Quote:
Originally posted by Zeus
Some big scheme by Mercedes to drastically overprice the E320 for "prestige" alone?
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A great deal of it is. The actual production costs for the E-Class are not that much higher, especially when comparing the W210 to the W202. Things like air suspensions add to the cost, but the W210 never offered such things. Pouring over both cars, I failed to see the $30K. The C wears just as robust (lots of W210 owners with failed lower control arm bushings and ball joints...) suspension bits, sheetmetal, etc.
Mercedes make no bones about the E-Class being a very profitable line for them. As a side note, think about those $85K Caddy Escalades. Huge profits! Often the "prestige" factor adds up to a dramatically higher sticker price.
As to the tone of my posts, I think that it's fine to judge the marque and even comment on your own experiences, but dismissing MB's largest Canadian customer base (E-Class leads in the US, but C in Canada) as somehow dull and not realizing that they bought an inferior product not worth of even being on the same showroom floor kinds gets my back up.
Example? I'm not a fan of the W203 CL230 cars. But, some people love them. It's not my cup of tea, is all. Maybe age has dulled me to the idea of two doors without a removable roof? Not sure. But, many MB nuts have bought them and since it wears the Star, they're in my club now. Mercedes readily admits that I'm not their target for the CL230's. They are desperate to get someone under age 120 in the showroom. Now that all the 35-45's have given back their ML's and leased RX330's, only the diehards and oldies are still around. David Morris in Edmonton had 60 (SIXTY!) 2003 models left over and had to discount many cars by $10K or more to move them. Wassup with that?
It's known by many that buying the entry level in a upmarket brand is often a smart thing to do. I saved tons of money, still get free loaner cars and other dealer benefits as well as all the MB goodness I have some to love over the years/kilometers. I get bulletproof engines, superb engineering, bank-vault struture, lots of safety gear, and so on. I really liked our E-Class (when it worked) by was the first to acknowledge that it was not as good a value as the C-Class.
I'm not dismissing. I'm debating.