Article on Quality of Benz.. including C class and others....
07-23-2002, 10:33 AM
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Article on Quality of Benz.. including C class and others....
So it basically comes down to that they have not improved as much as everyone else has, especially in the cup holders which are polled in JD Power. The initial quality of your car partly dependson how good your cupholders are? what kind of place do we live in?
Mercedes changes 2003 cars to cut consumer complaints
July 23, 2002
BY JEFF GREEN
BLOOMBERG
New York -- DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes-Benz division, which is under a price-fixing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, will change features on 2003 models because of consumer complaints about quality.
The German automaker was ninth in the 2002 J.D. Power & Associates quality rankings out of 13 luxury brands sold in the U.S., behind Toyota Motors Corp.'s Lexus and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, as customer dissatisfaction with its vehicles increased.
"Mercedes has been improving its quality but it hasn't been keeping pace with the rest of the U.S. industry," said Brian Walters, director of quality research at Westlake Village, California-based J.D. Power & Associates.
Mercedes was the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. three years ago before losing market share to German rival BMW and Toyota's Lexus. Mercedes' U.S. sales are important because parent DaimlerChrysler has been relying on its earnings to remain profitable while reorganizing Chrysler and Freightliner units.
The world's fifth-largest carmaker said in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the U.S. criminal probe is connected to a 1999 proposed class-action lawsuit against two Mercedes-Benz units, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC and Mercedes-Benz Manhattan Inc. They were served with grand jury subpoenas in May, said the company, which denied wrongdoing.
U.S. shares of Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler fell $1.40 to $42.25 and have risen 1.4 percent this year. The German shares fell 2.03 euros to 42.22 euros.
Near perfection
The carmaker's shortcomings are with controls, ergonomics and interior issues, not failing engines or transmissions, according to surveys of buyers by J.D. Power, which measures consumer satisfaction with cars and trucks.
Any complaints are bad for luxury brands, where buyers expect near perfection when they spend $35,000 to $100,000 on a car or truck, analysts said.
"The marketplace has become so competitive that you just can't have any type of complaint because it might give the edge to another brand," said Wes Brown, analyst for Thousand Oaks, California-based Nextrend, which studies auto marketing issues for the industry.
Since 1998 U.S. automakers improved quality by 24 percent in items ranging from engines to radio knobs. Mercedes improved 16 percent, said Walters of J.D. Power, which releases the full results of its surveys only to customers. It refused to provide the complete ranking of the 13 luxury brands.
"We know the situation and we are working hard," Juergen Hubbert, the member of the management board who is responsible for the Mercedes-Benz unit, said in a New York interview. "What we see is that people expect from Mercedes much more than they expect from other brands and we have to fulfill those demands."
Better brakes
For the 2003 models going on sale later this year, the automaker plans better brakes and technology on the new E-Class sedan, better seat belts on the new CLK coupe and changes in how quickly air conditioners reach full power on many models, said Klaus Ulkann, vice president of client services for Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. It has also improved cup holders, a common U.S. complaint, he said.
For the CLK, a big complaint was that drivers couldn't easily reach the seat belt, he said. Now a motorized arm will move the seatbelt forward to make it easier to reach, he said. Another example is that 14 percent of buyers complained when the automaker removed a handle from the S-Class that made it easier to close the trunk, Hubbert said. The handle is back this fall.
Mercedes efforts to fix complaints are a welcome change, said Nextrend's Brown, who owns a CLK and said he would like a better cup holder.
European arrogance
"The European luxury brands used to have this incredible arrogance that said: 'We'll determine what the market needs,"' Brown said. "They can't operate that way anymore."
The company's vehicles became the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. in 1999, taking the lead from Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln on sales of its M-Class sport-utility vehicle.
Toyota's Lexus was the leader in 2000 and 2001. Through June, BMW is slightly ahead with sales rising 10.5 percent to 117,736, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank, which tracks vehicle sales. Lexus sales increased 7.6 percent to 117,287 and Mercedes U.S. sales rose 3.4 percent to 102,927.
Fixing "irritants" will help the automaker with some customers, said Xavier Gunner, an analyst at UBS Warburg who owns no shares and rates the stock a hold. Most customers don't care unless it's a serious mechanical issue, he said.
There is a period of adjustment for consumers as Mercedes begins selling more models that cost less than $30,000, Mercedes-Benz U.S. chief executive officer Paul Halata said in an interview. Products range from a $25,615 C-Class coupe to the SL 600 convertible that can cost more than $120,000.
"There's going to be a difference between $30,000 and $100,000 cars," he said. "Quality is always in the forefront but sometimes the materials have to be a little different for costs reasons."
Mercedes changes 2003 cars to cut consumer complaints
July 23, 2002
BY JEFF GREEN
BLOOMBERG
New York -- DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes-Benz division, which is under a price-fixing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, will change features on 2003 models because of consumer complaints about quality.
The German automaker was ninth in the 2002 J.D. Power & Associates quality rankings out of 13 luxury brands sold in the U.S., behind Toyota Motors Corp.'s Lexus and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, as customer dissatisfaction with its vehicles increased.
