frogger

28 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

Buick is barely alive.

SAAB is dead.

Porsche is creating CUVs to chase volume, and peddling those CUVs to the world's LEAST interested in any kind of enthusiast criteria and while their turbo 911 is one of the world's most capable and fun cars around, it means little when Porsche's image now is all about cup holder ergonomics and rich  bitch, entitled whiny white female -Karens- (as opposed to their lesser priced VW and Audi counterparts that cater to entitled whiny white bitch female -Karens-)  

So...not too well as it may. 

 

 

Wow, forgot to take your pills?  Such a stupid post or I missed the tongue in cheek.  Just live to stereotype don't you..

1 hour ago, riviera74 said:

How are the sales numbers? Is Tesla taking market share from other automakers?  Stock prices can be based on hype.  Actual sales numbers (especially car registrations) are NOT.

Well as the Model 3 came to market both the 3 series and C Class sales shrunk by 50% or so in the US (you could also partially blame that on the CUV craze), but the Model 3 is not a CUV and it outsells the 3 and C Class combined by a fair margin.

3 hours ago, dfelt said:

Very interesting 2020 report by JD Powers and Associates. I know many love Mazda, but the Mazda is not well rated and in fact the CX-5 is rated at the bottom as the One CUV to avoid due to poor quality.

 

But the report has Mazda being above average in the dependability survey.. I see no mention of the CX5 individually on the link.  Somewhere else perhaps?  I find JD Power's rankings pretty odd.. Buick and Chevy being so much higher rated than GMC currently.  Even twenty years ago when Buick was just a lightly disguised Chevy/Pontiac/Oldsmobile with a softer suspension  and slightly changed body panels from the same production facility it was so much higher rated.

Was driving behind a Taycan for a bit yesterday evening, a 911 Turbo S drove past going the opposite direction, turned around and caught up to us for a closer look.

Has some heft/presence on the road with a large front end for these times, definitely room for a smaller model in their lineup.

12 minutes ago, balthazar said:

I have the Car & Driver review of the '82 Cimarron vs. the 3-series and (IIRC) a Volvo, and it was well received, esp vs the craptastic BMW. I know it's not the popular narrative, and we're all about conforming to the popular narrative / meme nowadays, but the ink on that one hasn't fade yet.

Let's see it!  Take a picture or use a scanning app...  C&D doesn't seem to look back on it too fondly.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g15378902/black-sheep-embarrassing-offspring-from-otherwise-upstanding-automotive-families/?slide=12

The days of BMW doing simple RWD sport sedans with a bit of luxury are over because everyone wants faster numbers.. more HP, lower 0-60, more ultimate grip.  Everything is digital now for all mfgs, it is a lot easier to drive fast without skill with cars basically doing the work for you and removing risk with torque vectoring AWD systems and nannies, but the connection to the road for the driver is gone, whether sedans, CUVs or even sports cars.   BMW is doing very well regardless, their sales went up in 2019 and USA is not their core market, it is less than 20% of their sales.  Just because they don't build what they used to and you romanticize but bought something that wasn't anything like them doesn't really matter, the market has spoken.

Oh and  an Acura fan poking fun at BMW Infotainment is priceless..

I don't see where Oldsmobile fits and would have enough sales to be around still.  Do we really need more 1.5t, 2.0t and 3.6L CUV's from GM? 

They are doing enough to survive, but competition is far greater these days compared to their heyday of the 90s and early 2k.  Tesla has eaten up a lot of that market of entry lux vehicles with the 3 and Y, Porsche is no longer just a sports car company, Koreans are moving upmarket and investing a lot of coin attempting to do so.

Yeah 500hp and probably almost 50% more expensive except for Tesla, and projecting a 100% douchebag image driving one.

Mafia

10 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Hey, just saw this, did not realize Mazda is coming back to the truck market. It is an Isuzu based truck and will have a turbo diesel along with gas that @ocnblu should like.

https://www.motor1.com/news/428154/2021-mazda-bt50-teaser/

Seems that the BT-50 is sold in international markets (Australia from what I can tell), and this is just the next generation.  Doesn't seem to indicate it will be coming to the US.

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

WOW 😵 https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-coronavirus-cases-world-map/ 

I was thinking developing densely populated countries with areas of mass poverty like India and Pakistan would fail to control the spread the most.

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

Are you finding that you are o.k. with masks?

I now have 3 boxes of them (2 with 10 and 1 with 50) and am still working on the first box.  The supermarkets and drug stores are now pushing them.  And, I still have bandannas. 

