Drew Dowdell

The Platinum and Titanium edition Fords are just what Mercury should have been if you also included a grille swap. The problem for Mercury was that it wasn't even that. You could get the same exact car with a different grille at both the Ford dealer and L-M dealer. The last gasp for Mercury was the special edition Milan with special leather stitching. I liked the Mercuries.... I thought they were more handsome than their Ford counterparts... but premium vehicles they were not (over their Ford counterparts). Even on the rental lot, I'll pick a Lacrosse every day over either the MKS or MKZ.

No. That is not my only argument and I have given the reasons already, as have several other posters. Oh, and you should do the leg work since you are the one making the assertion that they do compete. The burden of that proof is clearly not on me. Funny how you just focus on me now when others like hyper6 have debunked you in great detail as well. Notice, as well, that no one is backing up your assertion. Well then this is where we will disagree again. Mercury used to compete with Buick, and once Ford eliminated Mercury as part of their global simplification plan, and even upped the ante with higher levels of luxury features shared in their volume brand both here in NA and even globally as well, and even stated as much many times in the past…..I see no reason to prove to YOU what seems to be well known industry wide. The burden then, is on YOU. You disagree, so just give me one simple fact that suggests as much. You can’t. Only your opinion. Fine. I am OK with that. Mercury hasn't competed with Buick since the late 70's at best. Once the big Cougar and big Marquis died, Mercury was little more than a Ford re-grille. Even though Buick played in the some of the same size segments, pretty much all of their cars from the Regal on up were higher end vehicles compared to their Mercery counterparts of similar size. Even the Skyhawk was considered a premium compact and was substantially restyled apart from the Cavalier where the Lynx was just an Escort for L-M dealers to sell. In the '80s, the Cougar was Mercury's best effort to differentiate themselves from the Ford mothership and did that job reasonably well. Buick's higher end models in the 1980s were competing with Lincoln. Riviera v. Mark series. Electra/Park Ave v. Continental/Town Car. Even the Toronado and Ninety-Eight models played in Lincoln's sandbox a bit. As time wore on, the distance between Buick and Mercury only increased.

It's well lit.... on rainy days it might actually be lighter in the tunnel than outside.

Shades of General Motors....

The Explorer Platinum being better than the Enclave is more about the under the hood hardware and the extra technology bits. I fully agree that the Enclave needs the option of a more powerful engine and some more of the modern tech bits that the Explorer just gained. However, in terms of a luxury experience, I still think the Enclave does it better with its interior trim, quiet tuning, and luxury feel.

Buick is a tweener right now. They are more than premium Chevy but not quite Cadillac. Buick and Lincoln have some overlap in some key areas. The Enclave and MKX have significant overlap. The Lacrosse and MKS have significant overlap. The MKC and forthcoming Buick Envision will have significant overlap.. .and if Buick builds the Avenir it will have significant overlap with the Continental. Lincoln doesn't play in the smaller end of the market from Regal on down even though there is some price overlap there, the vehicles at Buick are smaller.

I can one-up you. Why do people who are already doing that in the rain... slow down further when they enter a tunnel? The tunnel is 55mph speed limit, they're doing 40 in the rain, and then slow down more when there is no rain!!

Denali is the "Oldsmobile" of the truck market. Premium and luxurious without the pretentiousness of Cadillac. Something the CEO of a small company can buy without alarming shareholders.

I don't think any of those titanium trims exceed Buick where Buick actually has a model to compete with (i.e. there is no point bringing up a Ford F-250 SD Titanium). The titanium trims and platinum trims are nice, but they do not replace much of the interior bits nor do they include the extra luxury feeling that Quiet tuning brings. This is even a noticeable difference between the Buicks and the premium trims from Chevrolet and GMCs. The Enclave feels more luxurious than the Acadia Denali for example. A Ford Fusion Titanium, while nice, is still not to the level of luxury feel as a top line Buick Lacrosse or Regal GS.

No.. As a Buick owner, the LTZ Chevys are not equal to the Buick models. The Encore vs. the Trax is a great example. There is about a $3k difference between those cars and it is reflected well in the content and execution.

The other issue was that apparently airbags have always had a percentage that do not deploy in an accident and the percentage of non-deployments in these cars was not outside of the statistical norm, thus no statistical anomaly to detect.

You're safer in the SMART than the Venture.

I need a pair of binoculars that are high quality yet nicely compact. Suggestions?

It's such a strange series of events that has to happen to cause a fatal crash that it was nearly impossible to foresee it.

The NHTSA is still needed, but their methods and policies need to be overhauled

CAFE doesn't apply to trucks this large I believe.

CUE will continue in Cadillacs, but I have it on excellent authority that it will be getting a substantial upgrade and revision very very soon. (I'm actually expecting the announcement in the next 2 weeks)

