Emergence Marketing

I feel your pain. My husband purchased an SL500 about 1 1/2 years ago and it's currently on its THIRD transmission. It's been nothing but one pain after another, compounded by the arrogance of the local dealership that sold it to him. No need for details; they're very similiar to your situation. I'm always appalled at how they treat their customers, even those who drive the flagship model! I just purchased a new car two weeks ago - had plenty of money to go for a Mercedes. But after observing how customers are treated, I opted for the Acura RL and couldn't be happier.

Mercedes is tanking, big time. You have to be a real sucker to purchase anything from them in the future.

Cheers,
Michele

Sounds painfully familiar to stories I have heard from other owners of fairly new Mercedes. A few years ago I read an article that punches a hole (quite a bit bigger than the one in your engine) through the myth of Mercedes being synonymous with quality. It compared the amount of time a typical Mercedes requires for rework of production lne quality flaws to the time required for a Lexus. Eight hours for the big M, less than an hour for the Lexus. Which suggests that Mercedes are rolling collections of problems waiting to happen. How come Hundai can offer a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty, while the big M limits it to 4 years and 50,000 miles? Could it be that management watches all that quality defect rework and knows it won't end when the car leaves the factory?

Michele, Gabe - thanks for the feedback. We too have many other friends that have had horrible experiences with Mercedes. I agree you have to be a sucker to buy anything from them again :)

Their reputation for poor quality was widely known BEFORE you bought it!!!

So the questions are:

1. Why did you buy it in the first place?
2. Why did you keep it after the problems started?

Based on these facts, who is the sucker?

Don't buy Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and MB. German engineering is a joke.

I drive a 1989 300 TE (station wagon), so maybe I have a car "back when" Mercedes was still a quality car. I had a new engine put in at 145K miles but that's because a bad non-Benz mechanic caused an overheating of the engine at 100k miles... New transmission at 180K miles, but that may be due to wear and tear.

Still, servicing is expensive. A friend asked how the car was running, and I said: "Fine, as long as you keep throwing money at it." I went to the dealer to get the heater fan (the blower) fixed: the guy who took the order made a big show of opening the hood and checking various electronic switches and hydraulic connections (hey, the FAN is NOT working), then said: "$1,000". About the same time, my 95 Maxima had the same problem, and I took it to the Nissan dealer. Bill: $180.

In 1985 I purchased a brand new American spec Audi 5000 in Germany. I was in the military at the time. I owned the car until 1993 when the A/C locked up and I traded it in for a Honda the next day. I got $1000 trade-in value. While I owned the car I paid for at least three environmental control boxes and in total had nine installed in the car. One dealer had to install three before he found one that worked. All the electric windows and seats in the car stopped working and I had a minor oil leak that would have cost me $160 to fix.

German autos are well engineering but poorly built. On average it cost me about $350 or more each time I layed the keys on the dealers counter when I needed service. Something would break on the car at least every 6 to 8 weeks.

I would like to say that driving an Audi 5000 on the German Autobaun at over 120 MPG was really really fun. The car was locked to the road and I never felt out of control. They really know how to build a great driving car in Germany. Too bad they suck in all other areas.

As for the Honda. We kept the first one with an automatic transmission for a little over a year. We traded it in on a new one with manual transmission. Both my wife and I like manuals. We still have the second Honda today. It's over 12 years old and has over 165,000 miles. We take it to the dealer for all work and it just runs. We had the car for over 8 years before we had to put several hundred dollars in repairs. All-in-all I would buy another Honda today if this one broke.

Al

A Mercedes is nothing but a Dodge now. Your E320 is made by the same people that made the Neon! You should have bought a BMW. My BMW has not been without problems, but when I bring it in to get fixed I'm treated like I own the place. That's what matters.

I've heard that the Japanese brands - e.g. Lexus, Infiniti and so on - still have an emphasis on reliability.

If I wanted to splurge, I guess that would be it. I don't think I could buy Mercedes without a lot of reservations.

I think American brands might be more reliable than Mercedes, but I just can't imagine that I'd ever buy a Cadillac or Lincoln.

Yup, Japanese cars have a much better reputation these days. I would never buy American.

"A Mercedes is nothing but a Dodge now. Your E320 is made by the same people that made the Neon! You should have bought a BMW. My BMW has not been without problems, but when I bring it in to get fixed I'm treated like I own the place. That's what matters."

At least get your facts right, geez. Dodge is under Chrysler, and Chrysler is now under MB. The E-class is not made by the same people that make the Neon.... =/

As far as getting service, have you ever been to a Lexus or Infiniti shop? They don't treat you like you own the place, they worship the ground you walk on. Ok, I exaggerate, but getting served beverages while sitting on a leather couch is hard to top.

