Drew Dowdell
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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell
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On the supercharger thing - He should have just upped the cost of the car to cover the fee.. Yes it costs money, but making a separate transaction means it can't be rolled into lease payments/financing. It's not that it matters though, so few bought those low end models anyway. -
Gull Wing Doors - how many months/years of delay due to this single feature? Not allowing early adopters of the lower end models access to the supercharger network without an additional $10k fee for a software update. Picking fights with state legislatures and regulators instead of trying to work with them. Over promising on the battery swap idea and then under delivering (one battery swap location, never open) Some of the early model product mix wasn't very good, the low end models were price leaders that no one wanted to buy (obviously why they were canceled) Spending money to develop the zombie mode chemical warfare resistance stuff.... that was money poorly spent. Spending money developing ludicrous speed rather than greater range.
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Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
Oh you're moving the goal posts again? First your issue was that Cadillac was using a Chevy platform... now that Cadillac gets platforms first and then lets the other brands in a few years later, that's still a problem? You love to cite the 3-series as the biggest seller in its class.... that's the reason Cadillac wants to build lightweight world class chassis with 4-cylinder turbos. If you're referring to the CT6, there are no less than 4 other powertrains for the CT6 in production or on the way soon. -
I don't think they need Fiat or Alfa.... but as long as Serg is at the helm, those two brands are untouchable. Chrysler (the brand) is a lot healthier than you give them credit for SMK. They might even outsell the entire VW brand in the US this year... and with only 3 vehicles in their lineup. Chrysler needs to be Buick but with a broader range of product. Premium cars without going all the way to Cadillac/Benz level. They are so close to being able to do this with the cars they have now.... better interiors and upgraded powertrains would be all it takes. Dodge can handle the family car business. Ram and Jeep have their respective niches. Let Maserati handle the luxury end as it has more brand recognition than Alfa.
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No.. not just what he has said... I'm pretty certain that a number of the questionable product decisions Tesla has made originate from the CEO's chair. A lot of good decisions come from that chair too... but the bad ones are ones that potentially put the company at when it doesn't have to be like that.... ... and that's just douchey.
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Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
The XT5 is on an all new platform, and for now it is unique to Cadillac. -
We've all seen car crash tests, so here is a video of locomotive crash tests. Turn your volume down if you don't wish to hear cheesy disco music These locomotive crash tests were performed in the 1980s after a series of fatal (to the engineer) crashes. The DOT wanted to see how different cab designs reacted in various crash scenarios. They were also testing for something called "climbing"... that is when the impacting vehicle climbs up and over the impacted vehicle. one of the results of these tests where the "safety cabs" we see on virtually all modern freight locomotives. Apparently it made such a difference to the safety of the crew, that when older locomotives go in for a major rebuild, they have their cabs converted to the new style. A comfort cab loco: A Spartan Cab loco
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EnergyDrinks can be very addictive if you use them too much. They can put you into a cycle where you need them to function. This applies to coffee as well, but at a lower level.
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Elon is a gigantic douche.... I like Tesla but can acknowledge that fact. In fact, I think Elon is probably Tesla's biggest liability, period..... but that doesn't mean I want the whole company to fail just to punish him. The CEO of Uber is a gigantic douche too, but I still use the service.
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Okay people... enough with the personal back and forth...
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Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
Minus the Bolt battery pack, that's called the Cadillac PHEV system. Coming to a Cadillac CT6 near you. -
Cadillac News: Cadillac Faces A Conundrum With the Escalade
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in Cadillac
Oh good, Johan is going to start tinkering with the Escalade formula.... no way ANYTHING could go wrong there. BTW, NONE of the competition is particularly nimble either in spite of being smaller. I've always found the GM SUVs to drive smaller than they really are. And really, they are selling every Escalade they can build for $20k more than they sold the last one. That's what is called a success. If Johan wants to sell it in other markets, give it a decent diesel or a PHEV or both. -
Yes. They already have the "rugged" version in the Renegade. There is the Italian connection in the 500x. But I couldn't sell either of them to my partner as he likes the more luxury feel of the Encore. It would be a good fit for Chrysler I think and it is the hottest growth segment right now.