"Mercedes has been improving its quality but it hasn't been keeping pace with the rest of the U.S. industry," said Brian Walters, director of quality research at Westlake Village, California-based J.D. Power & Associates.
Mercedes was the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. three years ago before losing market share to German rival BMW and Toyota's Lexus. Mercedes' U.S. sales are important because parent DaimlerChrysler has been relying on its earnings to remain profitable while reorganizing Chrysler and Freightliner units.
The world's fifth-largest carmaker said in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the U.S. criminal probe is connected to a 1999 proposed class-action lawsuit against two Mercedes-Benz units, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC and Mercedes-Benz Manhattan Inc. They were served with grand jury subpoenas in May, said the company, which denied wrongdoing.
U.S. shares of Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler fell $1.40 to $42.25 and have risen 1.4 percent this year. The German shares fell 2.03 euros to 42.22 euros.
Near perfection
The carmaker's shortcomings are with controls, ergonomics and interior issues, not failing engines or transmissions, according to surveys of buyers by J.D. Power, which measures consumer satisfaction with cars and trucks.
Any complaints are bad for luxury brands, where buyers expect near perfection when they spend $35,000 to $100,000 on a car or truck, analysts said.
"The marketplace has become so competitive that you just can't have any type of complaint because it might give the edge to another brand," said Wes Brown, analyst for Thousand Oaks, California-based Nextrend, which studies auto marketing issues for the industry.
Since 1998 U.S. automakers improved quality by 24 percent in items ranging from engines to radio knobs. Mercedes improved 16 percent, said Walters of J.D. Power, which releases the full results of its surveys only to customers. It refused to provide the complete ranking of the 13 luxury brands.
"We know the situation and we are working hard," Juergen Hubbert, the member of the management board who is responsible for the Mercedes-Benz unit, said in a New York interview. "What we see is that people expect from Mercedes much more than they expect from other brands and we have to fulfill those demands."
Better brakes
For the 2003 models going on sale later this year, the automaker plans better brakes and technology on the new E-Class sedan, better seat belts on the new CLK coupe and changes in how quickly air conditioners reach full power on many models, said Klaus Ulkann, vice president of client services for Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. It has also improved cup holders, a common U.S. complaint, he said.
For the CLK, a big complaint was that drivers couldn't easily reach the seat belt, he said. Now a motorized arm will move the seatbelt forward to make it easier to reach, he said. Another example is that 14 percent of buyers complained when the automaker removed a handle from the S-Class that made it easier to close the trunk, Hubbert said. The handle is back this fall.
Mercedes efforts to fix complaints are a welcome change, said Nextrend's Brown, who owns a CLK and said he would like a better cup holder.
European arrogance
"The European luxury brands used to have this incredible arrogance that said: 'We'll determine what the market needs,"' Brown said. "They can't operate that way anymore."
The company's vehicles became the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. in 1999, taking the lead from Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln on sales of its M-Class sport-utility vehicle.
Toyota's Lexus was the leader in 2000 and 2001. Through June, BMW is slightly ahead with sales rising 10.5 percent to 117,736, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank, which tracks vehicle sales. Lexus sales increased 7.6 percent to 117,287 and Mercedes U.S. sales rose 3.4 percent to 102,927.
Fixing "irritants" will help the automaker with some customers, said Xavier Gunner, an analyst at UBS Warburg who owns no shares and rates the stock a hold. Most customers don't care unless it's a serious mechanical issue, he said.
There is a period of adjustment for consumers as Mercedes begins selling more models that cost less than $30,000, Mercedes-Benz U.S. chief executive officer Paul Halata said in an interview. Products range from a $25,615 C-Class coupe to the SL 600 convertible that can cost more than $120,000.
"There's going to be a difference between $30,000 and $100,000 cars," he said. "Quality is always in the forefront but sometimes the materials have to be a little different for costs reasons."
Last edited by PHYBENZ; 07-23-2002 at 10:35 AM.
07-23-2002, 11:49 AM
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2002 C240 6-spd (ret)
Originally posted by Lynn
Only we Americans are worried about something as stupid as cup holders in cars.
Only we Americans are worried about something as stupid as cup holders in cars.
07-23-2002, 12:38 PM
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c230k, black, auto, c2 (let the sunshine in), Bose, leather, and CD
Hey,
I would be really upset if there was no place to put that cafe latte or diet Snapple! I live on those drinks.
And, the cup holder is my least favorite working thing in my car (of course it has broken three times, but it works now)
And my stepmother did not buy a Bimmer because it had wimpy cupholder. Of course, this is the same woman when the guy at the service shop said "what type of car do you have?" she replied "white". So perhaps, people on this board have different values then she does.
I would be really upset if there was no place to put that cafe latte or diet Snapple! I live on those drinks.
And, the cup holder is my least favorite working thing in my car (of course it has broken three times, but it works now)And my stepmother did not buy a Bimmer because it had wimpy cupholder. Of course, this is the same woman when the guy at the service shop said "what type of car do you have?" she replied "white". So perhaps, people on this board have different values then she does.
