Here's an interesting thing I stumbled upon while browsing old magazines. Apparently, in 2012 VW was toying with the concept of creating a new budget brand - a Dacia competitor - in the light of rising budget car sales. It was going to sell three cars - a B-segment sedan (base price of ~€6k), a B-segment wagon (base price of ~€7k) and a B-segment 7-seater minivan (base price of ~€8k). That would have been really competitive pricing, undercutting competing Dacias by nearly €1k. The savings were meant to be made through a variety of ways. First, the mechanicals: a stretched Mk4 Polo platform, only fitted with older NA/turbodiesel engines. Then the bodywork, with as few curves as possible to still have the cars look OK. Equipment? Only two airbags and ABS as standard safety equipment, and similar austerity in other base spec areas. And finally, the cars were to be made in India and China. However, the new brand idea was shelved, despite the budget car market (Dacia in particular) growing. Shame, because it could have made for some interesting cars to slot below the not-so-cheap-anymore Skodas. Renderings (courtesy of Auto Świat) below.
Originally it was planned to redo Skoda as a complete dacia competitor so basically no more Superb or RS models really glad they didnt do it. Skoda is still cheaper than VW but not as cheap as Dacia. Also AFAIK they still plan around with that sometimes but dont know where thats heading (with the cheap car make)
With the predictions saying that we have reached "peak car", car manufacturers seem to have heading up market a bit. They can't increase profits by building more cars, so they are chasing a more premium price point. The brands that used to be the budget brands are now charging more premium prices. These days Peugeot hatchbacks are approaching the same prices as Mercedes (£2k difference [308 vs A-class]). Which I think is where the rise of Dacia has in part come from, and in part Hyundai/Kia before them (who are also heading up market). I do wonder whether Dacia is going to stick to its ultra cheap roots, or if we will see them also start to push upmarket a bit too.
I don't think it's peak car, it's more an element of trying to increase profit per car, no matter whether the sales are going up, down or steady. Especially that the global car number is still rising, and even developing market brands (e. g. Tata) are upmarketing themselves.
I drove through the country's first diverging diamond yesterday. No matter what they look like from above, they work brilliantly and aren't confusing at all once you're in one.
These are good, reliable cars, and I happen to like the way these older Toyota Camrys are. My father had one when I was a kid, and I found this one at a good price.
Ah, I was just referring to the fact that the Camry has a bit of a cult following despite being a mundane sedan (specifically the '88 model... somehow).
I do drive one once in a while, and it's nowhere near classy. There's hardly any class in just owning one of the world's most popular cars.
So apperently Tesla thinks they can beat Porsche at the Nürburgring. Lets see how much less Power you need to beat a tesla at the Nürburgring as i dont think the Model S has a chance there because its way to heavy. The Model 3 might have a chance but i doubt it can beat a Porsche.
I'm not trivializing it. I'm just saying that if I were to seek a car based on its classiness, the Camry wouldn't be too high. It would do good in reliability or fuel economy, sure, but not in this. The Camry is a good appliance, but ultimately just an appliance.
I'll be keeping an eye, model S we know to have issues with overheating battery packs already, except, Porsche cheated and used a specially modified car for their ring attempt, Tesla are apparently doing the same with their S. I think both companies doing this is fairer against each other, but almost pointless, I'd like to see both send plain production vehicles around. Then again, we already know the S can't complete a lap in stock form. We also already know that the 3 can do 2 laps back to back without any throttling though, Tesla massively improved the battery pack cooling in the 3. Porsche has also made claims about being able to do however many 0-60 pulls back to back before overheating (this is a thing gasoline cars can struggle with too). A model 3 has independently shown to beat it at that, the model S has been shown to get nowhere near. The 3 around a few tracks is faster than the S, even with less power. It weighs less and doesn't have battery thermal issues.
Simple, This is because Model S used NCR18650BE that is a laptop battery, which will overheat at high current, if they use Sony VTC6 it won't overheat.
