened when the dust settles. And the Chinese will be the winner, I doubt any of the legacy car companies will be able to hold them off. I just read today how Porsche is struggling in China because their cars lack the tech and performance of some of these Chinese EV's. If Porsche who builds great cars is falling behind, what chance does Nissan, Ford or Chevy have?

They could try that, but it would be expensive (even more so with a 25% tariff since it is made in Canada) and The Mustang had it's worst sales year in history in 2024 despite being a new model and the Camaro and Challenger being out of the picture. I read they sold over 70,000 Camaros in 2016 and it was down to 5,000 last year as they closed up shop. There is no market for these cars. I am sure they could sell a few thousand Hellcat Chargers, but is that even profitable? And I agree that the EV Charger will fail, the early test drives make it seem like the product is a bit half baked and they are too expensive.

Just imagine a Jeep Compass with an extra 25% tariff on it. Sounds like a sales winner.

Gas prices have gone up a little in the US this year but once the tariffs go into place and summer fuel blend and summer demand come in, I am sure gas prices will shoot up.

Durango sales were down 14% in 2024. Granted the model is as old as dirt, but it was the only Hellcat model they had and the sales keep dropping. And I suspect like 5% of Durango sales are Hellcats, and the majority are V6 rental cars or police package.

In true Stellantis fashion, they should make the Compass about $55k to compete with the Land Rover Evoque so that when they don't sell they can discount then $13k like the Dodge Hornet and still not sell any. All they have to do is put the Hellcat in the Wrangler for $130,000 and then all of a sudden that $60k Wrangler with a 4-cylinder looks like a smoking deal.

The grille is ridiculously large, the bolt on screen on the dash makes no sense. I don't get how BMW had it's best sales year ever in 2024 when they build these ugly cars.

That’s a really good value especially if you can get the tax credit applied via lease if it sticks around. The only downside is it is 5,900 lb vehicle so it isn’t really a performance car outside of straight line speed. Cadillac needs to make an EV sedan/coupe version of this, because the Lyric is a bit big and heavy and the CT4/CT5 don’t really sell anyway.

So 40 years of 300E/E350, G-class since the 1970s, 300SE/S500 since like 1970, SL since 1954. Yes they changed from number first to letter first, but it is the same alpha-numeric theme. The treading water luxury brands like Lincoln, Acura, Infiniti and Cadillac change naming around all the time and don't have the brand equity, and the really struggling brands like Jaguar, Maserati, Alfa Romeo just aren't consistent enough at anything. I think Cadillac could go all EV and really rebuild the lineup and be on to something, but they then need 10-20 years of consistently good product. The 2045 Cadillac lineup should be, Optiq, Lyriq, Vistiq, Escalade, Celestiq and whatever they name their EV sedan that I imagine will replace CT4/CT5.

I think Musk is so arrogant that he thinks Tesla doesn't need any tax breaks or government help (despite building his business on them) and that if all the tax credits go away, it will hurt the legacy OEM's selling EV's more than him. But without that $7500 discount n Tesla's they look $10k more expensive than the ICE counterparts and once that value proposition is gone I think the sales grown crawls to a halt. And Stellantis and Nissan may be a mess, but Toyota is a juggernaut, Hyundai/Kia have good momentum, GM is looking pretty strong again, Honda does their core products well and the Germans have the luxury market sewn up. Tesla faces a lot of competitors who aren't just going to roll over.

Nissan has the new Kicks at a competitive price, that could do well like the Trax has. There is a new Murano. But the Titan is gone (not that they sold many anyway), the Altima is dying next year so that is a lot of lost volume, I think they killed or are killing the Versa, and the Z doesn't sell at all (too expensive). And a lot of those Sentra, Kicks, Rogue sales are probably rental fleets. It is just a junk brand. Infiniti sales are down 50% in the past 5 years and they are going to let Infiniti dealers move into Nissan dealers to survive. But Infiniti is in even worse shape than Nissan because they can rely on rental fleets and low credit buyers like Nissan does. No higher margin luxury sales, no high margin pick up sales, Nissan is a mess. Stellantis also a mess, way too many cost cutting measures and they build junk cars and too many brands to feed. You don't need Dodge and Chrysler, Alfa and Maserati, Citroen and DS, Opel and Peugeot, etc. It is all overlap, they could kill half those brands. Terrible product planning too, way too many expensive vehicles and they don't make a competitor to the Corolla or Rav4 or Model Y for the global market and those are the top 3 selling vehicles in the world. No Ford Maverick or Toyota Tacoma competitor at Ram. And the Stellantis fan boys want to blame the decline in the company on Tavares killing the Hellcat and the V8 Chargers, but Hellcat vehicles are low volume and they pretty much exhausted that market already. They could bring back a Hellcat Charger and they'd probably sell like 10,000 a year when the company has capacity to build like 7 million vehicles a year. The company is clueless on what buyers actually want, and they haven't put R&D into new product in forever and trashed the reputation of all their brands. And I think Tesla is next, once the $7500 goes away, and the west cost liberals stop buying them because they don't like Elon, I can see their sales dropping because that product line is stale as hell now, and the Cybertruck is already out of reservations, so those are about to be a sales bust. Unless Elon cons the government to buy 100,000 Teslas per year.

