US Cars are about to be Great Again! (Trump lowering fuel economy rules/regs)

[Disgusted]

I've owned 3 BMW 5 series one was a lemon. I've currently lease a new Mercedes 300 and can't be happier. I'm almost an hour away from the dealer and when there is maintenance to do they drive to my house and leave me a new one to drive till they get back.   

[Skylge]

Maybe you should be their marketing director since you're apparently more competent lol

Maybe you are too young / ignorant to remember the disastrous FoMoCo takeovers of Volvo, Jaguar, Landrover and Aston Martin?
Chrysler / Mercedes failed "merger"?
Chrysler near bankruptcies?

GM's decades of losses on the European market (OPEL and Vauxhall)
GM's chronic and failing atempts to sell Caddys and Chevys in Europe
GM's totally failed takeover of SAAB?

Hummer, Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury, Saturn, all failures (That's quite a lot of brands actually....)

etc etc

USA can do much better when it comes to quality management. Often the wrong people end up in boards of the big three....
Competence does not seem to be a requirement   

(But they always blame imports, politics, environment, currency exchange rates, economy etc etc)

[Skylge]

Solutions to problems that never existed.

Remember in the first year iDrive 7 series when reverse was only able to be activated through iDrive?

What in all that is holy was up with that?

Family of mine had a 2002 730D. With the first shift by wire gear change lever, no need or possibility to enter reverse through the i-Drive

[illuminati]

No love for the upcoming Buick Avista?






What about the Buick Avenir?






Say what you want, but they build a High Quality car.

Good looking cars - Avista looks similar to Some Bentley models

Can't comment on the interiors or build quality I got no idea.

Are they concept or production cars.

[Bevo]

In the most important luxury market of the near future it's USA number 1, and the rest years behind: Electric cars. See Tesla and the impressive Lucid Air for example

Nope.... Tesla won't be number 1

[Bevo]

And BMW seemingly with all their engineering, they screw up their M engines. The S54 was blowing rods, and BMW at first blamed US drivers who had manuals. Then the SMG ones started throwing rods. Then it was another thing. The S65 had rod bearing failures. And now the N55/S55 has crank hub failure.

Also, a lot of people on BMW M forums have cross shopped or seriously looked at the Mustang Shelby GT350, with a bespoked Voodoo V8. That is a plus for people. The head of BMW had already said that there will not be anymore bespoked M engines (like S54, S65, S85, S62). But that they will closely related to or tuned versions of production engines.
The Mustang also is the leading sporty car in Germany, home of BMW.
 
A lot of people are raving about the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde, even BMW M owners. And the engine is basically a Ferrari V8 with two cylinders looped off. Who know about their reliability, though.

Let's not dismiss the American makes---they are making good cars. The Corvette has done well in international racing, and BMW no longer races the M4 in the same category as the 911, Corvette anymore. The M6 is not even that competitive.
Nevertheless, BMW is a good brand and yes the Ms are benchmarks. It has been said that Cadillac is what BMW used to be.

S54 and S65 motors were "minor", I've owned both with over 100k miles, no problems, many others have as well. Overall the e46 and e9x m3's are very reliable, more than the n54 motors

American car companies are building great cars now but sales are not up to German and Japanese luxury, Cadillac is struggling

As good as Cadillac is they can't outsell Lexus, German big 3 or even Infiniti and I think Acura. Why is that? Maybe cause of American "stigma" that American car companies produced low quality garbage for decades

Even the Koreans are coming fast...

[Skylge]

Nope.... Tesla won't be number 1

On the American market, they already are number one:


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-12/tesla-dominates-u-s-luxury-sedan-sales

[bigbobs]

Maybe you are too young / ignorant to remember the disastrous FoMoCo takeovers of Volvo, Jaguar, Landrover and Aston Martin?
Chrysler / Mercedes failed "merger"?
Chrysler near bankruptcies?

GM's decades of losses on the European market (OPEL and Vauxhall)
GM's chronic and failing atempts to sell Caddys and Chevys in Europe
GM's totally failed takeover of SAAB?

Hummer, Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury, Saturn, all failures (That's quite a lot of brands actually....)

etc etc

USA can do much better when it comes to quality management. Often the wrong people end up in boards of the big three....
Competence does not seem to be a requirement    

(But they always blame imports, politics, environment, currency exchange rates, economy etc etc)

Anyhow this started when discussing investment in racing - the Corvette has been a strong money maker, and its investment in racing does build brand loyalty, gets drivers themselves more interested in tracking their cars (resulting in additional maintenance costs of their vettes, much of which results in extra revenue for GM), gets kids liking the brand at an early age and more likely to consider one when they grow up, etc etc

[Bevo]

On the American market, they already are number one:


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-12/tesla-dominates-u-s-luxury-sedan-sales

As a company/whole it isn't number 1, they are comparing "one" model against others, we will see how long their model/models can stay competitive, as of now they are more of a niche, cars are built with bad quality/materials and questionable reliability at best

They aren't number one as a whole, good concept but overrated as shit, time will tell since they aren't a "real" automaker yet

[Palumboism]

Maybe you are too young / ignorant to remember the disastrous FoMoCo takeovers of Volvo, Jaguar, Landrover and Aston Martin?
Chrysler / Mercedes failed "merger"?
Chrysler near bankruptcies?

