Here in the South of France they are everywhere including big name rental car fleets. I see many more C class than CLA. The A class market here is huge.

 

Oh really? You see a car that's been on the streets since late 2011 more than a car that's been out for just over a month? I always find these threads amusing. The advertising for this car just started in earnest recently. Give it some time for the car to ramp up. As we move into the holiday season and better lease rates are introduced we'll see how the car does.

Let's at least wait for some sales data before the apologetic comments come out.

 

The W205 has been for sale in Europe since December, 2013. In the US, where we get the Alabama produced car, it has only been on sale since late August, 2014. The rest of the world has already had variants of the W205 for nearly a year.

 

LA is a strange place... within 3 weeks of the new 911 turbo S being available I had probably seen 5 of them on the road. I've already seen 2 Mclaren P1s. I started seeing CLA's in every parking lot within a month of availability. Somehow the new Range Rover was all over the place weeks before it was technically even available. Yet with SoCal dealers sitting on massive inventories I've still only seen a few C classes on the street. Believe me, it is no proper commentary on how successful the car will be but it is definitely strange and a sign that at least this market isn't embracing the car like it has embraced others. BTW Fletcher Jones in Newport currently sitting on 310 new C sedans: http://www.fjmercedes.com/all-invent...***&year=2015&

 

a smaller dealer WI Simonson sitting on 114 new C Sedans: http://www.wisimonson.net/new-invent...***&year=2015&

MB beverly hills has 158 on the lot: http://www.bhbenz.com/all-inventory/...model=C-Class&

you get my point.... demand is definitely not out weighing supply on this new model

 

I'll have to wait 4 months for mine. So maybe they are selling (at least here in Europe) but they are not delivering as much as they should...
Same thing happened with the BMW I'm currently driving: at the beginning the waitlist was 5/6 months long, now you can pick one in stock in any BMW dealer!

 

Also, MY14 E-Class have $6k dealer cash right now, so they're selling for about $7k below invoice around here (~$11k off of MSRP, around 16-17% discount). When you can get a comparatively equipped E for slightly more or equal to a C, many will opt for the E.

 

I'm aware. The point I'm making is that advertising just now started in honest.

Understood- LA is my second home. What I want to see is data- is Mercedes intentionally pushing more units to dealers as this vehicle rolls out or is it truly slow sales? These are questions I want answers to. I'm waiting on autonews/polk to release some reports. Interesting stuff.

 

We won't know until a few months from now. All the W204 have got to be cleared out nationwide and then we'll see what the W205 is really doing. You're right the registrations for the 2015 model will tell the story also. When and if it is realized that it is selling slowly there will be a story somewhere about it.

M

 

My salesman said he can lease an E350 for less than the C300 so how do they expect to make C Class sales?

 

I wouldn't want an E Class right now, get one now and in a year, your new car is no longer the latest generation of E Class.

I always buy in the first few years of a generation so they aren't immediately outdated.

 

I've only seen one C class on the road so far and that was over a month ago.

 

Selling like hot cakes in SA.

 

How well do hot cakes sell?

 

The finance manager I talked to today said their dealership has sold no more than 10 since its release. I asked if he thought it was because of the higher price tag than the older C classes and he said he didn't think so. Most people in the area opt to lease a new Mercedes in that area and they don't have good leasing deals right now since the car is so new. I personally haven't seen one on the road.

 

Sorry ~ British expression. They are selling very well. All over the place. Expected to top all previous MB sales leaders such as W123, W203, W204.

 

We use the same expression here.

I expect the W205 to do very well in the US, but it did roll out with not much fanfare. In the last two weeks. I'm just starting to see ads on TV, but still not very much in printed media.

Part of the problem is that the MB sales network here is spread fairly thin, and the closest dealer is often quite a distance away. In my case, the ONLY dealer in my state is nearly a two hour drive each way so it's anything but convenient to buy and service any MB product. The dealer networks are clustered in major metropolitan areas, then seem to disappear.

The W205 online inventory of my MB dealer hasn't changed much since I bought my C300 in September.

 

Based on my observations:

-Initial response seems tepid to nonexistent even. The W204 seemed to really have a "pop" effect when it came out. I also feel like the exterior design just doesn't look right, which is subjective, but I haven't really witnessed much enthusiasm about that aspect. The beauty lies on the inside, and if the exterior isn't all that enticing for some people, it might take them a while to even get past it into the interior to realize where the cars strong suit truly is.

