Car Chat

[Raza]

Yes it is

Thought so. Who's in the car looks better than the car.

[MrH]

2018 model year production for the ND miata starts October 30th.  Local dealers still have new 2016 models on their lot.

For a car with a $32k MSRP, how low do you think they'll go on a 2016 with 2018s on the lot when it's snowy in December?   $22k?

[12,000 RPM]

I can't laugh.... Mazda is trying to do right by enthusiasts.... and we are shitting on them.

But the market is the market.... VW moves ~2x as many GTIs as Mazda does Miatas. I sincerely doubt they would have 2 year old inventory of MS3s with that CX-9 2.5T, I can tell you that much.

[MrH]

I know.  It's sad

[12,000 RPM]

The harshest part is once an opportunity comes and goes, it's really gone. I have a long list of missed opportunities I could name, but Mazda's is definitely the MS3. I think that window is still open though

[Laconian]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo that is bad news.

Time to make ads for adopting stray MX5s, scored with Sarah Mclachlan songs.

[giant_mtb]

[AutobahnSHO]

Sexy!

[68_427]

This was spotted locally.



Pretty good looking SUV IMO

[12,000 RPM]

The looks of the new Civic are starting to become tolerable

Still waiting for the next ILX

[MrH]

Accord 2.0 just took down the V6 Camry in a Motor Trend comparison.  I was hoping the new Camry would actually be good dynamically, but the Accord is eating its lunch left and right.

[MrH]

You guys remember how everyone was talking about how great the CTS V-sport was like a year or two ago?  You can get a 2015 now with 22k miles for <$30k.    Holy depreciation batman.  A practically new, 420 hp, $70k sedan for 60% off.  Crazy.

[12,000 RPM]

The Alpha platform's shitty market performance is no surprise to me

[2o6]

The Alpha platform's shitty market performance is no surprise to me

CTS isn't Alpha

[MX793]

CTS isn't Alpha

2014+ is.

[12,000 RPM]

Yep

I feel like the plant they build it at is on a Native American burial ground.

[2o6]

I don't think it's the chassis itself, tho. The problem is that Cadillac doesn't know how to market and they didn't listen to what people actually want in a sedan.


I don't think that has anything to do with the Alpha chassis, which in turn is just an updated Zeta chassis.

[MX793]

I don't think it's the chassis itself, tho. The problem is that Cadillac doesn't know how to market and they didn't listen to what people actually want in a sedan.


I don't think that has anything to do with the Alpha chassis, which in turn is just an updated Zeta chassis.

Except it's not just the Caddy models.  Camaro sales have been underwhelming as well.  I think Mustang has outsold all Alpha platform models combined over the past 2 years.

[MexicoCityM3]

Except it's not just the Caddy models.  Camaro sales have been underwhelming as well.  I think Mustang has outsold all Alpha platform models combined over the past 2 years.

Other than the Mustang, are there any sports cars / sports coupes that are doing well? It seems to me the crossover/SUV/SAV wave is drowning out most other categories.

[MX793]

Other than the Mustang, are there any sports cars / sports coupes that are doing well? It seems to me the crossover/SUV/SAV wave is drowning out most other categories.

Latest gen Camaro sales are way down from the previous.  Challenger, which had been a distant third place in the pony car war, has nearly matched Camaro since the latest one came out.  It actually outsold Camaro in a couple of months, which I don't think has ever happened in the time both models were on sale at the same time.

[12,000 RPM]

I don't think it's the chassis itself, tho. The problem is that Cadillac doesn't know how to market and they didn't listen to what people actually want in a sedan.


I don't think that has anything to do with the Alpha chassis, which in turn is just an updated Zeta chassis.

The chassis itself isn't the problem; it's excellent. As you said it's the choices and priorities GM made with the cars. I still think Lincoln's approach was smarter and the market agrees, given that Lincoln's sedan sales are holding steady while Caddy's are in freefall. Alpha platform money was better spent elsewhere

[2o6]

I had this weird dream my Sonic had a Northstar V8 in it


It wasn't appreciably faster but it made a great noise

[giant_mtb]

New dash cam is here. It's been on my Amazon wish list for a while (my old one barely works anymore after ~4 years, good run), and I tips-ily ordered it the other night along with an LED light kit for my interior lights. Will post video soon.

[FoMoJo]

Australian car-making ends with last GM plant closing

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2017/10/19/australia-last-auto-plant/106789972/

The last mass-produced car built designed and built in Australia rolled off General Motors Co.'s production line in the industrial city of Adelaide on Friday as the nation reluctantly bid farewell to its auto manufacturing industry.

GM Holden Ltd., an Australian subsidiary of the of a U.S. automotive giant, built its last car almost 70 years after it created Australia's first, the FX Holden, in 1948.

