In the latest edition of Auto Express, Dermot Kelly, the head of DCUK talks about a rise in sales figures (led by the A class) and talks about there being "a Mercedes for everyone".
At the risk of being called elitist (or far worse), I think this is where MB have gone wrong over the past 10 years. Over the past few years I've spoken to a number of friends about MB cars, generally when there has been a problem with either the product or the service (especially since MB took ownership of dealers).
The general consensus is that you are treated exactly the same whether you buy a £100K S class or a £10K A class. This would be no bad thing if this meant really good service, but all too often this has meant levelling down standards rather than levelling up.
To be fair, there are some really good franchised dealers around (I travel 500 miles to do business with a dealer which my family have used for 30 years rather than use the appalling MB owned local centre), and there are even a few decent people with experience of customer servce in the MB owned centres, however I think the big issue has been the move from a marque with status to one which is a volume manufacturer.
Personally, I feel MB should have stuck to beign an aspirational marque rather than trying (and failing) to compete with volume manufacturers such as Ford, Volkswagen etc.
I still keep putting my money in, because everytime I swear that I will never have another Merc, they bring out one which tugs at the heart strings (new car arrives in two weeks).
Anyone else of a similar view?
At the risk of being called elitist (or far worse), I think this is where MB have gone wrong over the past 10 years. Over the past few years I've spoken to a number of friends about MB cars, generally when there has been a problem with either the product or the service (especially since MB took ownership of dealers).
The general consensus is that you are treated exactly the same whether you buy a £100K S class or a £10K A class. This would be no bad thing if this meant really good service, but all too often this has meant levelling down standards rather than levelling up.
To be fair, there are some really good franchised dealers around (I travel 500 miles to do business with a dealer which my family have used for 30 years rather than use the appalling MB owned local centre), and there are even a few decent people with experience of customer servce in the MB owned centres, however I think the big issue has been the move from a marque with status to one which is a volume manufacturer.
Personally, I feel MB should have stuck to beign an aspirational marque rather than trying (and failing) to compete with volume manufacturers such as Ford, Volkswagen etc.
I still keep putting my money in, because everytime I swear that I will never have another Merc, they bring out one which tugs at the heart strings (new car arrives in two weeks).
Anyone else of a similar view?
