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Drew Dowdell

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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    After 2010, Alfa had two mainstream models, the MiTo a Scion iQ/VW Up competitor and the Giulietta, basically a Dodge Dart hatchback. I don't know how Serg expects to get from there to 400,000 units total. Even if the Giulia does well and they sell 50,000 in the first year (a number which would beat last year's ATS sales by a wide margin) Where do the other 250,000 units come from? Bring the hatchback only Giulietta over? One of the best selling hatchbacks is the Mazda3 which sold 104k last years, but only a portion of that number is actually a 5-door. Figure 50%? So if they brought it over and somehow beat Impreza (59k) Golf (34K) A3 (22k) in sales.... they get what, another 50k sales? They sell about 60k Giuliaettes in the EU... so we're now up to 160k? Where does the rest come from? Can Serg double those numbers in China? Can Serg even build that many?
  2. Drew Dowdell
    I'd like to see them do a new I-6 and maybe turbo it for a Supra.
  3. Drew Dowdell
    You're probably seeing the TDIs
  4. Drew Dowdell
    Nice! I love my Oldsmobiles when they suck lemons.
  5. Drew Dowdell
    Funny.... GM and Chrysler can do 700hp in a manual, wonder why BMW can't manage it.
  6. Drew Dowdell
    The problem for Sergio is that you don't just "wish" platforms and capacity into existence. Platforms aren't an app you can download. I am intrigued about the new Giulia platform, where it comes from and where it is going. Sergio figures that Alfa is going to be a BMW competitor, but with what models? He's not going to do it by sharing the Dart platform... he might get away with an Alfa suv on the Jeep GC platform, but that would be a stretch. So either this new Giulia platform can be sized down to 2-series sized and sized up to 6-series sized, or Sergio is dreaming.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    eh... sales are twice that of camaro because camaro is at the end of its current run.
  8. Drew Dowdell
    Bill's stance is typically that any time a hybrid model is taken off the market, it is proof that all/any electrification is bad. That isn't the case. As with nearly all vehicles, poor execution and poor marketing and poor company management is typically the cause. The Pathfinder Hybrid going off the market is no more an indictment of electrification than the HHR going off the market is an indictment of small wagons.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    I think the long and short of it is that June was a really weird month for most manufacturers.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    Dodge's smaller SUV is the Journey. They move about 100k of them a year... about the same as the Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento individually.
  11. Drew Dowdell
    No he doesn't. He needs a lot of money to save Alfa and Fiat brands. The problem for FCA is that to Serg, Fiat and Alfa are not able to be sacrificed for the good of the company. Alfa should have died once there was not a replacement for the 159. During the unpleasantness after 2008, lots of people wrote that Fiat saved Chrysler. But these days, I'm wondering if the reverse was actually true.
  12. Drew Dowdell
    Chrysler doesn't need to be class leading, just class "keeping up" and in that regard, they're doing fine. Heck, even the Journey is still selling well. 200 sales are increasing. Durango is selling fantastic. Jeep is going well.
  13. Drew Dowdell
    It proves nothing beyond the fact that products that aren't marketed don't sell. Nissan announced these and then never spoke of them again.. .even a bunch of us in the industry had forgotten they even existed.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    Oh that's sneaky splitting out 3/4 sales instead of including them together like before.
  15. Drew Dowdell
    I'll only have "after work" time... so figure leaving downtown Calgary around 5pm.
  16. Drew Dowdell
    F-150 supply constraints.
  17. Drew Dowdell
    that would be an achievement as Mustang hasn't exceeded Camaro consistently for many years, however, it is a partial year for Camaro this year, so this will likely be Ford's only chance to do it easily.
  18. Drew Dowdell
    Thanks! I'll take a look. I love the mountains.
  19. Drew Dowdell
    no one even notice them until they were gone.
  20. Drew Dowdell
    I see that they were out of production for a bit... but I still feel that they've fallen too far behind. Aside from some minor visual updates, it is an 8 year old vehicle now.
  21. Drew Dowdell
    Oh... dunno where that is. I'll be spending a week in Calgary in August for work. I'm in the energy industry too for my day job, but I think different segment. (though we do have drilling operations in Alberta I believe)
  22. Drew Dowdell
    My guess is that the Fiat 500X will be the first of the Fiats to really make it big in the US. It checks all the right boxes and it is in the right place at the right time in the hot new mini-crossover segment. It won't get the sales of its Renegade brother, but it will do better than any Fiat before it.
  23. Drew Dowdell
    Are you in Calgary?
  24. Drew Dowdell
    All trucks move on incentives. Ford and GM are both known for having truck incentives. GMC is offering over $8k off certain Sierra configurations. Ford is offering $6k back on certain F-150 models. Ram having incentives is just the nature of the business. I don't expect the Mini-van to regain its past glory, but the current FCA vans have fallen too far behind and sales reflect that. Caravan is down 49% for the year and T&C is down 44% for the year. That is a big drop... too big. The LX models are not ghastly overweight. Chrysler 300 V6 - 4,029, Dodge Charger V6 - 3,934, Dodge Charger V8 - 4,264 - Hyundai Genesis V6 - 4,138, Chevrolet Impala V6 - 3,800, Buick Lacrosse V6 - 3,988, Chevrolet SS - 3,975 (for comparison purposes), Lincoln MKS - 4,204, Ford Taurus - 3,917, Toyota Avalon - 3,505 (however, I think Toyota took it too far, the latest Avalon doesn't isolate noise like the old one or the others in this class). The LX cars' weight are on par for their class and in most cases, the LX cars beat the competition on fuel economy when comparing engines in the same class. I've driven all of the cars in this list extensively and only the Avalon can even match the LX V6 cars on fuel economy. A while back one of the Buick PR people was bragging on Facebook about his LaCrosse V6 rental got him 30mpg. If I was in an LX car, I would have to check to see if the parking brake was stuck if I got that kind of mileage, 33 - 35mpg is the norm on the highway in the LX cars... I've done it many times in many locations. I agree you that the Dart has been left for dead. They need to MCE it soon. However, the Chrysler 200 seems to have finally gained traction. I've driven a number of the FWD vehicles with the 9-speed auto and they finally seem to have the 9-speed auto figured out, but I think they still need to work on throttle control. I feel that Sergio is FCA's biggest liability. Period. His ego and his pet projects are what going to hurt the whole organization. Alfa is a "nice to have" but not a necessity for paying the bills... but he'll sacrifice the entire organization to save Alfa and Fiat.
  25. Drew Dowdell
    I get that way on the months where we don't have an extended weekend for a holiday or something. It is amazing what a 3 day weekend will do mentally. Not just the time off but just having something to look forward to that isn't the same. For instance, this weekend. I'm so stoked for it..yet I have nothing planned or anything.. just won't be working. lol My day job has been taking advantage of me for a couple years now and I am so pinned down by them I don't have much time or energy to make a change.
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