Team-BHP
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https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)
No doubt Mercedes Benz India has sat up and taken notice of it's comparatively low yearly sales year after year, specially against the other two heavyweight luxury brands, BMW & Audi. In 2012, while BMW India and Audi India both managed to sell over 9000+ units, the 3-pointed star car maker had to be content with a little over 7000 units.
They have come up with a novel idea to boost sales, and to target those young and luxury conscious buyers who aspire for larger, luxurious cars but are bereft of simple, easy and no-fussy financial solutions.
Introducing - Merconomics, as advertised in the newspapers.
Apart from this, Mercedes Benz India has also refined the terms of it's Star Lease program, adding customised leasing options like zero down payments, low rentals and fixed monthly costs besides additional line of credit and easy upgrades every three years. Hopefully these moves will see more customers throng the Mercedes showrooms in the days to come.
Official Link -
http://www.mercedes-benz.co.in/conte.../campains.html
Recommended read -
http://www.cartrade.com/car-bike-new...ce-119591.html
Related threads :-
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...es-well-9.html http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ase-india.html
The problem with Mercedes Benz is not the fact that people cannot afford them, hence "Mercedes Benz India has sat up and taken notice of it's comparatively low yearly sales year after year" seems like they haven't correctly identified their root cause & customer viewpoints.
For example, when I was in India recently, an uncle that previously owned an Audi A6 and had just recently switched to the E350 was telling me how the lack of a rear-seat controller for the audio/telematics system is something that irritates him. The far cheaper Audi had that and had better interiors to boot. These are some of the little things that chauffeur-driven customers have come to dislike about Benz and they voice it freely in their social circles.
While the power specs are more than adequate, Benz has also dropped it's game on being able to deliver those power levels on 'less-than-premium' gas. They used to be the bullet-proof vehicles that could be run on frying fat and go anywhere - designed for conditions from Africa and South Asia to Europe and NA. When Hyundai can deliver more power on the Genesis luxury sedan (Tau 5L V8 engine) than Ford is able to in their Mustang GT and on top of that, deliver that power on regular gas while the latter does it only on premium, then Mercedes just does not have an excuse for their low-stressed engines.
The other thing was their drop in quality in the E210 series ... which the E212 does rectify to a great extent, but still suffers considerably from lost customer goodwill. Mercedes should've had its sights on Lexus in the quality sphere, but before the cost-cutting of the 90's, but not having the experience of warranty problems, this was badly managed. Previously, they literally had zero warranty rates because of their service policies that had dealers replace components at regular intervals under routine service.
The last but not least, would be the momentum that BMW and Audi have carried for the last decade. When you're #2 or #3, you have a target to benchmark. When you're #1, it does get tough, but if Mercedes has managed to keep the S-Class at the top of its segment, there's only so many formulas they should be applying to the lesser lines.
And add to that the near decade old COMAND system, it's terrible. Mercedes don't update this every 4 years, but 8 years with the S class.
Also, it's the new S class that brings tons of new tech and other models wait for the S class. However, the competition spreads the release of tech over different model lines.
That is, the S class (W221) came out in 2005, C class came out in end of 2007, E class in 2009, M class in 2011 and GL in2012. By the time the tech goes through the model line up, it is 7 years + 7 years of life of the last models in the cycle. By which time none of it is novel, most of is bettered by rivals, and some are offered by car makers 2 or 3 segments lower. Instead if Mercedes does allow some tech to come through every 2 years, they would have a better chance.
It's a joke to see cars like the M class and GL class carrying over some slightly tweaked 7 year old tech from the 2005 S class. Imagine these cars in 2017 or 2018, towards the end of their cycle they will still be running on some 14 year old tech from the 2005 S class. Shocking sales of iPhone 5 suggests that even Apple cannot get away with 4-5 year old tech, what is Mercedes thinking?
My 2011 Eclass comand wouldn't allow my to store over something like a 1000 contacts which my 2005 Nokia did!!!!
See BMW came up with the idrive for example in 2001, made updates in 2006 end and and a major revamp in 2009 and a significant update thereafter.
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