El Kabong
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Everything posted by El Kabong
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I got the feeling the base car will have a few it's available for it's boosted four-banger. Fun thought: 380-ish hp boosted four, six-speed stick, 1LE-spec suspension. Call it the Z/24. Mess with folks.
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The old ZL1 was the poor (well, less-wealthy) man's M6. It was a giant-slayer, and only with the advent of the Hellcat did it lose some lustre. This new car, however, is a bit of a puzzler. I think it'll be great, but I'm not sure how GM is going to go about making it that way. Simply put, are they worried about it stealing some of the Corvette's thunder? One part of me says "no." That part sees the CTS-V packing an LT4 and getting up to 202mph. The other part of me says "well..." because the Cadillac and Corvette are pretty separated as far as market segments go. If this thing gets a full-bore LT4, even with a wet sump, it's probably going to have to tread lightly on downforce and braking packages to keep the Corvette guys happy.
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GM is in the catbird seat, no doubt about it. They may not have the most innovative trucks, nor are they the most eye-grabbing. But they are the best there is in taking all the traditional virtues that make a great truck and refining them to the nth degree. Seriously, the Canyonados are just icing on the cake.
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Your argument is flawed. As I explained in the GM sales thread, GM only uses two and a half frames for their lineup (the SUVs use a variant of the half-ton frame), plus common drive lines for GMC and Chevy (and Cadillac, for that matter). Contrast this with Ford's use of three completely different frames, using utterly divergent (huh) body materials, to say nothing of utterly divergent (huh huh huh) body styles. Advantage: GM. By a long shot. More likely, Ford's profitably is due to aggressive profit margins in well-negotiated fleet deals, and the most recent numbers not reflecting the recent increases in incentive spending.
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Hahahaha absolutely great reference! But I do see what you guys mean with WHERE the weight is more than anything. Anyone claiming to be an engineer would know it as well. To downplay it as nothing, especially in a car, is ridiculous.
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I'm not going to argue that point here. All I'm saying here is that GM has managed to grab a huge chunk of that segment in the last twelve months. And I'm not even talking about the Canyonados. They did some things in this segment that will pay big dividends down the road if they're smart. And they did it without killing profitability. Both from a product and financial standpoint, it was a clever bit of business.
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It's not about the weight as much as it is the centre of gravity. If you duct tape Hulk Hogan to the roof of your MKZ it WILL wallow more than if he was riding shotgun.
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As for the cars: only the Impala is a bit of a letdown. It's not on its way out the door anytime soon, nor is it the victim, sales-wise, of a more hard-line pricing strategy. Food for thought: -the Camaro is still on pace for about 80,000 units as a lame-duck model. Even if we take a bad-case scenario where Alpha Camaro only holds the line on those numbers, is it really bad to have a Cadillac-spec chassis moving in the six-figures per year range? -the Corvette continues to sell strong. The new styling philosophy is a success.
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Yes but, the open top feeling far offsets the absolutely minimal impact on vehicle dynamics that nobody could probably ever detect without digitial equipment to measure some metrics or data. I'm pretty sure even a prius owner would be able to tell the dynamic difference of 300 lbs on the roof. Indeed. It is just simple reality.
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...now that we have dispensed with Ford troll's latest self-inflicted wounds in various over treads ("Kiww da WAB-bit, Kiww da WAB-bit..."), we can breathe and do a breakdown of what GM is doing right with their large trucks and SUVs: Basically, everything. That's not just a snarky comment. GM uses two basic frame architectures for its full-size trucks, and a variant of its half-ton frame for its large SUVs. It is about as efficient as it can be for economics of scale. And the trucks are killin' it. Granted, the Suburban/Tahoe/Yukon are a bit down. But I'm pretty sure that GM will take that when the Escalade's numbers are up enough to render them basically a wash.
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Some days he lives and dies by fleet sales, some days by retail. So hard to keep up :D
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And yet the darn thing ain't selling.
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Sales+reviews=consensus. We have a rather negative review. We have sales that are down. We have sales of the grocery-getter that birthed it down. Contrast this to Cadillac, where their much more sophisticated platform has outsold the Lincoln by 9,000 units through July, has garnered rave reviews, and is about to go mass-market by spreading its genes into the ponycar segment. A far superior approach for those who value good product.
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Both of which they have: case closed you just destroyed your own case...... I will seek out the mushy middle here. The 200 is succeeding brilliantly. It is the hit they needed it to be. Good. The LX is getting by right now on Hellcat fever. It is a serious roll of the dice given the volatility of gas prices, but again... darned it it ain't working. As someone who used to slap together W-bodies for a living, I can assure you all that if Mopar doesn't do anything else with the platform for another decade than I will admit that is the next W-body. I suspect this wil not be the case. Do t be so hyperbolic in your criticism. If Sergio spreads out the Alfa platforms through the lineup the Cadillac effect should eventually take hold. It needs to be done, may as well get cracking on it now. If his preference for Yurp keeps him from spreading the love then they will fail, and deservedly so. But he loves cash more than he does Italy, so he'll do the right thing, perhaps in spite of himself. Ferrari has done its duty for him-it has given him cash from it's IPO. They need a Dodge/Chrysler spun off the 500 platform. ...and that's about it, I guess.
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The only segments where carryover product is down for Mopar are vans (which are gradually going away industry-wide), one Chrysler model, and Fiat's lineup. Even there things aren't exactly awful: Fiat as a whole is off by 3,500 units, and the Chrysler 300 is off by just over 1,000. What Mopar needs to do is shore up sales in he small-car segment, and that will require a Dodge and/or Chrysler built off that 500 platform. The little Fiat's looks are too offbeat to really get mainstream success in the US.
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They're still hanging by a thread.
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Yup. Read that too. Cadillac is not resting on any front. It truly is a sport, and luxury, car.
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Uh... That's already totally happened with the Z/28 and ZL1. What's your point?
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Apparently it was heart failure in his sleep. He was only 61.