Are you finding that you are o.k. with hand sanitizer?

I now have small bottles in each room which I accumulated as I checked out of grocery stores.

I have disinfectant wipes in the bathrooms and in the console of my car, not to mention my travel bag.

And, I have 2 mini bottles that are meant for a backpack or whatever, one of which was given to me free as a courtesy when picking up some office supplies.

How supply and demand have changed in one month!

I'm not going to retail places often, my wife goes to the regular grocery store and Korean grocery store once a week each, and I go to the bakery and fruit/veggie market each week.  Other than that a couple times to garden centres and hardware stores over the last few months.  So we are not using our masks much, just making do with reusable multi-layer cloth ones.    They are not that comfy outdoors now with the heat, should probably get some disposables.  I carry a small hand sanitizer with me on my walks to the stores, not much of a shortage of those around here any longer either.  We put a soap pump outside next to the hose bib to wash our hands before going in the house.  We try to be careful with my inlaws isolating with us in our home during this period.

My wife works at a hospital and is given two disposable masks a day to use there.

My colleague had a RAV4 rental late last year, I'm guessing it was the base model, it was really meh inside, enough so that he preferred his Jeep Cherokee (and he doesn't really like his Cherokee).  Upper trim levels are nicer and the hybrid is quieter/more powerful but wife preferred the Outback as it drives closer to a traditional midsize car.

29 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

I would have liked to see interior pics since that is where the real experience is.  I do wish that the Envision came with a V6 but emissions requirements and displacement taxes in China make that almost impossible.

Hopefully it is good.. To me the exterior looks nicer than the XT4/Cadillac's CUV design language.

Cadillac just needs to be more interesting in general aside from the Escalade, everything else seems so unambitious, content to blend in, especially their interiors and CUVs.  Forget about having a halo performance car at this point.  I don't see the NSX doing anything great for Acura..

1 minute ago, ykX said:

Once you rode NYC subway system, I think you can pretty much handle any other subway in the world

Haha maybe true, was supposed to bring the family there this August, haven't been in almost 10 years, but obviously not happening..  Not sure how I would handle some of the more crowded spots like Tokyo rush hours.  I guess India's rail transit is above ground so it doesn't count.

Love that they have kept the climate control (and hopefully seat heat/ventilation?) controls outside of the touch screen.  Red seats would be a bit too obnoxious for me.  Given the price similarity I wonder how this compares to the Blazer.

1 hour ago, oldshurst442 said:

I rode on it twice. Once on my honeymoon in 2003 and the other time was 2 years ago.  That would be two times more than on Montreal's subway system in that same timeframe. ( Which is the same system as we both use France's system)

Montreal's subway network is quite safe as compared to other places in the world, but Ive heard that its not as safe as it once was. From the late 1960s all the way to the late 1990s it was a dream riding on it.  Since the turn of the new millennium, Montreal's subway has also become a crime "not quite infested" but not far off experience.  Maybe Im exaggerating for Montreal, but its definetely more seedy than it ever was. 

I've been on the Montreal system dozens of times the last 5 years, never felt unsafe.  Like any big city on the streets and within the trains/platforms you see the occasional mentally ill person acting out. I'm there with kids so I cannot speak for what it might be like late night with the club goers etc.

Looks much better but still made in China, kind of a deal breaker no?  When it is so easy to purchase a vehicle  made elsewhere.

There are like a dozen active members here, you will have better luck here https://www.ascentforums.com/forums/towing.127/

10 hours ago, daves87rs said:

All this talk about going places.... I really want to go camping!!!! 🙂 

Ontario has opened up backcountry camp sites but that is it so far given the washrooms at car camping places could be an issue.

23 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Very true, as one that went to college at Kobe University, I have spent much time in Tokyo and this is true of the whole country, people are raised to not impose their choices of music, auto noise, etc. on others around them and as such you do have traditional city noise without all the extraneous noise of music, open pipe auto's exhausts, etc.

I haven't been but it is right up there on my bucket list to spend a few months. I do enjoy watching travel videos on youtube sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLAwF-SG0S-66r3VaUPDI59RmZ24uH0GU

58 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Very exciting to see that the future will have quiet zero emission delivery vans in cities and urban areas. Should help with clean air as well as just keeping things quiet.

Right now it is so noisy with all the diesel UPS and FedEx vans moving around to deliver everything due to the pandemic.

I think a lot of it is cultural with respect to how much people use their horns and just being obnoxiously loud too with their car radios or conversations etc..   Tokyo is very quiet for a city of almost 40 million people, amazing.