Tuesday, January 08, 2008
CAFE 35 Claims a "Victim"
by Tom Bozzo
As the story notes, Cadillac already can't sell its existing V8 in the model where a V6 is offered as the base engine — the six and the eight offer very similar performance but dissimilar cost and fuel economy. This is somewhat true of other manufacturers' product lines, too: a BMW 550i barely outruns the 535i and gives up 3 MPG or so for $8,000. Uptake on the 550i peaked under 15% of U.S. 5'er sales before the late run-up in fuel prices.
In bread-and-butter markets where fours are the sensible alternative to increasingly overpowered sixes, something like 75% of buyers take the four, but status races are driven by the upper fractiles of the distribution.
GM has canceled its V8 engine for luxury cars, i.e., Cadillacs. I'd always thought putting 300-hp engines in cars that senior citizens drive 15 miles per hour under the speed limit was a gross waste of resources.
As the story notes, Cadillac already can't sell its existing V8 in the model where a V6 is offered as the base engine — the six and the eight offer very similar performance but dissimilar cost and fuel economy. This is somewhat true of other manufacturers' product lines, too: a BMW 550i barely outruns the 535i and gives up 3 MPG or so for $8,000. Uptake on the 550i peaked under 15% of U.S. 5'er sales before the late run-up in fuel prices.
In bread-and-butter markets where fours are the sensible alternative to increasingly overpowered sixes, something like 75% of buyers take the four, but status races are driven by the upper fractiles of the distribution.
Labels: Trains Planes and Automobiles