You keep repeating this nonsense as if it’s true. Lincoln is not creating some one-off ultra-expensive magical platform that will sweep in and save the day for Lincoln. That does sound like Cadillac’s failed plan, based on sales and the topic of this thread, but it is NOT Lincolns.No, what Ford is creating via improvements in flexible manufacturing, is a platform that is FLEXIBLE to any direction they want to go in, for both brands, to accommodate FWD or RWD. At least that is the Rumor and leave it at that. And that would only be small fraction of the monies allocated for their Phase II development that will propagate over the next 5-6 years. Phase I completed recently with the rollout of the new MKX. Otherwise, believe WTF you want. Let's see if I got this right: -The platform is not "magical" but will apparently support RWD, AWD, and FWD applications. Uh... Sounds vaguely Gandalf-ish to me -Ford is NOT emulating Cadillac's supposed "failed strategy" of trickle-down chassis tech, but this platform will support both Lincoln and Ford products. Golly :/ -Ford is NOT emulating Cadillac's supposed strategy, and you know this based on what you then say "at least that is the rumor and leave it at that." Well, THAT has the ring of authority, right there. -Then, after blowing your whole argument out of the water ALL BY YOURSELF with that "rumor" disclaimer you go on to describe all the (Monopoly?) money Ford is going to spend on PHASE II of the project. Holy. Freaking. Crap. You write some incredibly stupid things. But this may well be the capper. Ford doesn't do it. Yet. :D They don't? You mean to tell me the first EcoBoost was a 1.0l in the Fiesta? or was it in their largest, "fanciest"(I don't consider it fancy but you know it was the top of the line vehicle at the time) Ford Taurus SHO? Then their most popular trucks and now they have the 3.5eb in anything they can cram it in. It is just how every automaker works. Not just GM. I think he was saying it didn't trickle from Lincoln to Ford. At best Lincoln got the 3.5EB at the same time when the MKS Ecoboost came out. GM has been introducing technology in Cadillac first for a while now (and previously also Oldsmobile as it was more of an experimental tech division). The 3.6 V6 started at Cadillac. The Northstar started at Cadillac. Magnetic ride control started at Cadillac. Navigation started at Oldsmobile. Onstar started with Cadillac and Buick.

Fair enough. But let's also look at the flimsiness of his counterargument. There is a huge difference between discussion and semantics. Attack arguments all you want. Back it up with facts and links. That's what we're here for. Personal attacks are off limits.

Don't use the shortened links. It has to be the full youtube.com Either method will work. It looked like you were either using mobile links or using the share links button from inside youtube. To just paste the link, make sure it is the full youtube.com address and not the youtu.be address

This is a topic worthy of discussion and I was going to bring it up myself as well. There is no need for personal attacks just because a member who is a fan of another brand brought it up. Let's move forward keeping this in mind please.

I'm not sure what the Escalade has to do with the 7-Series or CT6's CAFE scores.What I DO know is that GM was producing half-ton pickups that were producing 25mpg highway with port-injected smallblocks and (if memory serves) four-speed automatics. And that was two truck generations ago. They have the tech in hand, it's just that the customers at the time didn't demand it. Overall corporate CAFE score. The Escalade sells really well and that is actually hurting their score. Not like it is going anywhere but they just need to make the big girl drink a little less. Or, make it bigger! No way was GM making a v8 half ton TWO generations ago that was getting 25mpg. With the bragging rights that they would tout in their commercials there is no way they wouldn't utilize it. When gas was $4/gallon down here(US) the consumer didn't want a truck that got 25mpg???? The Avalanche could do 21 - 22 on the highway back with a 6-speed, so I imagine a fairly basic Silverado 1500 V8 could do at least that and probably better. I probably should have clarified that the Silverado/Sierra in question was a hybrid. And it was the second-generation of GM's hybrid tech (they actually kicked things off with a mild hybrid version of the truck previous to that one). Point being: making a 5500-pound Escalade meet CAFE standards is going to be difficult, but quite doable. The Escalade needs to do no such thing. It is a Corporate average.. not per model average. Escalade can go right on being a gas guzzler as long as they sell 3 Volts, a Bolt, and a Sonic or 3 for every one Escalade they sell (the ratios are made up, but you get my point). But even still.. BMW and Mercedes just paid the fine for years and built it into their pricing. With transaction prices on the Escalade up $20,000 or so, GM could add a $500 per vehicle fine to the sticker price and buyers wouldn't even blink.

Don't use the shortened links. It has to be the full youtube.com I try that... but i'm mostly just tired. I tried that approach for years, working hard through college and grad school, the first decade of my career...stayed hungry and strived to achieve. At some point, burnout and exhaustion set in along w cynicism and self loathing and the realization that corporate life is all $h!, just varying degrees of effed up ness at each dysfunctional organization. The challenge is to stay conscious through each day amidst the mind numbing tedium and then knock myself out with powerful meds at night... Well thanks for brightening my day you little ray of sunshine you!

XTSes depreciate rapidly. you can get a certified pre owned one cheap

I'm not sure what the Escalade has to do with the 7-Series or CT6's CAFE scores.What I DO know is that GM was producing half-ton pickups that were producing 25mpg highway with port-injected smallblocks and (if memory serves) four-speed automatics. And that was two truck generations ago. They have the tech in hand, it's just that the customers at the time didn't demand it. Overall corporate CAFE score. The Escalade sells really well and that is actually hurting their score. Not like it is going anywhere but they just need to make the big girl drink a little less. Or, make it bigger! No way was GM making a v8 half ton TWO generations ago that was getting 25mpg. With the bragging rights that they would tout in their commercials there is no way they wouldn't utilize it. When gas was $4/gallon down here(US) the consumer didn't want a truck that got 25mpg???? The Avalanche could do 21 - 22 on the highway back with a 6-speed, so I imagine a fairly basic Silverado 1500 V8 could do at least that and probably better. So you're saying they just went away from fuel economy because people didn't want it when gas was(and still is) $3-$4/a gallon? I know some don't care about gas prices but to think they would have went away from it starting 2 generations ago.. is extremely tough to believe. Also 21-22mpg with a 6 spd isn't quite the same as a 4 spd. Those older 4spds, which were so common for such a long time before 6 was the next 'norm', were all torque converter slip and lot a lot of power through them. And having only 4 forward gears.. no way were those churning out 25mpg at anything above 55mph(not sure when it gots to 4th gear but most seem to be around this point). I didn't say it was rated that way.... GMs and Chryslers tend to beat their EPA ratings pretty easily.