The Peckish Synapse

[asilverblazer]

3 hours ago, Atlas said:

I'm tangentially aware of what Harley used to be, back in my riding days, although I was into Italian sport bikes. Ducati seems to have gone the other way; still very expensive, but they've made a large subset of their bikes a lot more reliable and accessible, and they've diversified their lineup to include other riding sports too. IMO, a good example of where greed and growth might have also been beneficial to the consumer...

 

The Equinox ...I must be getting old. The ICE equinox is a great design IMO. Probably because it reminds me visually of an actual SUV aka an S Blazer. Underneath it's nothing even remotely close, but it LOOKS good. It's got all the modern features plus some at a very reasonable price. If I had to run out and buy myself a daily commuter to do everything except tow, an Equinox would be on my list...

There is a big difference in motorcycles and vehicles - nobody needs a motorcycle, they WANT one. That WANT is the most powerful force to drive price upwards.

 

I've hated every iteration of the Equinox, a prime example of GM laziness. It excelled at absolutely nothing, barely competitive by every metric. At least the latest generation looks decent. 

 

I want to like the Buick Envista, but that pitiful engine plus FWD only is a BIG NO for me, I don't care how good it looks.

[Atlas]

14 minutes ago, asilverblazer said:

There is a big difference in motorcycles and vehicles - nobody needs a motorcycle, they WANT one. That WANT is the most powerful force to drive price upwards.

 

I've hated every iteration of the Equinox, a prime example of GM laziness. It excelled at absolutely nothing, barely competitive by every metric. At least the latest generation looks decent. 

 

I want to like the Buick Envista, but that pitiful engine plus FWD only is a BIG NO for me, I don't care how good it looks.

 

I can't get enthusiastic about the 1.5T (or the 1.3 or the 1.2), I won't drive a CVT. But the stupid things sell in volume.

[asilverblazer]

1 minute ago, Atlas said:

For as much hate as Ms. Barra receives on here, she sure is a shrewd businesswoman....

Mediocre, how much did they lose on the poorly conceived EV strategy?

 

I wonder how much the stock price is being 'inflated' by all the buy-backs?

 

Cadillac literally looks like a brand without a rudder, no clear goals or product direction - performance or luxury? I guess performance because we can throw a small block in whatever we can and call it a day. Certainly not luxury when a Denali or High Country is reasonably cross shoppable. The Celestiq - no way - no vehicle can command quarter million prices when something wearing the same badge is on the buy here pay here lot across town.

 

Notice the 'base' Escalade doesn't even come with the 'leather-appointed' seating surfaces.

 

Hummer EV - fail

Silverado EV - fail

Sierra EV - fail

Bolt/Volt EV (The most successful EV cancelled, restarted, cancelled, whatever its current status it)

 

Hybrids - none

Sedans - none

Medium duty - not anymore

Minivan - none

Coupe - none

Convertible - none

CUVs - 20+/-

 

6.2 Recall that landed squarely on the GMs highest seller - and specifically the fattest margin higher trims of the Yukon, Escalade, et. al. The most critical product line they fumbled big time. In the Escalade segment, are those buyers forgiving GM for a bad engine and patiently waiting for the fixes and dealing with the headaches? Nope, they dump them and go straight to the other premium brands.

 

In the ENTIRE GM portfolio how many aspirational vehicles are there?

Corvette, Escalade (quickly being superseded by the obvious better value Denali)...

 

I posted somewhere else... what if Cadillac left the luxury game and became a performance brand similar to AMG or (gasp) Ferrari? Cut all the entry-level and base models from their line up and focus on the V-series or Blackwing or whatever they call it now. Of course, those would have the pre-requisite luxury and technology as standard equipment. This opens the floor for Buick to step in/up as the luxury brand (like they are in China), no 'performance pretenses' get rid of the 'entry-level' models with equally 'entry-level' power trains and become the Maybach to Cadillacs AMG. With those two brands effectively out of the way Chevrolet, the 'entry-level' brand has the floor to itself and GMC can take over as 'professional grade'. 

 

Now each brand has a focus, no in-fighting, clear direction, and customer targets.

 

Just need to sneakily slide Corvette into the Cadillac brand and dump the vestigial script writing.

[Atlas]

There's some truth to the above, but also, she's selling fullsize trucks and bread/butter CUV's like hotcakes, meanwhile, extracting GM's pickups from the deep discounting sales game.

 

GM's stock has held its own during her tenure, and the more recent buybacks are delivering cash back to investors and signal confidence in their direction forward. Even with the EV losses.

 

GM is an example of a modern publicly traded company. The #1 goal of any publicly traded company is to deliver the most value possible to shareholders. Despite being a car company, building the best car isn't GM's path to delivering maximum shareholder value.

 

McDonalds doesn't make the best burger, or the best coffee.

 

I've mentioned in another thread, I really don't / won't ever understand Cadillac or Buick in a modern context. Both brands are completely dead to me. I'll cede that the Escalade is a nice SUV, but the brand and nameplate mean nothing to me, and GM will never persuade me to pay north of $170k for a gussied-up Tahoe or Burb. Other people don't mind doing that and that's their purview.

 

The C8 shares absolutely nothing in common with any other current Chevrolet or Corvette on the market. Since its introduction 8 years ago, it's developed quite the following. It did what other Corvettes couldn't do: reduce the average age of its buyer. GM has something there, and I see them investing in the car. They'd better not mess that up.

 

We've successfully derailed Grumpy's thread again, but I think this one is meant to be more of a random thought thread so a little wandering is probably OK.