[AmuroRay]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

It has nothing to do with MQB, it has been going that way for a long time.

GM used to be the kings of badge engineering, and while the press gave them a lot of crap for it, it made a lot of money. The GMT360 is a great example, on that platform was the Trailblazer, the Envoy, the Rainier, the 9-7x, the Ascender, and the Bravada. Same exact chassis underneath, two lengths, same motors and transmissions, and largely similar bodies. They sold the ever loving crap out of it turning huge profits.

Now say you're looking at a high risk, low reward segment, like say the entry level sports coupe like GT86. A bespoke platform that for something that will sell a couple thousand units a year will never pay for itself. But if you can partner with Subaru, split the costs, well now you're looking at a ROI being possible. Same for BMW and the Z4/Supra.

That sort of thing works so well, so why not do it for something that's mass market with increasingly slim margins like a compact SUV? Rogue and Outlander are already clones, I would expect the next gen CRV to be jointly developed too.

Here's the thing, it's not about profits. It's about margin %. The cokeheads on Wall St don't understand that as long as something is profitable it's worth doing, they see it as "not as profitable as other activities" and so see it as a negative. That's why enthusiast cars and economy cars are so rare now, the bean counters try to position their portfolios to only have high margin products, because the Wall St types see that as an improvement in profitability of operations, because their margin % is up. So a sports car that has say, 15% margin looks bad to them if they're looking at midsize SUvs and trucks with average margins of 30%, that still profitable sports car drags down their average margin, and so the coked up analysts that know nothing about actually running a business talk about how the company is struggling with profitability and blah blah blah.

It's a sad state, our financial sector wields too much power despite being largely full of nepo babies and morons.

Honestly, I don't think it has anything to do with governments or wallstreet - EVERYTHING, from Cars, to home, clothes and appliances - all have gotten worse.

Automation simplifies the processes by doing the work in a more simple fashion, and for cheaper. But it also means that there is less true skilled labor.

It's a collective dumbing down of every one and everything. And they sell it for the same or more money. And they are doing it now more than ever before because automation is cheaper, and people are willing to accept less for more.

Originally Posted by afadeev

People who don't believe in conspiracies at all crack me up. You believe everything your told and they are the crazy ones?

[FC4]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

So Hyundai dropped of a huge cheque for them to say "don't buy it"? Right.

Yes, absolutely. They had to throw that in there so it would be believable. Had they not, even sphere-Earthers would start to question the legitimacy of the ad.

Critical thinkers see right through it.

[FC4]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

People who don't believe in conspiracies at all crack me up. You believe everything your told and they are the crazy ones?

Bro people will believe anything. They're just sheep.

The writing is on the wall.

Gyorgy Schwartz (his real name) - 15 characters
Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 15 characters
YouTube Premium - 15 characters

1 + 5 = 6. 666 is the mark of the devil. This is all George Soros' plan. Open your eyes people.

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Their big complaint with EV vehicles, other than the still tricky ownership compromises, is the weight. They relentlessly bang on about weight and the 5n is the first EV performance car to come in below 5,000 lbs and is tossable. A M5 is now 5400 lbs for reference and the AMG just under 6,000 lbs.

M5 weighs as much as my X5D.

[dgoldenz]

Originally Posted by FC4

Bro people will believe anything. They're just sheep.

The writing is on the wall.

Gyorgy Schwartz (his real name) - 15 characters
Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 15 characters
YouTube Premium - 15 characters

1 + 5 = 6. 666 is the mark of the devil. This is all George Soros' plan. Open your eyes people.

It all makes sense now…

[Donatello.]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Their big complaint with EV vehicles, other than the still tricky ownership compromises, is the weight. They relentlessly bang on about weight and the 5n is the first EV performance car to come in below 5,000 lbs and is tossable. A M5 is now 5400 lbs for reference and the AMG just under 6,000 lbs.

Anything that is close to or over 5k lbs is no longer "tossable". Sure, you can have normal street fun, but if you wanna track heavy crap like that, you're going to have an expensive & bad day.

Would I take my Hellcat or my Miata to a road course? If you pick Hellcat, you also only own a bloated land yacht.

[Donatello.]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

I dread the day that manuals are no longer sold and I can't drive my antiques anymore because they're deemed not road legal.

I think I'd rather sit in a self driving car.

I can't draw a sensible connection to their real opinions and their COTY reveal. Other than $$$.

Let's hope that day does not come before we pass.

Most of the youngsters now don't care about cars or driving. Very sad

[Donatello.]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

The closest right now is Mazda, and their sales have been increasing. They are not selling basic transport, they have a higher trim quality than your Toyotas of the world but they keep it relatively simple.

This. Wouldn't mind replacing the 6 with a AWD turbo Mazda3 as the winter beater, but I work remotely and even when the weather is nice don;t drive the Hellcat as much as I want so cannot justify the spend