Probably is the last Nissan Murano as they won't be here in 10 years to do another one.

I wonder what people will think when they see 25% tariffs on Chevy, Ford, Ram, Dodge, Jeep, Nissan and VW vehicles? People think cars cost too much now, just wait. And if you deport all the illegals and loose construction and agriculture workers, housing prices will go up, produce prices will go up. The inflation will hit hard, which will probably lead to recession like 2008. Good chance Nissan goes bankrupt in the next 2 years, Stellantis is a mess (I have seen $26,000 off brand new Grand Cherokees or lease for $299 a month with $0 down, and $19,000 off 2025 Ram trucks already). When these big companies fall it has a trickle down effect. The only positive will be Elon will have pissed off all the liberals that used to buy Teslas before he went "dark MAGA" and once Trump turns on him for failing to cut money from the deficit, the MAGA people will turn on him too.

Well Mercedes is rumored to be killing the GLC coupe and GLE coupe in 2026. And the BMW X4 is being discontinued. The SUV coupe phase is over, which is unfortunate for Genesis who just put one on sale. Audi for some reason wants to hang in there with the Sportback's but their lineup is way bloated.

The Lyric has a weird back end, it is also too long for a 2 row SUV, and the wheels are too big, unless you get the base wheel. The proportions are just off, the Vistiq and Optiq look a little more like traditional SUVs and I think if you want to sell EV's it needs to look like a traditional car and not some funky futuristic thing that is different for the sake of being different. Also why Mercedes need to throw the EQ line in the trash which they are doing and they have an Electric G-wagon and their path to success is take the S-class body, the E-class body, etc and just drop it on the EV platform and call it a day. Cadillac's ICE lineup outside of the Escalade isn't competitive at all, they can scrap all that crap and push to EV.

I think Elon going full MAGA will probably drive away some of his former customers, plus there are so many other options coming on the market, and the Model Y is dated, although likely getting a refresh in 2025, but even the Model 3 is basically 7 years old, with just 1 refresh on it. And if you take away the tax credit, Tesla prices basically go up 15-20%, that will cripple their sales. GM just has to make sure they hit on build quality, and get the battery cost down, so that all these EV's at a least have no price increase in 2025 or 2026 as ICE cars keep getting more expensive so they can get some price parity. And a sub-$30k Bolt could sell like hotcakes because the old one sold well despite being pretty below par for charge speed and battery tech.

It is very bizarre that Trump is anti-EV, yet he partners with Elon. So something has to give, either Elons turns on him or Trump starts pushing EVs. If the $7500 tax credit goes away, I think Tesla is sunk, because they basically have a 15-20% off MSRP sale going on thanks to the government. At full price I think the sales slow down, especially with a stale line up. The problem with the current Cadillacs is Chevy FWD chassis and a Chevy 2.0T or the 3.6 V6 that has had reliability issues, definitely not competitive with the Germans or Lexus. But if you toss that out and have a 500 hp Lyriq, a 615 hp Vistiq, then you start squashing the competition. I am not a huge fan of the styling of the EV Cadillacs, but the XT's looked a bit ungainly with their FWD proportions so these look more modern. Early reviews on this and the Lyric seem to say they have luxury but there are some build quality issues. I think if GM can keep working on getting some cost and weight out of the battery, and get to the 1980 Mercedes or 1990s Lexus school of build quality they can have some winners. Because build quality has historically been where Cadillac falls flat.

What they are missing, is standard range LT that is like $62,500 ($55k after tax credit). I imagine that will come, and they are pushing higher end trims until they can make more batteries. But once you get the price down, I think sales take off. As much as people pay crazy money for pick up trucks, you can't survive on the $80-90k stuff.