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Sedans Luxury Performance Sedans
10007 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 7:40 AM
You are in the Sedans Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
| Help! I have a 2005 Caddy STS4 (all wheel drive) with the luxury performance package. Here's my problem: I can't find any snow tires to fit because the car has different tire sizes front and back. Front is 255/45ZR18; back is 235/50ZR18. what can I do? The stock tires turn on a dime on dry pavement but are utterly useless in Minnesota snow. | |
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Replying to: mnjasper (Oct 20, 2006 7:14 am) Welcome to the Forums. |
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Replying to: pg48477 (Oct 19, 2006 3:49 pm) VW made many, many mistakes Toyota and Honda never ever make. As you said, pricing is wrong, VW can't make up its mind whether Passat should compete in the Camcord segment or ES/TL/A4 segment. Second, remember how long VW left the previous Passat on the market. Eight years, I believe, double the Camcord cycle. I think the current Passat's styling is terrible. It looks more Buick-like than Camry. Styling used to be VAG strength. A4 used to be the most stylish in its class, but not anymore. The Japanese automaker VW most resembles in NA is Mazda. Very good, quirky cars that find loyal fan base, but never a threat to the big boys! Blame VW, don't blame CR!!!
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Replying to: mariner7 (Oct 20, 2006 9:02 am) Looks are completely subjective. You're right though on Passat resembling Buick (Lucerne). But, the Lucerne came after the current Passat. |
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Hmmm ... I was wrong. I had posted something. Someone had mentioned the Passat in their response. I replied that the Passat was a good example. I was wrong about that. It's not turning out to be a good example to make the point I was originally trying to make. I don't believe CR makes or breaks any car. I do believe CR is an active ingredient in the decision-making process of a significant number of car buyers. The bigger point is that the "literature" on cars is not just entertainment. Nor does is it science, as in "just telling it like it is." It's opinion. It's slanted and it skews the collective consciousness about cars, in general, and increases or decreases the good/bad status of some cars in ways that might not be consistent with how many people would have ended up enjoying "the total ownership experience" of a certain car, if what they read about it hadn't led them to not seriously consider it. I think that what some people read in CR, or Car and Driver, or USA Today contributes to which cars they'll seriously consider and that it cannot be assumed people might avoid a certain car only if it really is a "bad buy."
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Replying to: mariner7 (Oct 20, 2006 9:02 am) The Japanese automaker VW most resembles in NA is Mazda. Very good, quirky cars that find loyal fan base, but never a threat to the big boys! Blame VW, don't blame CR!!! I don't think the Passat looks awful. There are certainly cars in that segment that look much worse. That enormous rear overhang is definitely a problem though, it makes the car look big and clumsy. VW needs to push the wheels to the corners. Mazda is pretty different from VW. With the exception of the Miata and the RX-7, Mazda made very bland, forgettable cars that had nothing to set them apart from the competition. They didnt have any kind of real focus as an automaker until 2003. Mazda's sales have been flat in this country for about 10 years, but now that they have a real product portfolio, they have a chance to finally break into the big leagues. VW had the cars, but they went on a buying spree, decided they wanted a piece of the S class, and left them on the market for a decade. |
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"VW had the cars, but they went on a buying spree, decided they wanted a piece of the S class, and left them on the market for a decade." Lexusguy, I agree. Former CEO Ferdinand Piech steered Volkswagen off course in the 1990s by trying to take the VW brand upmarket to challenge Mercedes. At the same time, as Business Week put it, "he took his eye off the company's core business in small cars, and failed to grapple with VW's growing productivity gap. With a domineering Piech sitting on the supervisory board, successor Bernd Pischetsrieder didn't dare do a U-turn, and many problems festered." Volkswagen's started a further turn downward in 2001, but management has been slow to do anything. Now, despite the new models of the last two years, VW's promised rebound doesn't materialize. The alleged coming turnaround remains a prediction that VW struggles to keep the PR fire under. At the beginning of the year Bernhard promised ten new models by 2010. Then, in July, he moved the target date up to 2008. Nonetheless, last December, a report by Morgan Stanley warned of a pretax profit plunge of 41% in 2006. Not sure how well VW is doing financially as the year comes to an end. Meanwhile, Audi fights for its piece of the international LPS pie from a quasi-independent position within the VW empire. Audi performs strongly outside the U.S. According to Fortune Magazine: "Its brand is strong in Europe, where Audi's are seen as equals in image and performance to its better-known competitors and command similar prices. Audi has also moved aggressively overseas and has become the most popular luxury car in China. Overall, the company expects to sell 890,000 cars this year and is aiming for 1.4 million by 2015 - a position from which it might be able to claim luxury car leadership." In the U.S., Fortune points out, "it takes more than good products to succeed. Audi's reputation for quality lags that of its competitors. 'You pay for your sins for a long time,' says Johan de Nysschen, the head of Audi of Americas. Quality is getting better but older ones remain a problem. Audi ranked well below average in the latest JD Power dependability study of 2003 model cars." Nonetheless, unlike VW, Fortune's prediction for Audi in the U.S. in optimistic: " Audi is making another push with several new models. It is introducing a small SUV, the Q5, a small coupe, the A5, and a $130,000 mid engine sports car, the R8, over the next year and a half . Its goal: to boost unit sales from 83,000 in 2005 to 100,000 in 2008. Assuming the economy holds up, its targets look reasonable. Both BMW and Mercedes sell more than twice that many vehicles here." VW has to do something completely different. |
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Replying to: sfcharlie (Oct 21, 2006 2:33 pm) According to investment banker Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas, Audi as a stand-alone business is worth more than VW: "I value Audi at standalone at roughly 60 euros ($77). VW is roughly 54/55 euros ($69/71) now," said London-based Jonas." The "bloated" European workforce is a big reason (although not the only one) why VW can't match prices with Toyota and Honda. A recent article in a German newspaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, cited VW sources saying that at least 40,000 of the 100,000 people employed in its parts and assembly plants were superfluous. Another thing (about Audi), which a number of financial-auto analysts have said: Audi has to completely separate its U.S. dealerships from VW dealerships. I experienced the truth of that, first-hand, while shopping A4s a while back. An Audi Brand Specialist at an Audi/Porsche dealership responded to an off-hand comment, made one of the boys I had with me, about the Audi being sort of like his brother's Passat. The German-accented salesman said: "Only until you drive them." By contrast, a salesman at a VW/Audi dealership commented (when I mentioned that I might consider an A4 with 2.0 turbo for better-mpg commuting): "Waste of money. You'd be better off getting a Passat with the same engine -- more car for your money." |
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