Drew Dowdell

The Escalade would be my DD, but I get your point. No, I don't care that the G-Wagon can go pining for the fjords.... The amount of off-roading I do even my CR-V can handle.

There aren't squeaks and rattles because you can tighten everything up with a penknife every time you stop for gas. I don't blame MB for selling these.... if they can get suckers to buy them for $110k+, more power to them. But don't let's hold the G-Wagon up as some marvel of engineering. John Deeres run forever also. Hahah! We posted the same pics at the same time. Here's the whole thread for those who are interested. Mercedes G-Class quality

I only picked Lordstown because only the Cruze is there and there is a good half of that plant just sitting dark or as warehouse space. D-Ham I believe GM has plans for.

Pick a goal post and stick with it. You're all over the map SMK! We get it, you think that no matter what GM does, Mercedes does it better, and you'll make up every excuse or strawman argument in the book when you're shown to be wrong.

ATS and CTS are on the same platform. Transmissions, engines, shared up and down the line... you can get the same powertrain ATS, CTS, CT6. The transmission is the 8L45 which is a light duty version of the 8L90 which is used in all of the 1500 series trucks, and Canyonado , plus the ATS-V and CTS-V. The 2.0T is used in lots of stuff, so is the 3.6. The only engines that haven't been borrowed from Cadillac yet are the 3.0T and 3.6T. The AWD system in the XT5 is the same twin-clutch system in the Lacrosse and Acadia All-Terrain, it's made by a third party, and also used in the Focus RS plus a few other brands, no worries about economies of scale there. Your prediction that FWD based crossovers will die off is wrong. Mercedes, BMW, and Infiniti just added to the count. As @surreal1272 warned you, be careful where you move those goalposts to. Mercedes builds vinyl laden taxis and for years built silly little things like the A-Class and B-Class.

Our CR-V has it. The big GM SUVs have it too Ironically, the EcoSport debuted before the Trax, just not in the US. It was a Euro only model. The new XC90 and XC60 do not

GM has two luxury brands in China... GM still outsells Mercedes there. I'm talking about the economies of scale of the 3.6 V6, CUE (most of the underlying programming is identical to Mylink and IntelliLink), transmissions and stuff. That GM 8-speed and 9-speed are going into everything. A lot of the innards that drivers never see are shared with 3 other crossovers with more to come.

You're the one who insists that RWD sells crossovers.... Well why aren't the RWD crossovers selling? None of the Germans can outsell the Cadillac with a single model. The RX is more than double any German on the list. The RX nearly outsell the X5, GLE, and Q5 combined if you're comparing size. It does outsell the GLC, Q3, and X3 combined if you're comparing price. Conclusion: Either way you slice it, your assertion about RWD and crossovers is flat wrong and has been for more than a decade. I wouldn't make any bets on profitability. Benz and Volvo may make a couple >$100k sales, but that is not going to make up for the vast economies of scale that the Lexus and Cadillac have.

Well yeah. Circular justification. I can't pull all this trailer without a Super Duty. I paid $70k for a truck, I'm going to get a trailer to match.

Trailers are balanced differently in Europe so smaller cars can get away with it. Here in the US, trailers a larger percentage of weight onto the hitch, that's why cars run out of rating so quickly here.

I think it will stay. They never removed the "no towing" restriction on the Encore, though the Euro one is approved for about 1000 lbs.

You're right, I had forgotten about that.

Move it to Lordstown. It's already way under capacity, and it is already a Delta 3 plant. Having both Lordstown and GM CAMI both building Delta vehicles for North America and with Lordstown only having one model, it was a footprint that never seemed to make much sense.

I read into JDN's words more than the press release. The press release is a finely crafted and edited version releasing only what they want you to know. JDN has a habit of letting slip more than he should have. I'm personal friends with one of the Cadillac PR team, and every time JDN starts posting stuff, I send him a text (Your boss is tweeting/posting/chatting again....) He's had to field questions from journalists when JDN reveals more than he should. The 4.0T V8 was one such example.

Not necessarily. Audi A5, BMW 430i, Mercedes-Benz C300 coupe, Infiniti Q60, Cadillac ATS coupe, Jaguar F-Type (I know it's a 2 seater, but still) all have 2.0Ts for the bulk of their lineup.

I've really wondered why they haven't used that platform for more vehicles. Could get a high end 2-seater thunderbird (with real power this time), and at least one mid-size Lincoln sedan out of it, Probably a Mark 9 coupe as a Lincoln halo car too.

Check your owner's manual. If you have a rear backup camera, I think the door is able to automatically sense impending doom and stop before it hits your garage roof.

Exactly... but until 2005, Lincoln only had one FWD vehicle, the Continental. The Continental has been front drive since '88 and platform shared with the mass-market large/midsize Ford since 1970.

About which vehicle? The Honda or the Ford? If it's the Honda.... my overall opinion of it hasn't changed, but I have to admit it got me from Pittsburgh to Florida and back with zero issues. I do like the swing out door and wish more Crossovers offered them. The killer app would be a GM wagon style two piece hatch that could swing out or turn into a tailgate. I'd love to see that concept on a modern crossover.

Unfortunately, I have to side with @ocnblu here (only the result is unfortunate). That 3rd party tow-bar is for accessory mounts only... i.e. bike racks, cargo carriers, etc. Official GM rating is - "The vehicle is neither designed nor intended to tow a trailer." Source: Chevrolet Bolt EV Owners Manual - Page 246 (PDF warning)

Even Volvo is within spitting distance of some of the German competitors... XC60 - 2,218 - This is the old out of production one, just 700 units away from the X3, they did sell 303 of the just arriving new XC60 which means they are just 397 units away from BMW in the segment... *gasp* and they're front wheel drive! *clutches pearls* The interior of the new XC60 is so fantastic that BMW needs to be worried here. XC90 - 2,869 - Only 210 units away from beating the BMW X5 and within targeting distance of the GLE, less than 1,000 units delta.

Fixed that for you. Cadillac XT5 - 7,236 BMW X3 - 2,918 BMW X5 - 3,079 Audi Q3 - 1,861 Audi Q5 - 4,767 Mercedes - GLC - 4,498 Mercedes - GLE - 3,750 Lexus RX - 10,391 Acura RDX - 4,679 Acura MDX - 4,532 (I'm actually curious about this one, the MDX and XT5 have flipped for 2nd place a few months recently) Infiniti QX60 - 3,697 (the FWD one) Infiniti QX70 - 454 (the RWD one) TL:DR - It takes 2 BMW models (3 if you count the X4) to still not beat a single Cadillac model in sales. It takes two Benz models to beat Cadillac and not beat Lexus or Acura. If you were Mary Barra, the choice is beyond obvious. Crossover buyers don't care about RWD/FWD... because they order them AWD. And Cindy McMansion isn't concerned about Nurburgring like handling while she is driving around to the various open houses she has this weekend.

One of the few things I like about our '04 CR-V is the more convenient swing out tailgate.

We already know the XTS is a dead horse, so why do you continue to beat it?

indeed, that was great!