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High End Luxury Cars

24723 messages,  Last post on Jan 28, 2013 at 6:55 PM

You are in the Sedans Forum.

What is this discussion about? Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ-Series, Lexus LS 460, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Volkswagen Phaeton, Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, Sedan



Let's try to define this forum as being limited to luxury performance vehicles where the mainstream version in a typical configuration has an MSRP of at least $60k.

A luxury vehicle with a base price of $59k qualifies because it would typically be bought with some additional equipment, bringing the MSRP over $60k.

Vehicles like the E, 5, A6, M, or GS, even if available in certain versions over $60k, don't qualify because they are cars from companies that have higher end cars in their lineups.

Messages Page 1945 of 2473

#19434 of 24723 Re: Peugeot 908 RC, C230 etc....... [tagman] by merc1

Oct 01, 2006 (9:23 pm)

Replying to: tagman (Oct 01, 2006 5:32 pm)
Maybe, but easy isn't the question. The current C-Class is Mercedes' largest seller. That says enough to know that you can bake a little E and S-Class into a cheaper vehicle.
 
True, they could but then you'd be at the price a regular C-Class sedan. The C hatch needed to be sporty like other hatches to succeed. If one wants some E or S-Class in a C-C they're going to go to sedan not a hatchback.
 
I hope Mercedes never imports another C-Class hatchback to the U.S. or anything lower than a C-Class sedan, preferably with 6 cylinders. If Mercedes is seen as premium in this country then it has to act like that, they made their bed so now they have to lay in it sorta speak.
 
Mercedes simply doesn't do cheap well. Every single time they try they mess it up. Witness the first generation ML, the W220 S-Class (especially from 2000-2002), the C hatchback. Notice how their upper level cars dominate, S-Class, SL etc. Notice how just the opposite is true for BMW, neither company can beat the other at opposite ends.
 
M

#19435 of 24723 What the hell? by merc1

Oct 01, 2006 (10:18 pm)

Lutz: U.S. gov't should force gas prices up
 
General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz said the U.S. government should gradually increase taxation on gasoline to force consumers into smaller, more efficient cars. "I'd say the best thing the (U.S.) government can do is to raise the gas tax by 10 or 15 cents a year until it reaches European levels," Mr. Lutz told the Wall Street Journal at the Paris Motor Show.
 
"In Europe people buy $30,000 Golfs," Lutz said. "People are willing to pay lots of money for extremely well equipped, fuel-efficient cars." Lutz said higher gas prices would help accelerate the transition to alternative fuels and cleaner forms of propulsion.
 
Lutz also says he thinks Americans have learned their lesson about buying fuel-thirsty vehicles, even if gas prices fall well below $2.00 later this year. "Three months from now if gas is $1.60 a gallon, people are not going to go rushing out to buy 400 horsepower SUVs," he said. "People now have understood the concept of volatility. People will hedge their bets."
 
This from a man who heads up the same company that depends on suvs and large pickups for their survival! This is said as GM gets ready to roll out their most important vehicles of all, full-size pickups! What am I missing here? Lutz needs to retire, he has officially lost it. Toyota has finally made him crack up. He would change his tune very quickly if the new large utes all of sudden stopped selling and the new full size pickups flopped. Uh...Lutz, GM doesn't have enough small cars or enough that people would even want to buy in order to offset the sales losses if the Feds did what you're asking! Hello earth to Yutz? You're calling for buyers to revert to the vehicles with the slimmest profit margins at a time when GM is dying?
 
M

#19436 of 24723 Re: What the hell? [merc1] by designman

Oct 02, 2006 (6:00 am)

Replying to: merc1 (Oct 01, 2006 10:18 pm)
Have you seen the GM TV ad currently running that says 90% of their cars get at least 30 mpg highway?

#19437 of 24723 Re: What the hell? [designman] by dewey

Oct 02, 2006 (6:37 am)

Replying to: designman (Oct 02, 2006 6:00 am)
Yes!
 
And I dont think we will ever see a GM Ad boasting about their Truck/SUV MPG figures for city driving.

#19438 of 24723 Re: What the hell? [merc1] by dewey

Oct 02, 2006 (6:50 am)

Replying to: merc1 (Oct 01, 2006 10:18 pm)
This from a man who heads up the same company that depends on suvs and large pickups for their survival! This is said as GM gets ready to roll out their most important vehicles of all, full-size pickups! What am I missing here?
 