-It's still new, so I'd say inventory can be a factor, but the dealer I went to over 1.5 months ago had a ton of them come in, and it seems like they're in full running supply with plentifully huge numbers sitting on dealer lots now.

-By and large it's the type of car that people lease rather than buy, and M-B further perpetuates that with their artificially high residuals and incentives. Lease rates don't have heavy support yet, especially after W204's were getting leased in the $200's seemingly commonly enough.

-THE PRICE. With the nicer interior, comes a nicer price tag. The market might not be ready to pay what they deem much closer to E Class pricing for a C Class. Either M-B are going to stick to their plans and stay firm, sacrificing some volume sales, or you're gonna see MASSIVE discounts in the years to come on this car (if recent history is anything to go by, it'll be the latter).

-The CLA kind of changes the dynamic. The C Class is still a C Class, looks like one, and not everybody wants the uncharacteristically bean-bag FWD proportioned/skinny legged/cruder interior/IMO awkward looking and very compact (especially roofline) CLA (I'm not even gonna get into that GLA). But they want a small, RWD (or AWD) Sedan. So the C wants to move up in price, but many people still see it as a C Class, and consider the CLA too subpar to take seriously, therefore it's a lose/lose for those people, as the C goes up in price, but the cheaper semi "alternative" isn't one they will consider.

-I feel that some people who have been sold on the "powersliding sporty 4 door M-B" commercials will drive it and think it's way too soft and luxury oriented, more than before (a return to the pre-modern M-B approach of accepting luxury as its forefront specialty and relinquishing the sport race). But I also think that lots of especially mature types (who can afford the price increase easier, generally) will "get it" and there might be a little shift in demographic as people reevaluate what a C Class "means" with this new model.

All that said. I can almost guarantee that these cars will be as common as lamp posts in the coming years, just like every other C Class. It's still too early. It'll be everywhere.

It'll probably be the highest selling C Class. It'll have to be and Daimler will make sure of that. Just like the W206 will be after that, then the W207, then W208, etc. etc....

 

.... One prediction is that if the car gets the Sports Package for free again, that'll practically be confirmation that it isn't selling nearly up to MBUSA's internal projections. Resorting to doing so again would be a shame because I'm loving the concept of M-B's having a few different styling packages again and the "AMG Sport" look going back to being not the ubiquitous norm, but the rare and enthusiast driven option, fetched at a premium for those who actually want it that much.

 

As I've said on many occasions the US has to pay a closer to global price for W205. The 204 was given away there at wafer thin margins & stripped of features. In markets like SA & Asia Benz fetches a clear premium over BMW & Audi.

In SA the W204 sold well because it was a good car but the styling was never favoured. The W205 has more organic lines like the much favoured (in SA) W203. IMHO the W205 looks much better with the traditional grill & more mini S Class like the W203 of it's era.

 

It looks better in pics than in person

Sooooo many 3 series here in Chicago burbs...

 

Been at my dealer for the last two hours. Beauty is fortunately in the eyes of the beholder. I think it looks better in the flesh than in pictures. Somehow the Star grill does not integrate as well with the front of the car as the traditional grill.

 

I like the overall style of the car, but it does have some awkward angles. I still am a not a fan of how the side creases end at the rear quarter panel. I think that quarter panel/rear fender is just too short to create any flow. On the S series, with a longer rear quarter panel, that same line looks sleek ... not so much on the W205.

I like either front end treatment, I like the front panels and the doors, I like the rear design. The interior is very well thought out and really attractive in any color or with leather or MB-Tex.

On the other hand .. my wife thinks the car is gorgeous, so I guess it really doesn't matter what I think.

 

Personally I don't like the "luxury" grill on the 205. It looks like someone took a traditional MB grill and tacked on a car that simply wasn't designed for it. My guess is that its meant for markets where the traditional MB grill is a requirement for brand identification. In the US the 3 pointed star replaced the grill as the brand "moniker" a long time ago.

 

Yeah! Opinions are split down the middle in SA. I'm a traditionalist & consider that the Star in grill belongs on Coupes, Cabs & Sports models ~ not 4 door sedans.

Benz has a conundrum. Styles liked in the US are generally not liked in their traditional markets & Asia & vice versa.