sam9187

I hate getting a CLA or a C as a loaner for my loaded S63. Mercedes dealerships don't care and do not value higher end buyers. The staff can't even differentiate between different models. One of the staff pointed at my car and said is that C class yours. I have a S63 coupe.

superangrypenguin

I certainly do not have any issues with any counter opinion (at all!). Opinions are like...well, you know how it goes :-)

Maybe I should elaborate a bit. I don't particularly believe that what car you own should dictate what level of service you receive. Personally, I believe in treating people extraordinarily well, and they remember me by my actions/attitude, but sure enough, the vehicle I own does get their attention.

If I may expand on my thinking here.

For every 10 MBs in my area, there is maybe 1 Audi. The size and customer base of my local Audi dealership is a fraction of what it is with MB. Audi sales people/service people do recognize more of their clientele, although yes, there are a lot of A4s, A5s, etc. But if we compare the two brands, there are wayyy more MB vehicles.

All cars (ICE cars) are getting cheaper. Having taken apart almost every part of the front half of the car myself (interior trim wise), I'm disappointed with the S more than the A8. But yes, both are sad, compared to where both of these cars came from.

I don't necessarily care about exclusivity, but I do care if I suddenly feel like I'm driving a Toyota, which is what I was feeling as a MB customer.

Let me be absolutely clear here. The whoring out of ALL these "high end" German brands has me shaking my head and in tears.

hyperion667

I agree the cla looks really great, but build quality it $%^%.....but damn if I don't a double take every time I see one lol

MBNUT1

As superangrypengquin said above Mercedes dealerships should treat all of their customers well. Not sure why you care if they can't differentiate your car from a C-Class. They are both nice looking cars.

hyperion667

What if they ran out of loaners and only had a rental from Enterprise? Like a Sentra or something?

sam9187

I actually care about them knowing their product. They floor the S63 as if it's a C not knowing that it has lot more power and the car takes off like a rocket. It maybe ok to you but I don't want them to crash my car. They already put scratches all over the hood and side mirror but dents are another ballgame.

sam9187

That's when I will resort to driving my Dodge Charger which actually I drive more than the MB anyway.

Streamliner

I think we are talking about a lot of different things here.

First of all, “Brand Dilution,” is different than “Luxury Experience Dilution.” If MB wants to sell Go-Karts, that’s fine by me, just don’t lump my S Class ownership experience with the Go-Kart customers. If you do, you are truly cheapening the total experience that S Class & other high end vehicle buyers have paid dearly for.

As far as quality goes, WEIGHT, as related to fuel economy is a HUGE deal these days, because of CAFE and other government regulations. With this in mind, every piece of trim in even an S Class can not be made of metal, where a plastic part will perform just as well. In such cases, plastic parts should not be construed as inferior quality. And to compare the quality of a current S Class with a 20 or 30 year old model, is like comparing a Boeing 787 with an early DC-9. The sophistication of the current models is so incredibly higher than the earlier model MB, that of course, there will be more reliability issues with the newer cars. The current S Class is like a slew of computers on wheels. 30 years ago, there was maybe one computer onboard an S Class—or pretty much any other car at that time. If they built the current S Class to remain bulletproof reliable for 50 years, it would cost a half million $$$.

I’m not ashamed to say that I like the fact that my cars serve as a bit of a calling card. I like others knowing that I appreciate and can afford the best design, engineering, safety, etc. I have worked long and hard to get here and like dining at the best restaurants or lodging at five star hotels, driving what I feel is one of the best cars ever produced, is something I ENJOY! That said, we all value different things differently. I wear an old Seiko watch and I wear Eddie Bauer clothes—but love my Mephisto shoes. Different strokes.

Anyway, I looked at a Rolls-Royce Ghost today. LOVELY car. If only MB would sell me a new S560, the way I, NOT THEY, want it. Oh well.

superangrypenguin

Well put, sir. I am exactly the same way. Although I am an Allen Edmonds sort of shoe man.

Donnymac

All I need is engineering, design, performance, comfort, safety and a tech that knows his stuff.

Plus I now have a Service Rep that is second to none.

Rockland

So, the bellman at the Four Seasons should treat patrons differently depending upon the hotel room number?

The waiter at Mastro’s should treat diners differently because of the total tab?

You bought an S Class. Your experience is getting to drive the S Class.

Mercedes owes you the exact same (great) experience it owes to everyone else. A Class, C Class included.

Here is why: Customer aspiration. A Class owners become C Class owners. C Class owners become E Class Owners. E Class owners become S Class owners.

Just my opinion.

MBNUT1

Fair enough. My impression was that your main concern was that they failed to recognize that you spent 100k more on your car than a C class.

places

MB should treat everyone well, but realize a substantial amount of higher line MB owners have owned and may own multiple MB products. Myself and my family have owned 16 MB's in the last 20 years or so mostly all high line. So, yes I do expect my dealer to treat me different that someone coming in and buying whatever the cheaper entry level vehicle of the month happens to be. Not through minimizing the A or B class experience but not diluting mine. Also, this may ruffle some feathers but I don't enjoy seeing those cars on the same sales floor as a 150K car. Should I get the same loaner car as someone that drives a CLA? Personally I usually don't as they give me an E but may others do.

hyperion667

People that spend more deserve MORE.........a logic that will run humanity into the fawking ground. Does ANYONE realize how fawked that is?

superangrypenguin

A great theory, for sure, and one I agree with. That said, is it practical? No, I don't think so.

For those of you who do, or used to fly frequently for work - you may appreciate this most of all.

