Germancar1

How in the world is purely marketing driven when they've decided to call the car what it actually is? Marketing driven only would be to call it something else, not the actual engine size which is what they've done. Again, we already know that the 63 cars really carry a 6.2L V8 and thus that is marketing driven because of cars like the 300SEL 6.3 of the past. S550, C350, SLK300 were done to reflect actual engine size, whether or not it was marketing or not...its matterless since that is what those cars should be called in the first place.

I don't know why that is so hard to accept here. It isn't as if they just pulled "550" out of thin air, that is actually what the car should be called.

Debadging of a car completely like they do in Europe has nothing to do with this.


M

Glyn M Ruck

For your argument to hold the policy should be universal & it's not. Answer the exceptions? Maybe you too have trouble with setting clocks on VCRs?

jagass

Americans always want to be ahead-looking...lol

Germancar1

Ok, lets go over this again. They stated this last year when the C-Class arrived, that they would be going foward naming the cars according to engine size for the U.S. market. Of course they aren't going to change existing cars like the S600 or GL450 just for the sake of doing so.

The 600, 65, and 63 models all arrived prior to 2008 so of course they aren't going to change the S600 to S550 which is what it would be since the V12 is 5.5L in size. Then you'd have two cars badged 550, that would make no sense.

Dude I suggest you join us in 2009, nobody even has a VCR anymore.


M

Glyn M Ruck

So the SL63 AMG I had the pleasure of thrashing a few weeks back is going to become the 62 in it's next iteration? I doubt it!

By the way I have a number of American friends that have high end HD-VHS VCR's from the likes of JVC & Mitsubishi. Not quite extinct yet. Aproaching that - Yes.

FrankW

it's called US marketing. you actually think MBUSA holds anything above the Daimler Headquarter?

as of 2008 ONLY the US market has the C300, S550, SLK300 while the rest of the world has C280, SLK280, and S500. It's purely marketing from MBUSA's end trying to make the car more recognizable base on each car's relative performance while the rest of the world DON'T CARE!

what you are saying about the 600, 63, and 65 that they couldn't change the name is completely false. WHY? because the R171 SLK280 name got changed to SLK300 when the facelift came. MBUSA could've easily change the 63 to 62 on the R230 with the second facelift, but they didn't do it. You can believe whatever you want, but the fact of the matter is all the badging MBUSA decides to put on cars are purely for US marketing strategy.

only in US we are brain washed to think that S-class only has long wheel base as well.

Germancar1

Nope. This will be the third time stating this. The 63 cars came along before Mercedes USA decided to go with the actual displacement. The 6.2L V8 is an AMG thing that they wouldn't dare change...yes that is marketing...harks back to the 300SEL 6.3 etc. Been said that this is marketing 101.


M

Germancar1

Who said that MBUSA had anything over MB headquarters in Germany? Why does it have to be that extreme? You don't think MBUSA has a say in Germany? Apparently they have say otherwise the factory wouldn't badge S550s on the same line with S500s. MBUSA would just change the model designation at the port.

Who said the rest of the world cares? Again, matterless. This is about the U.S. market.

Why would they change the 600 cars to their true displacement? That wouldn't make any sense. Then you'd have a V8 S550 and a V12 S550 since both the V8 and the V12 are 5.5L. This is common sense.

You can believe whatever you want also, but the fact is that they are calling the cars what they are, most if not all. That is how Mercedes did it from the start.

Apparently you're lost in your own marketing loop because changing the badge to reflect the actual displacement is what they've done originally! How in the world is that purely marketing when it is accurate? Makes no sense.

Again, for the 5th time.....the 63 cars and their badges are marketing, won't deny that. I'm talking about MBUSA's decision to clean up the regular models.

Would you like a V8 S550 or a V12 S550 sir? How ridiculous would that be? Thats what you'd have if they re-badged the S600.

Who here doesn't know that the S-Class comes in SWB also? The previous 2 S-Classes (W140 and W220) were both offered in SWB here at some point during their respective model runs.

M

Glyn M Ruck

Tragically this is ALL Marketing 101 - some are too obtuse to see it.

Germancar1

How is this simply marketing when they're going back to what they did originally? Some don't know their history it seems.

M