norb

And the C63 shows it, its drum tight!

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/27/p...ships-profits/

Dealerships don't make the majority of their money on the sales side. The real case resides in the back of the store, where cars and trucks are serviced. In fact, the best dealers are said to make enough money on service to pay the bills, with vehicle sales providing the profit. Mercedes dealers were pulling in money hand over fist five years ago; not because the German luxury vehicles were flying off the shelf, but because they were breaking down regularly. The strain on Mercedes Benz to pay the massive warranty costs cut into profits, but the dealers were raking in the big bucks.

Customers that buy vehicles that break down regularly don't tend to stay loyal, and the folks at Daimler headquarters know this. Mercedes has been working hard to improve quality, and the proof shows in the form of less traffic at M-B's service centers. While that's great for customers, it's bad news for dealers, as warranty work has gone down by 30% or more in some places. For now, dealers are left scrambling for ways to add revenue to their shifting business model. Fortunately, Mercedes' quality leap will result in more satisfied customers, which means the dealerships will be able to continue to work on their core business: selling vehicles.

Eurosport

c63 hasn't been out long enough to show anything, when it hits 50k and that plastic interior is not falling apart, making rattles, then we're talking...
63 engine is still very new, no real long reliability data to compare to the 55.

Hans Delbruck

Good post. Expected reliability is a major reason I chose the C63 over the M3 (the engine sound and torque didn't hurt either) Turns out the M3 is quite a bit more buggy than the C63 so far. Now it's BMW's turn to improve quality.

451/443=EW

Bingo!! Im in sales,as it happens with MB now. MB quailty went down with the Crysler merger, and thank god its over. Also MB has put mad cash into quality after what happened between 1999 and 2005. So dont worry...all is good and still getting better.

Yes I know I spelled CRY-sler wrong.

norb

It wasn't the Chrysler merger that did in MB, it was their desire to sell a ton of cars! And it worked, at least in the US. But they spread their engineering too thin as to crank out so many new models so quickly.

paulGT3

Top Gear said now that they only make 1 billion in profit a year instead of
3 billion they are able to concentrate on quality.
Jeremy did say that AMG maid 18,000 motors a year by hand
and that AMGs hands probably hurt.

mthis

how can they sell a left over cl550 that MSRP WAS 130.xxx and selling now for 99.xxx comon ther has to be something ther.