GM's decades of losses on the European market (OPEL and Vauxhall)
GM's chronic and failing atempts to sell Caddys and Chevys in Europe
GM's totally failed takeover of SAAB?

Hummer, Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury, Saturn, all failures (That's quite a lot of brands actually....)

etc etc

USA can do much better when it comes to quality management. Often the wrong people end up in boards of the big three....
Competence does not seem to be a requirement    

(But they always blame imports, politics, environment, currency exchange rates, economy etc etc)

Forty years ago the Big three had America all to themselves.  Germany and Japan were gaining, but were no where near as strong as they are today.  That couldn't last.  Yes, the American auto manufactures have had incompetent management, but there was just no way to keep as many brands as there were with all the additional foreign competition.  

In addition, you have to give credit to the Japanese, German, and Korean (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Hyundai, and Kia).  They've all played their A game.  

[Palumboism]

Maybe you are too young / ignorant to remember the disastrous FoMoCo takeovers of Volvo, Jaguar, Landrover and Aston Martin?
Chrysler / Mercedes failed "merger"?
Chrysler near bankruptcies?

GM's decades of losses on the European market (OPEL and Vauxhall)
GM's chronic and failing atempts to sell Caddys and Chevys in Europe
GM's totally failed takeover of SAAB?

Hummer, Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury, Saturn, all failures (That's quite a lot of brands actually....)

etc etc

USA can do much better when it comes to quality management. Often the wrong people end up in boards of the big three....
Competence does not seem to be a requirement    

(But they always blame imports, politics, environment, currency exchange rates, economy etc etc)

In 1976 the Oldsmobile Cutlass was the best selling car in America.



At the same time Toyota was selling the Corona.  Which would you rather have?  My point is the foreign competition got stronger over time.

[The True Adonis]

In 1976 the Oldsmobile Cutlass was the best selling car in America.



At the same time Toyota was selling the Corona.  Which would you rather have?  My point is the foreign competition got stronger over time.

Red one any day of the week.

Only a fool would choose the other.  The olds is bigger and more comfortable with better lines.

[OlympiaGym]

I've owned 3 BMW 5 series one was a lemon. I've currently lease a new Mercedes 300 and can't be happier. I'm almost an hour away from the dealer and when there is maintenance to do they drive to my house and leave me a new one to drive till they get back.   

Does your husband drive the E-Class?

[bigbobs]

I appreciate and hang out with car guys of all brands....even the one on the far left which was "German Engineered" to be the high roofline one of the bunch ;-)

[Parker]

For Bevo, $100k BMW M2. Price is due to the non standard M2 color that you cannot get.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BR5nMiaFR25/?hl=en

[El Diablo Blanco]

Good looking cars - Avista looks similar to Some Bentley models

Can't comment on the interiors or build quality I got no idea.

Are they concept or production cars.

America has made killer looking concept cars for ages then the production models look like shit

[OlympiaGym]

My Uber last night was the '17 Continental. Chintzy is the best way to describe it. Genesis - Hyundai's new luxury brand - is way ahead of it. 

[lilhawk1]

For Bevo, $100k BMW M2. Price is due to the non standard M2 color that you cannot get.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BR5nMiaFR25/?hl=en

You can get that color standard on the M4.  I have Sakhir Orange Metallic on my M4.  Beautiful color.  Not sure why that car is so expensive, you can get a fully loaded M4 with carbon ceramic brakes brand new for around $90k.  The M2 is really just a cheaper, less powerful version of the M4.  Very cheap looking inside compared to the M4. 

[Parker]

You can get that color standard on the M4.  I have Sakhir Orange Metallic on my M4.  Beautiful color.  Not sure why that car is so expensive, you can get a fully loaded M4 with carbon ceramic brakes brand new for around $90k.  The M2 is really just a cheaper, less powerful version of the M4.  Very cheap looking inside compared to the M4. 

The paint shop at the Leipzig is not set up for M4 colors. So for this to have been done, they would have to have shut down production line, and set up the paint shop for this. This was done at then end of the 1M's production for Java Green 1Ms.

The M2 is cheaper, and doesn't have the interior of the M4, but it has been universally praised as being better than the M4 in fun factor, toss-ability, and it even sounds better than the M4. This is due to the M2 having one twin scroll turbo as opposed to two, like in the M4.

[bigbobs]

America has made killer looking concept cars for ages then the production models look like shit

The concept vs production  car delta goes for  imports too - recall the Toyota supra concept for example