Не работает полный привод

[AleMar]

Извините, что на антимонгольском, статья из Financial Times 

есличо, переводчик Гугла живет тут: translate.google.ru 

а сама статья - здесь: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/353d6706-9bad-11e4-b6cc-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=crm/email/2015116/nbe/CompaniesBySector/product&siteedition=intl#axzz3Otrpyc5D

 

  US carmakers aim to raise their game in luxury vehicle market Robert Wright in Detroit

        http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/14c838e5-2965-4081-ba88-ab5c1e7166e8.img[/img]©AP The selection of vehicles on display at the Mercedes-Benz stand at the Detroit auto show is so diverse as to be baffling. Prices range from about $33,000 for the GLA250 sport utility vehicle to about $200,000 for a Mercedes-Maybach S600 ultra-luxury sedan. Sizes range from compact to vast, styles from sporty to sedate and powertrains from pure electric to high-capacity gasoline.

Yet, across the aisle in the exhibit of General Motors’ Cadillac luxury brand, the vehicles on display are restricted to a big Escalade SUV, an ELR electric sedan and some of the brand’s new “V” range of sportier saloons. The two prices on display are both around $75,000.

GM predicts higher profit margins in 2015

 

• Cadillac races to catch European rivals
  
• Detroit hails return of power and luxury
  
• GM says US sales could hit 2001 levels
  

The contrast between the two stands helps to explain why Cadillac on Tuesday announced plans to spend $12bn for a significant expansion of its range in an effort to tackle luxury market leaders such as Mercedes “head on”.

Johan de Nysschen, Cadillac’s chief executive, said the brand was struggling because it lacked vehicles to compete in critical segments. Cadillac, unlike Lincoln, Ford’s luxury brand, has no competitor in the compact sports utility segment, which grew faster than any other part of the US market last year. Cadillac’s US sales were down 6.5 per cent in 2014 over 2013.

Mr de Nysschen acknowledged that the brand had suffered its “fair share of setbacks” in its 112-year history — but he insisted the weather forecast for the brand had now turned “very, very rosy”. Cadillac is one of a series of auto brands in the US and Asia seeking to close the gap in luxury vehicles with the trio of German brands that dominate the industry — Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen’s Audi. All would like, as Mercedes and BMW seem to be able to do, to provide a wide range of finely-differentiated vehicles to meet the needs of a vast array of different better-off consumers.

However, there is considerable doubt about whether even the substantial sums that Mr de Nysschen plans to spend will bring Cadillac the sales volume required to pursue such a strategy.

“If you look at Mercedes and BMW and Audi, their portfolio is really wide and deep and that’s where Cadillac and Lincoln lack,” Michelle Krebs, an analyst for autotrader.com, the car information site, says. “And [the German carmakers] have a tremendous amount of new product coming.”

There is, nevertheless, no doubting the commitment of the US brands — and Asian competitors such as Nissan’s Infiniti and Honda’s Acura — to grab at least some of the highly profitable market. Luxury vehicles account for about 10 per cent of global car sales but around one-third of profits.

At the Lincoln stand at the auto show, smartly-dressed sales people hand snacks and drinks to visitors in an effort to offer the excellent customer service that the brand is hoping will help it to lift sales in both the US and China. The brand has marketed itself as a more discerning, understated alternative to its more obviously flashy rivals.

Lee Jelenic, Lincoln’s marketing manager, insists it was careful planning, rather than mere luck, that increased US sales by 15.6 per cent in 2014 compared with 2013. The company had anticipated that the luxury compact SUV market could prove lucrative.

“We did a very good job of futuring the growth in that segment,” he says, using marketing jargon for forecasting.

Lincoln on Tuesday unveiled a revamp of its MKX SUV, the third of a promised four vehicles in four years intended to provide a solid basis for growth in both the US and China.

The challengers to the German giants are seeking to replicate some of their extensive ranges by producing relatively cheap-to-develop premium variants on their existing vehicles. Mr de Nysschen was speaking on Tuesday as he unveiled a higher-powered, faster version of Cadillac’s CTS sedan. Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand and number three in the US luxury market by sales after Mercedes and BMW, introduced a sporty variant of its F sedan — the GS F — intended to attract the younger buyers that the brand tends to lack. Lincoln offers a premium black label variant of its vehicles, finished more luxuriously and also providing owners access to “members’ benefits” such as pick-up and delivery of the vehicle for maintenance.

Ms Krebs is sceptical, even so, that General Motors and Ford will ever develop their luxury portfolios to the point where they seriously compete with the German giants.

“I don’t think they’re ever going to be the BMW or Mercedes of the world,” she says. “That’s not reasonable.”

However, within the carmakers there remains a confidence that, in a fast-growing luxury market, US and Asian manufacturers can find at least viable niches of customers who want their distinctive designs.

“There’s a customer out there who’s looking for what we’re delivering,” Mr Jelenic says, confidently.

[AleMar]

и из сегодняшних новостей РБК:

 

В четверг автомобили Opel и Chevrolet подорожали в среднем на 14 и 15% соответственно, рассказали РБК дилеры марок. Данную информацию подтвердил представитель General Motors, куда входят оба бренда. На Cadillac – третий бренд GM – повышение не распространяется, уточнил собеседник в компании