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Drew Dowdell

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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    True, but one has to remember to think globally. Dodge never had much of a market outside of North America. Chrysler has been in Europe, they sell an oddly high number of Town and Country minivans there. It's just about the most common North American built, US branded vehicle I see there. Jeep is in China, neither Chrysler nor Dodge are. They could, and already have plans to send Chrysler to China starting next year. Chrysler will be priced and positioned like Buick. Under Geely, they'd keep the Pacifica. 300 and 200 go on SPA as Lacrosse and Regal competitors. Add a crossover or 3 and the lineup is pretty full for both China and US. SPA was designed from the start to be a plug-in hybrid, so it would go over well with China's electric car goals. No need to bring Dodge as a brand over to China, Geely is already an established brand, so just swap badges on which ever cars get shipped whichever direction. Dodge US could use some lower cost platform shared with Geely for the smaller stuff and the Volvo SPA for the Durango. Charger and Challenger would get axed under this scenario. Replacements for Dart, Avenger, Journey, and Nitro (FWD) could come from Geely. This also gets Geely into the South America market via a reputable brand. RAM and Jeep just keep on keepin on. JGC would probably need to move to SPA, just let the Americans make it trail rated. They'd eventually have to replace the Fiat based Jeeps, but they'd have 5 or 6 years to get that done. It's not impossible to imagine Volvo's new factory spitting out S90s, 300c, Durango and JGCs. *Sorry if I'm rambling, hardly slept this week*
  2. Drew Dowdell
    That still doesn't give it a sustainable business model. Even Rolls Royce moves 4,000 cars a year.
  3. Drew Dowdell
    From my understanding Frankfurt is among the most expensive of all of the shows. I haven't been yet, but there is huge competition to out-do each other with their displays. Mercedes usually has an entire hall to themselves.
  4. Drew Dowdell
    They have to build the hybrid system for the lesser cars anyway. Building a hyper-super-duper car doesn't add any significant economies of scale.
  5. Drew Dowdell
    Only if you take a match to it.
  6. Drew Dowdell
    But the pushrods! They'll sell like 12 of those hypercars.... it's not a business model.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    And a pre-built dealership network.
  8. Drew Dowdell
    So what if there is overlap among brands? For years, my preference in GM truck styling has alternated between GMC and Chevrolet as each generation comes out. If I don't like the looks of the Ford... say if I was in the Super Duty market around 2008....what other Ford product could I buy? The current generation of GM trucks is the only one in the last few generations where I actually like both the Chevy (Only in Z71 trim, I don't like the non-Z71 grille) and GMC. Same goes for Equinox / Terrain / Envision. These three can overlap substantially on price, yet only 1 of them really has any chance with me. Can't do that at Ford, Toyota, or Honda.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    I'm going to have to disagree with you here primarily because the entire industry is heading to a completely hybrid/EV lineup. If your only choices are a Benz hybrid, BMW Hybrid, Volvo Hybrid, and Cadillac Hybrid, you're not going to stop your years of Benz buying just because they now only sell hybrids. Edit: Also Balth, to be fair, the S550E went out of production late last year and is being reintroduced after being refreshed late this year. It's not even currently listed on Benz's website. So first half 2017 sales figures aren't indicative of take rate.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    The strangest possible part of the whole deal is that Jeep alone is supposed to be valued more than all 4 brands combined.... which means that investors see Chrysler, Dodge, and possibly Ram as negative value. Whatever company buys them is not going to be able to ax the other brands and rebuild the new network, but they will have to fill those brands with new product. Sadly, at this point, any leadership would be better than the leadership FCA currently has. China may be Dodge and Chrysler's only hope. If one needs an example of it actually working out well, all one needs to do is look at Volvo. This is why I was surprised by Geely saying they weren't interested in FCA at this time. A brand lineup of Volvo at the top, Chrysler as mid-premium like Buick, Dodge as the family car, Ram, and Jeep could actually work. Volvo has a fantastic, flexible new platform (One of the best on the market at the moment IMHO) in SPA that could conceivably be used for Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep. Chrysler could go to China as a Buick competitor, Jeep is already there, ProMasters and City could be rebadged into Geely or Jeep for China. When you start looking across the lineups, picturing the replacements using SPA and filling in some of the current gaps, a Geely - Chrysler Group merger actually makes sense.
  11. Drew Dowdell
    Well that's already the case. FCA is reportedly working on a twin-turbo version of the pentastar V6 and even a hybrid 4-cylinder for the Ram and possibly Wrangler.
  12. Drew Dowdell
    Until FCA US gets sold...then all that is thrown out.
  13. Drew Dowdell
    Electrified does not mean EV. Electrified does not mean EV. Electrified does not mean EV. Electrified does not mean EV.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    Irrelevant. People don't accelerate at full throttle. The V6 will feel less labored than the 2.0t
  15. Drew Dowdell
    Makes me wonder what was still in the Opel pipeline far enough along that it will still be GM related. Also: Insignia platform + Edge sized = GMC Acadia. The C platform (Acadia) is the crossover variant of the E platform (Insignia).
  16. Drew Dowdell
    Again, JDN was very careful to use the word sedan.
  17. Drew Dowdell
    Bronco will be smaller than this.
  18. Drew Dowdell
    Correct.
  19. Drew Dowdell
    GM as a whole has been terrible on pricing lately. They just aren't competitive on price. The Traverse is a fine piece, but families shop on cost. Dip your toe just slightly out of the base model and the price shoots up drastically. Just adding leather forces you into the LT at $42k. Ford gets you there for $38k in an Explorer. Hyundai for $35k, Honda for $36k. I see Acadias over $40k with cloth seats. That said, GM will really punish you if you want more power, when it's even available. A 2.0T in a Malibu forces you into an option package priced at $31k. At Ford, the 2.0T is a $1,750 option on the SE model. You can already see above about the Camaro. Want an Envision with the 2.0T instead of the dog 2.5? Base price jumps from $34k to $43k. How about a nice CTS with a 3.6 instead of a 2.0T? That'll be an extra $8k please. $9,400 if you try the same jump in an ATS. Now a lot of those jumps involve multiple trim level climbs, forcing you into high option vehicles just to get a higher powered engine. I realize that poverty spec trims shouldn't have the higher power engine available, but being forced to jump from the base model to the Premium Luxury trim just to get a V6 is asinine.
  20. Drew Dowdell
    Interesting with the 3rd row delete.
  21. Drew Dowdell
    It's funny that you used that particular concept for the article picture @William Maley since it looks like a bunch of Hyundai designers snuck into the Peugeot / Citroen design studios after a party one night.
  22. Drew Dowdell
    You coulda just gone to the Nissan dealership.. Apparently "The Best or Nissan" works for both Chevy and Benz.
  23. Drew Dowdell
    Have we met? I'll make a sporty/sports car list for another 5, in no particular order 1. 1998 Eagle Talon TSi AWD 2.0T 2. 1999 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 3. 2017 Mustang Convertible Ecoboost 4. 2017 Mercedes SLC AMG 5. Porsche 911 Targa 4S
  24. Drew Dowdell
    This is true even in an EV with a regenerator. Eventually, the regenerators are going to get smaller and of different configuration. It will just be something that sits on the skateboard.
  25. Drew Dowdell
    Don't restrict cylinder counts on that one, I've got a lot of good ones up my sleeve.
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