Airlines treat status passengers differently than even business/first class fliers. As they should. Lifetime revenue for a million miler is significantly higher than for a one off business class passenger. Here where I live - it's why said million miler has perks above and beyond a business class/first class passenger. Airlines reward based on spend - and I do think car makers should too.

Should an S class driver have their own private terminal and 4 people lapping at him/her while getting a service done? Probably not, but is it reasonable to ask for an E class for a loaner as opposed to a B? I think so.

sam9187

I just would like the dealership people to care about what they do which is lot to ask in any field nowadays. The dealership has caused me much grief that I don't want to add to it by valet crashing my car.

I like to be below the radar so their mistake in not recognizing the S is good for me. In fact I like that MB all look the same and blend in. One could be driving a $200k+ S and not attract attention.

superangrypenguin

Eh?

A major selling point, for me, for the S class was its presence. I don't know of any S class owner who wants to blend in, because if that was a goal, competitive vehicles do a much better job at 'blending in'.

MBNUT1

Cool. I wish that Mercedes weren't viewed as a status symbol. Like when I had a big repair bill on mine and my boss who drives a 10 year old Civic (but flys a private plane) told me I shouldn't have bought such an expensive car. Add to that the looks I get from my neighbors for driving a Mercedes instead of a Prius.

hyperion667

I'd also add, after configuring and receiving delivery of 4 cars in as many years, I was asked not to return to the dealer because of 'behavior'.....caused by the crappiest service you've ever seen.......so no, money doesn't buy respect OR the right to exceptional service.

MBNUT1

Exactly

Wolfman

This seems to be on of those usual threads where everyone gets to vent about everything...

I wish people would just stop with the nostalgia. Mercedes didn't build any better cars 30 years ago and their service and warranty was vastly inferior to today. But people bought into cars for the long-term, took the bad with the good. I remember the days in Germany when MB and customers considered a V8 just well run-in at 100k kilometers (62k miles). Today people suggest not to buy an S-Class with 60k miles even though the engines are dramatically better now.

It's just a radically different approach to products these days. Even high-end products are considered disposable and a two years old product feel too old to many...

places

I think there are many people here like myself that value and care about the brand. We have demonstrated this through years of loyalty and lots of our hard earned dollars spent.

The MB of yesterday as Streamliner noted, would be too expensive and inefficient to replicate or produce. Got that. Today's cars are of course better in so many ways, efficient, safer, more luxurious, faster, and of course less we forget smarter. However regardless of warranty and service now vs then, todays cars are far more complex and unreliable than before. Sure, people rolled there high line cars every year into newer ones but that was far less prevalent than now. Today sooner trade-ins are more out of reliably issues or more recent software upgrades. What good is an engine that is better today at 60K miles when the supporting cast such as 100+ solenoids, microprocessors, and software issues are suspect. Sure the engine won't breakdown at 60 or 100 or even 200K but we all know that other parts will that weren't around 10 or 20 years ago. The paradigm has shifted, not necessarily bad, not necessarily good either. Just different. We reap the benefits of technology and progress but at an added expense.

As for the approach being different, sure high end products are disposable and always have been but based on the fact that those disposing could afford to. Today, there are more reasons than that alone. As mentioned in endless threads and posts, these cars are very temperamental and people's patience with them is short.

syswei

I've only been in S-Classes for 11 years, but in that time I was given an S loaner exactly once, and I've had more Cs than Es as loaners. Yet it doesn't bother me too much, because if they were to give me an S every time, I'd just be paying for it in higher service prices, and I'm only using the loaner for a day anyway. As an idea, maybe the default loaner for an S owner should be an S, and the owner offered lesser cars as a choice, in return for getting a small discount on service.

As far as brand dilution, I am ok with that too because the upside is that the volume of "lesser" cars MB sells helps to defray the cost of developing bleeding edge safety and other tech. If the MB product line didn't extend below the E or whatever, it would mean either less resources put into development of safety and other tech, or higher prices.

People that really want exclusivity can still jump over to Bentley or RR.

MBNUT1

Very nicely put. To extend this a bit. I always felt that Mercedes held back a bit on introducing technology until they could guarantee a level of robustness. An example of where they didn't do that was the W220 CAN network. A more recent example of them applying that philosophy was the introduction of direct injection where they didn't bodge it up like Audi. Where my issue is with the deterioration of durability, motor mounts that fail, transfer gear boxes that fail, seats that split and wood that fades (twice). None of these things are acceptable in a vehicle produced by Mercedes or have anything to do with computer count. What they are more reflective of is building to a price point and selecting the lowest cost suppliers and counting on surviving the lease period as opposed to building for the long haul.

rustybear3

Put an S, E, and C class together and at first blush, they're tough to tell apart. Unless it's a Convertible or a G car, even the SUV's look similar to one another. Now with the eventually elimination of the S Cab convertible, the SL may soon join the ranks of bring similar to other CABS with the 2+2 and soft hardtop combo.

Even such lines as the Cadillac made each model distinguishable from one another. Not so as much with MB. Is this a good thing or bad thing? Of course, it then becomes all subjective. For myself it's easy cause I'm only interested in convertibles; and that all comes down to looks, ride and amenities. No matter what model. Quite frankly, I would have been just as happy with the C CAB if it weren't for that stick on I-pad look. Same thing with the SL interior; a deal breaker for us. Even though they are all excellent choices.

As far as service is concerned, as long as it's a Mercedes, I could care less about the loaner. The idea that one should get better or preferential treatment over other MB owners is archaic thinking in today's times. Just give me the same kind of service and attention to detail as you would to a richer owner and his 6 figured car. That's what establishes loyalty and eventually moving up model wise in a dealership. Just my 2 cents.