Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Will_w202
Passenger cars are not garbage trucks. We are not talking about marketing a different kind of vehicle to an industry or business, we are talking about marketing a different category or passenger car to a different group of passenger car buyers. Mercedes has been known for decades as the builder of competent, luxurious autos, at least in the US. Toyota and Honda have been known for decades as the builders of competent, reliable compacts. Nobody is going to beat Honda or Toyota (or now even Hyundai) at that game. MB needs to stick with what it does best. Quick sales numbers of low-end cars to people who just want a Benz is great for profit in the short term, but when you start shooting for numbers, and turning out restyled models and new models every 2-5 years, quality suffers. Maybe not for Honda, but for a company like MB, that strategy does not jibe with a decades-old corporate philosophy of letting the engineers build the right cars.
I think we've seen what the strategy change has done for quality and reliability in the last few years. My family owns 4 post-2002 MBs, their first Mercedes in each case, and none of the 4 plan to buy again.
|
Will,
You are contradicting yourself here. You mention the decades-old corporate philosophy of letting the engineers build the right cars but, speak of quick sales of "low-end" cars with restyled models and quality suffering.
There is not correlation between the smaller MB's being of lower quality then other more expensive MB models. Quality is a relative term which I hate to use. I'll use durability instead. There is no correlation there either that "low-end" cars are less durable, if anything they would be more dependable or reliable than fully optioned out high line MB's, reason being the lower levels of add ons to fail.
Back to letting engineers building the "right cars". The reason the oldies were so damn good was because the engineers did have more sway in the buildup of products coming to market, no question. Also they had more time to test and department budgets weren't as much of a concern in those days (before Germany became overrun with post-modernist scumbags such as the two Schrempps). MB is part of DCX now, and together they are in the business to make great product margins, not great products. Great margins are maintained by offering useless gadget gimmikry that is made cheaply and pushed on consumer lemmings, promoted as the latest and greatest. I personally believe the relative restraint in terms of outright features the old cars had (remember not being able to adjust the wheel?) contributed to the dependability, reliability and "quality" inherent within the oldies. Also, less features enabled less distraction from enjoying the vehicle itself. Remember when consumers paid attention to its design rather than "deals" and "toys"?
The old guard has met its demise completely now with the ending of the W463. Once the last one is complete and the so called new "G" becomes the bloated, ML big brother the last of the "built to a standard not to a price" MB's will be gone forever.
Why not bring in the new models? There is nothing left of the old, earned reputation to degrade or tarnish after the death of the W463. All current MB's excluding it are disposable products anyway, even the Maybach (think of the old BMW 750's from the late eighties and that will be a Maybach in twenty years).
This "prestige" bu11**** is nothing more than ones own mindset. Intelligent people do not care. People who want "prestige" and the ability to impress, will have to buy one of the Bentley Arnages or the Rolls Phantoms to get the kind of exclusivity you'll need to capture "prestige". People need to get over themselves.
Will this arrogant mindset ever stop?