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A Chrysler 100 as an Encore/Trax competitor leaning on the luxury side of things rather than the Off-Road side like the Renegade would probably be a better move than a Chrysler Dart.
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It's the commoditization that Serg wishes he had.
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So how do you explain that in 2014, US sales of Hybrids were a combined total of 507,272 sold. Here is the official GOV link showing Hybrid sales all the way back to 1999 when only 17 were sold. 2000 9,350 were sold, 20,282 in 2001 were sold. I am sure an auto maker would love to have that large sales increase for a model. Now over half a million units sold in 2014. http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_19.html Notice that from 1999 to 2003 this was I believe all Toyota, no one else. Then in 2004 you have domestic and imports listed. Honda would have to be in that 1999 - 2003 total as well.... they actually beat Toyota to market with a Hybrid very slightly.
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I dunno man... that sounds like total car failure to me.... better call Consumer Reports. I'm just saying. There's a fine distinction between hand-crafted and homemade. and I'm just saying that a single component failure is not a whole system failure..... even if the manufacturer decides to replace the whole system to get you back on the road faster
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Nice purchase! I approve!
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See, this is the kind of post I was trying to elucidate. But don't Prius buyers hold on to their vehicles until the battery has completely rotted? And yeah, I agree, tech does need to go forward. But still the point remains. GM can claim the FE advantage all they want for this hybrid. But it'll be quite naive to believe that just the increase in FE is all that's worth considering - because the intention there is very much to tout the frugality. Once you go down that road, like I said, people should really be indifferent towards the efficiency ratings. Buy what they want, don't buy the ratings. I don't think there is any one type of Pruis driver. Even still, there are 6,480 listings for a used Pruis under 100k miles, nationwide just on Autotrader.com alone. I think, as hyper was saying, there is a performance element to modern hybrids in cars that have a gas-only version. The most common complaint for hybrids is that they are too slow. The Malibu hybrid will most likely have equal or better scoot than the base 1.5T since it has 21 more horsepower and most likely more torque (I can't find a published torque number for the hybrid), so it's a way to split the performance difference with the 2.0T while rocking the fuel economy.
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There are people who do buy hybrids and this technology is needed going forward. Not everyone buys a hybrid to reduce their total cost to own, indeed usually the best way to reduce total cost to own is to buy a used 4-cylinder from a brand that depreciates quickly. Most new-car hybrid purchases don't make financial sense if the sole goal is to save money. That doesn't mean that people won't buy them. The Pruis has never offered a financial benefit over a Corolla, but Toyota has sold the snot out of them.
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I dunno man... that sounds like total car failure to me.... better call Consumer Reports.
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Even the old eAssist was a step up from the base 4-cylinder in performance. It had an extra grunt at low RPM that the regular Ecotec didn't. With more powerful electronics in this Hybrid, I expect it will be an even larger distinction.
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Good lord, do you remember that one Volt that caught fire? The headlines from that one... yes it caught fire..... after it was test crashed, the batteries left connected, and then parked it for three weeks.... THEN it caught fire. But there was much hay being made over that one as well. Yes but even you have to admit Tesla has been given a pretty good margin of error over the other companies in the past and present. Not as much fun beating an upstart before the masses as vs. the large cooperate entities. I just think fewer people care at this point because so few people actually own a Tesla.
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Let me put it another way: If, for customer satisfaction reasons, GM started swapping out the entire engine in Lambdas where the Check Engine Light came on warning of timing chain stretching, and all of those instances were counted as a total power train failure in headlines like this instead of what they really are, wouldn't you cry foul? I think you would.
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Good lord, do you remember that one Volt that caught fire? The headlines from that one... yes it caught fire..... after it was test crashed, the batteries left connected, and then parked it for three weeks.... THEN it caught fire. But there was much hay being made over that one as well.
