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Sedans Luxury Lounge
21519 messages, Last post on Dec 07, 2009 at 6:26 PM
You are in the Sedans Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: dewey (Mar 26, 2009 8:04 pm) Dewey, The original Tesla roadster is over $100K, but the objective of the company has always been to mass market a sedan at a fraction of the roadster's price. If the sedan was ever priced as horribly expensive as the initial startup roadster, then hardly anyone would buy it... as you so appropriately responded yourself. The Tesla roadster body is essentially a variation of the Lotus Elise (obviously supplied by Lotus) but with the Tesla powertrain utilizing their supposedly excellent battery technology. Tesla's strategy isn't that bad, but the cash crunch at the company is slowing things down. Fortunately for Tesla, they have very good technology, and they might be able to selectively sell the some of the rights to that intellectual property. If they can get over the hump, they could actually have a future. But it's a giant hurdle indeed. Speaking of Chrysler... Tesla acquired Mike Donoughe, a former Chrysler executive who will become Tesla Motors' Vice President of vehicle engineering and manufacturing. Donoughe's reputation is good, from what I understand. Personally, I'd like to see Tesla succeed. TM |
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Replying to: bmlexus (Mar 26, 2009 10:23 pm) bmlexus... I think you know my position on that.... post what you want... it's up to you, not me. I do think it's fair to suggest that you could be more understanding that everyone's interests can vary, which will result in a broader spectrum of posts... instead of complaining when posts don't interest you... as you did earlier. Beyond that, I would encourage you to continue to contribute your valid opinions and unique perspectives as usual.  TM
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Replying to: dewey (Mar 26, 2009 8:10 pm) |
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Replying to: tagman (Mar 26, 2009 11:32 am) |
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Replying to: lexusguy (Mar 26, 2009 4:58 pm) You're right! Anytime something doesn't catch-on the first time it's tried on a mass market scale, that idea should be abandoned forever!! Good thing innovative people don't actually think like that, though. Otherwise, there'd be no computers, ipods, digital cameras, plasma TVs, etc. The reason digital dashes didn't catch-on is because of a few things; 1) They were ahead of their time, which leads to #2. 2) The technology and manufacturing wasn't quite what it needed to be at the time. 3) It was prohibitively expensive if even a single diode failed since the entire assembly had to be replaced (a flaw still in place today) and dealers would come up with any excuse possible not to replace one. Personally, I loved the digital dashes! My uncle had a Buick Sumerset that had an all digital display. I loved it when he'd let me drive it around, so much so that I let the coolness of the digital display outshine the crudeness of that Quad-4 engine!  Anyway, so what if they jacked Audi for design and (maybe) a part or two?? Isn't Audi considered the industry standard of design and put-togetherness with regards to interiors?
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Replying to: ljflx (Mar 26, 2009 5:12 pm) The auto industry follows energy. Period. regards, OW |
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Replying to: cyclone4 (Mar 26, 2009 6:26 pm) Alas, beauty and high maintenance go hand in hand with the XF at the moment! Regards, OW |
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Like the iPhone, second will be better. Also I just got 20 inch custom rims for my Maybach. I got them gold to match the Crystal I keep in the back seat. |
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Toyota planning on a cheaper old version of the Prius to fight the Honda Insight, while also introducing the new Prius. I don't think this is a smart strategy though. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2009/gb20090327_626019.htm?camp- aign_id=yhoo
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Replying to: ljflx (Mar 27, 2009 7:01 am) Len, This is old news... even if recently reported. And you are right that it isn't good strategy... and apparently Toyota now thinks so, too. Their U.S. approach to the Insight will now be to add a new hybrid, rather than re-introducing the old one... which is indeed a better strategy. Toyota's latest U.S. strategy is to offer a hybrid Yaris or equivalent, which would be a cheaper alternative. That would give them the cheap hybrid as well as the premium hybrid... therefore theoretically putting a little more squeeze on Honda. Unfortunately for Toyota, however, Honda's Insight will still be perceived as a less costly Prius-fighter, and Honda will also introduce a hybrid version of their very successful Fit model. That's the one that will likely give Toyota a big headache. And, of course, there's still the Civic hybrid to contend with. At this point, I see this vehicle category heating up in a big way and getting ultra competitive... it will ultimately benefit the hybrid consumer in spades. TM |
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