DuaneC63

Dear Dr. Z,
One would have thought your foray into Chrysler Motors would have taught MBZ some hard lessons. Fortunately you were able to jettison that albatross before it devalued the entire MBZ brand. However your recent announcement that you plan to purchase Ducati indicates that you’re intent on attending the school of hard knocks one more time. Here’s the course outline:

MBZ will pay in excess of 35 time revenue for a mature company. These types of multipliers are only paid for high tech and bio tech gazelles that have the potential for massive earnings increases. As an investment you be better off buying T-Bills. If your intention is to greatly increase revenue by increasing production of the brand you’re faced with two more problems. Ducati is ultra premium brand (much like Maybach) with a small target market of rather wealthy individuals that appreciates the quality and exclusivity of the brand. Increasing production and market share will require a lower price point which will sacrifice the brand premium and quality. The real world example was AMF’s purchase of Harley Davidson (which was in dire straights due to competition from Japanese manufacturers who targeted a much broader lower price point market) that built its marketing effort around a hard core loyal following. After AMF took over and attempted to compete with the Japanese, Harley sacrifice quality, embarked on a fatal “family” oriented market plan which alienated their loyal target market and eventually caused the bankruptcy of the company. Used Harleys built during the AMF ownership period (if there are any left running) sell at extreme discounts compared to other used Harleys.

BMW envy appears to be another driver of this misguided adventure. BMW has been making ultra premium motorcycles for generations. They have strong brand loyalty and do not attempt to complete with the Japanese manufacturers. They know their business and their market. MBZ does not have this depth of background in the motorcycle industry. The unfortunately ill fated Maybach, although an extremely well built and attractive car I would love to own, appeared more to be a sibling rivalry “me too” after BMW and VW acquired the right to Rolls Royce and Bentley. The Smart car appears as an attempt to out Mini the Mini, although with it’s anemic performance and plastic body panels it reminds me more of a Tribant.

Lastly the name change. BERTHA. This must be an April fool’s day joke. I think you’re taking the naming of products after relatives of the founders of Daimler Benz a too bit far. I would never want to say I ride a Bertha unless she looked like Giselle Bundchen.

If you must buy Ducati, just buy it as a trophy and leave current management in control of this renowned brand.

Hu99

I for one applaud M-B's decision to buy into Ducati rather than spend endless years developing their own motorcycle. Ducati is a proven brand that needs some teutonic influence on its quality control and reliability.
BMW on the other hand seem to think that they can foist their **** on the public just because of their name. Well it's high time BMW had some serious competition for the status brand and the Ducati-Daimler co-operation will provide that in spades.
BMW, you're going to have to develop a REAL transmission now that doesn't fell like stirring rocks with a plastic straw.

Nola

Didn't you guys hear? They are also moving on the recently decommissioned space shuttles to compete with Virgin.

DuaneC63

Great idea. Only two of them blew up in space so far.