Xin chao, Minh den tu HL, minh mong muon duoc lam quen voi tat ca cac ban. Thanks you

I wonder if this same experience extends all the way across the product line? I always thought Mercedes was stretching their brand too far down in an effort to get more volume. At one time they sold only high-end cars at high-end prices, and so they had high margins, and could afford to give great service. Once they began moving downstream to lower-end cars at lower prices, the margins fell. And with higher volume and lower margins, they just could not afford to continue to give the same level of service. The consequence is that their brand has suffered, and now people don't want to buy the high-end cars either because the reputation has been diluted.

I think the thing that Toyota and Nissan and Honda did was really smart - they established separate brands (Lexus, Infinity, and Acura) for their higher-end cars. This enabled them to offer different kinds of service in entirely different dealerships to people at different price points in the market.

Brand extension is a good thing, but too much extension is a really bad thing. You have to tune it carefully.

BTW you don't want to know but I have a 15-year old Lexus SC400 with 240,000 miles, and it has hardly had anything go wrong with it. And on the rare occasions when it is at the dealer, they treat me really well. There's a reason they're always at the top of those surveys...

Xin chao, Minh den tu HL, minh mong muon duoc lam quen voi tat ca cac ban. Thanks you

My dad is a big Mercedes fan - has an ML as well as a vintage collection. The older ones are overbuilt and very basic by todays standards but his last one doesn't seem like the same DNA.
My older brother went through 4 different ones. He doesn't buy them anymore although they were good about fixing the problems when he had them. One of them blew a hole in the engine just miles after the warranty expired. Fortunately, he was less than a mile from the dealership after having regular engine service performed. They replaced the engine n/c.
BTW, Honda and Toyota are American cars and Japanese brands. Built here by Americans. The so-called American cars are American brands mostly assembled outside of the US.
BMW's are incredibly good cars even if you will have many more problems than Lexus or Acura. It's the only German car I would consider.

I bought a new RSX Type S for the same amount as the depreciation plus service on by last Audi A6 over 4 years. Audis are another brand where the purchase price is just the starting point of what you will be paying.

Ole is correct in many respects and there was also a cultural shift. Marketers like us do advocate a market orientation in companies, but Mercedes-Benz is an example of where this went wrong. Daimler-Benz and, later, DaimlerChrysler, placed the emphasis on consumerism but at the expense of quality—if there was a true market orientation, both would be retained.
¶ I advised a friend buying a Mercedes to get an old W124, and they are happy with that purchase. Meanwhile, I have driven some horrible new Mercs, including an SLK with 130 km (as in delivery mileage) which had wind come through the A-pillar when the roof was up and faulty traction control (the warning message was already flashing!). Or a ’99 ML 430 where bits were damaged on the dash and there were huge gaps between panels. Then there was a C180 sedan with a plasticky interior. And so on.
¶ When we focus on the premium brands, we tend to forget that German brands such as Opel do pretty well on quality. I have driven various Vectras for years and even own one, and found them reliable, if a little dull. The Ford Mondeo is well made. You may be better off to get everyday brands like that if you want German quality than the likes of Mercedes-Benz.

Very interesting article !

I put a link on it on my french blog relating on luxury and customer relationship management (unfortunately in french !)

http://luxurycrm.blogspirit.com/

May be your story will have a worldwide diffusion...

Stéphane
http://luxurycrm.blogspirit.com/

wow, sorry to hear. this makes me angry for your behalf. i thought i had it bad with my jeep.

Very interesting. Mike

Here is a new story of a Mercedes' dissastified customer !!

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fluxurycrm.blogspirit.com%2F&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

Stéphane

I have an old 1976 240D. Great car. The last problem I had was in 1985 when the water pump went. That is the only problem I have had.

My Mercedes mechanic, an independent not a dealer, who has kept my old car on the road all these years, refuses to work on any Mercedes prior to 2001, stating that "they are not Mercedes any more".

I was driving a 2006 SLK280 and clocked 17k before driving through a puddle near my apartment and having the engine brake down completely! The same puddle on which i was overtaken by a Toyota Echo since my car suddenly shutdown. Not covered by warranty is what they said. Anyone wants to buy an SLK280 with no engine? I feel that i had flushed my money away on this car. What is the use of the warranty if it does not cover the total engine brake down from normal driving! Their reports that water gone through the air intake damaged the pistons and that they broke smashing the block thus the block is ruined as well. How can this happen with a Mercedes Benz? Where is all that engineering R&D being spent?