The answer to your question could be the Sequel. The gas-alternative route seems to be GM's new Crusade. I just hope GM will live up to its hype.
 
SOURCE: FORTUNE Sept. 20th, 2006
 
The Sequel, GM (Charts) immodestly proposes, is the greatest leap forward since Karl Benz rolled out his gasoline-powered three-wheel bicycle in 1886. "GM has reinvented the automobile," brags Larry Burns, vice president of R&D.
 
The Sequel is a genuinely bold and innovative engineering achievement. DaimlerChrysler (Charts) and Toyota (Charts) have put a few fuel-cell buses in service, and Honda (Charts) has leased one fuel-cell-powered car, but GM has gone farther than any of its rivals to develop a car that burns no gas, produces no harmful emissions--and that normal people wouldn't mind driving.
 
 It has already invested $1 billion in the program and might spend another billion before it gets a fuel-cell car into mass production. After losing $10.6 billion in 2005, it is a wonder that the company can afford it. But GM vice chairman Bob Lutz is so enthusiastic that he is willing to delay conventional new models to get a fuel-cell car into production. "It's a game changer," Lutz says
 
Honda and BMW are both experimenting with liquid hydrogen as a fuel for conventional engines; BMW announced it is putting 100 hydrogen-fueled cars on the road next year. GM's is a fundamentally different bet, leapfrogging past traditional engines altogether.
 
No wonder Lutz wants the government to impose hefty gas taxes. He is very worried that by the time Sequel is introduced gas prices will drop to about $1.20 a gallon and GM will have to pull the plug on the Sequel.

#19439 of 24723 Re: What the hell? [merc1] by lexusguy

Oct 02, 2006 (7:02 am)

Replying to: merc1 (Oct 01, 2006 10:18 pm)
Uh...Lutz, GM doesn't have enough small cars or enough that people would even want to buy in order to offset the sales losses if the Feds did what you're asking! Hello earth to Yutz? You're calling for buyers to revert to the vehicles with the slimmest profit margins at a time when GM is dying?
 
Quite. They would be handing whatever marketshare they have left to Japan and Korea. Their Daewoos aren't competitive in the ultra compact space.

#19440 of 24723 Re: What the hell? [merc1] by tagman

Oct 02, 2006 (9:23 am)

Replying to: merc1 (Oct 01, 2006 10:18 pm)
This from a man who heads up the same company that depends on suvs and large pickups for their survival! This is said as GM gets ready to roll out their most important vehicles of all, full-size pickups! What am I missing here?
 
What are you missing?
 
Well, with all due respect to you, one of our great posters, let me just say that I see this as nothing more than PR, pure and simple.
 
It's the same as the tobacco companies' ads which suggest that smokers should stop smoking.
 
Do you believe them? And you know it's PR?
 
Don't believe Lutz, either.
 
TagMan

#19441 of 24723 A News Drought by dewey

Oct 02, 2006 (11:52 am)

This has to be the worst 48 hours I have ever experienced in terms of HELM news. I cant find any news from media/web sites worth posting here.
 
Oh well at least there is always tomorrow or after-tomorrow.

#19442 of 24723 Re: What the hell? [designman] by merc1

Oct 02, 2006 (2:03 pm)

Replying to: designman (Oct 02, 2006 6:00 am)
Have you seen the GM TV ad currently running that says 90% of their cars get at least 30 mpg highway? +
 
No I can't say that I remember seeing that one. Interesting though. Lutz still doesn't realize what he is talking about though because most small GM cars are crap next to the competition and when people thing MPG they run to Honda and Toyota small cars, not GM's.
 
M

#19443 of 24723 Re: What the hell? [tagman] by merc1

Oct 02, 2006 (2:06 pm)

Replying to: tagman (Oct 02, 2006 9:23 am)
Well, with all due respect to you, one of our great posters, let me just say that I see this as nothing more than PR, pure and simple.
 
Do you believe them? And you know it's PR?
 
Of course Tag, I'm just shocked by it! Especially when GM has so much riding on their new pickups this fall. Maybe he should keep quiet for a while. Dewey's post on this is very interesting though!
 
M

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