Since then, an array of carmakers including Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Chrysler and Leyland have built and closed manufacturing plants in Australia.

After the last gleaming red Holden VF Commodore, a six-cylinder rear-wheel drive sedan, left the plant in the Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth that had grown over decades to provide its workforce, 955 factory workers will clock off the last time
"It's pretty tragic really that we've let go probably one of the best cars around the world," an auto painter who identified himself as Kane told reporters.

The 36 year-old was worked at Holden for 17 years and starts a new job with an air conditioner manufacturer on Monday. But he knows many other former Holden employees won't find jobs so quickly.

Thousands of jobs in businesses that have supplied components and accessories to Australian auto manufacturers are also at risk.
"It's not the easiest thing. Life will go on," Kane said.

Dozens of Holden enthusiasts gathered outside the factory, bringing with them generations of Holdens dating back to favored FJ models that were built between 1953 and 1956.

South Australia state Premier Jay Weatherill said car manufacturing was seminal to the state's industrial know-how.
"It has provided the backbone for our manufacturing capability in this state," Weatherill told reporters. "It's given us the ... the capacity to imagine ourselves as an advanced manufacturing state."

Holden is an iconic Australian brand and has been a source of national pride for generations.
The V8 Holden Commodore has sold in the United States since 2013 as the Chevrolet SS.
The brand will survive although Holdens will all now be imported from GM plants around the globe.

Holden retains design and engineering teams, a global design studio, a local testing ground, 1,000 employees and a 200-strong national dealer network.

The brand that became known as "Australia's own car," accounted for more than half the new cars registered in Australia by 1958.
The reasons behind the demise of Australian auto manufacturing are numerous.

The first Holden cars were built in an era of high Australian tariffs and preferential trade with former colonial master Britain, which encouraged global carmakers to set up local factories to increase market share.

Australian import tariffs have since tumbled through bilateral free trade deals with car manufacturing countries like the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia.
The Holden workers' union blames a lack of government support through subsidies for GM's decision to end manufacturing.

There had been debate about whether the 7 billion Australian dollars ($5.5 billion) that the government spent on the car industry in subsidies since 2001 was worth the jobs that it created.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the closure was due to a "perfect storm" of factors.
The factors included the value of the Australian dollar which due to a mining boom was for the first time stronger than the greenback in 2013 when the last three carmakers — GM, Ford and Toyota — announced that they would close.

Other factors were high production costs, a small domestic market in an Australian population of 24 million and the most competitive and fragmented auto market in the world, with more than 60 car brands on sale.

"You can't get away from the emotional response to the closure," Turnbull told Melbourne Radio 3AW on Friday.
The opposition Labor Party accused "rightwing economic rationalists" within the government of "goading General Motors to leave Australia" but refusing to guarantee future subsidies.

"We're not just losing a car, we're not just losing an industrial capability. We're losing an icon and that is a tragedy," Labor lawmaker Nick Champion, who represents the Holden factory region, told reporters on Thursday.

[12,000 RPM]

Was it just bad policy? I'd imagine Australia basically being on the moon makes exporting anything all but impossible. And with all their imports domestic brands faced a real uphill battle. This seemed like an inevitable conclusion.

[Laconian]

Being RHD also limits their exporting capabilities. It's gotta be pretty expensive to build products for LHD and RHD markets.

[MX793]

Being RHD also limits their exporting capabilities. It's gotta be pretty expensive to build products for LHD and RHD markets.

Japan's not too far away and also RHD, but Australian taste in cars is akin to American taste, larger and with large engines.

[12,000 RPM]

Japan may as well be in another galaxy WRT its car market as well. Australia would do better to export sex dolls

[MrH]

This dude is kind of interesting from time to time.

http://autosandeconomics.blogspot.com/2017/10/dealer-musings-ii-ruggles-on-gap.html

Hurricane comes through, tons of cars are going to totaled, a big portion of those are upside down on their loans.  Gap insurance payouts everywhere.  Gap insurers will probably become insolvent now.  I didn't even think of that, but makes sense.

The whole idea of gap insurance and being upside down on a loan is crazy to me.  If your cars value is tanking faster than you're paying it off, you're doing something wrong.

[AutobahnSHO]

The whole idea of gap insurance and being upside down on a loan is crazy to me.  If your cars value is tanking faster than you're paying it off, you're doing something wrong.

Lots of people make bad money decisions. Gap insurance is smarter than none I guess. But yes, agree with your assessment.

It seems completely crazy to me to owe that much on a hunk of metal & plastic that your life revolves around it.

My only car loans have been short term and the most was $120/month, I financed $3k of a $9k minivan. I was dumb when I bought the Miata paying 6% interest but drove it 8 months and sold it for basically what I paid for it. I wouldn't have sold it if I hadn't faced divorce and major money squeeze.