Jakpro1

From Detnews.com



Full article here on how Benz is getting a fricking clue.

Ever since its introduction 40 years ago, Mercedes-Benz's flagship S-Class luxury sedan has epitomized the German carmaker's supremacy in automotive comfort, safety and prestige.

Now as Mercedes prepares to roll out the newest version at the Frankfurt Auto Show this week, its reputation hinges more than ever on the car's performance.

"What's at stake for them is the leadership in the luxury class," said Philipp Rosengarten, Frankfurt-based analyst for automotive forecasting firm Global Insight. New rivals are crowding the large luxury sedan segment which was once Mercedes' domain, while doubts about quality have weakened the brand.

Three years ago, when DaimlerChrysler AG's luxury carmaker launched the stalwart E-Class midsize sedan, executives asserted that they had worked out the bugs.

Behind the scenes, however, engineers were still tweaking electronic systems as production of the E-Class was getting under way. The result was dismal: Irate consumers savaged the car in quality surveys.

This time around, Mercedes has multiplied the precautions, putting the new sedan through a rigorous regimen that borrows tips from Toyota Motor Corp.

Pre-production S-Class cars have clocked more than three times as many test miles -- 3 million -- as previous models. In addition, whereas Mercedes previously allowed engineers to fine-tune electronic systems until the last minute, it set a deadline for changes in the S-Class five months before the start of production.

Mercedes still dominates the large luxury sedan segment, but rivals are turning up the competition.

Worldwide, BMW's 7 Series is gaining on Mercedes. In the United States, the largest single market for luxury cars, the S-Class trails Toyota's Lexus LS sedan -- and Toyota is pushing to establish its premium nameplate in Europe and Japan.

"The market for premium sedans has expanded, but there are many more players, so the pie gets chopped up even further," said Michael Robinet, vice president at consulting firm CSM Worldwide in Farmington Hills.

The Volkswagen group's Audi marque has produced a strong contender in its stylish A8. General Motors Corp. plans to build a top-line, ultra-luxury sedan under its revitalized Cadillac brand. And "the Japanese have raised their game with premium sedans," said Robinet.

Now Mercedes is trying to set the bar higher. Available with a choice of four engines, including a new V8, its new and larger S-Class also boasts class-leading safety technology.

Until recently, however, its impending debut was overshadowed by turmoil at the top of Mercedes.

The automaker has had three CEOs in one year, a financial scandal erupted recently in its European sales division, and relations with key suppliers have been strained by finger-pointing following a deterioration in the brand's reliability ratings: from No. 1 in J.D. Power and Associates' 1990 Vehicle Dependability Survey to No. 27 in the latest survey.

A poll published this year by Consumer Reports rated the 2004 E-Class the most unreliable car sold in the United States.

In April, Mercedes issued its biggest-ever U.S. recall -- 1.3 million vehicles. Some had been assembled as recently as January, undermining confidence in Mercedes executives' claims that they had resolved the quality problems. Meanwhile, Mercedes' Smart minicar brand keeps losing money.

In the first quarter, the Mercedes Car Group reported a $1.2 billion loss. It returned to profitability in the second quarter but earned only $15 million -- less than 3 percent of the Chrysler Group's profit during the period.

DaimlerChrysler announced last month that Dieter Zetsche, Chrysler Group CEO and incoming chief executive of DaimlerChrysler, would take over Mercedes' management. That appointment, effective Sept. 1, appeared timed in part to prevent internal problems from eclipsing the S-Class unveiling in Frankfurt.

With the new sedan, Mercedes is striving not only to restore its image but also bolster its claim to be a leader in automotive safety.

In the late 1980s, Mercedes and its supplier Robert Bosch GmbH developed electronic stability control, a system designed to help prevent accidents by correcting a car's trajectory when it strays from the direction in which the driver is steering. Electronic stability control, now available on most premium cars, has been shown in studies to substantially reduce accidents.

Mercedes is taking the concept of active -- or preventive -- safety a step further with the S-Class by enriching a network of systems designed to protect occupants once the car's radar sensors detect that a collision is unavoidable.

Within nanoseconds, the seats are pulled upright to place the driver and occupants in the right spot for the airbags, the sunroof closes and the windows roll up. The seatbelts hug the occupants tightly, and the brakes automatically slow down the car to reduce the impact.

To enhance drivers' visibility at night, Mercedes has fitted the S-Class with two infrared headlamps that provide as much illumination as high beams -- without dazzling oncoming drivers. The image captured by the infrared beams is displayed on a screen in the instrument panel.

During tests, drivers discerned dummy passengers dressed in dark clothes 55 yards away -- more than twice as far as they could spot them in a car with low-beam headlights.

"That's not a gimmick. It offers a real advantage," said auto analyst Juergen Pieper at Metzler Bank in Frankfurt.

GM pioneered night-vision technology in 2000 but stopped offering it last year because consumers balked at the cost, even though nearly half of fatal accidents in the United States occur at night or during twilight.

At the Frankfurt show, Mercedes' archrival BMW will display its own night-vision feature, which uses a different technology. It will offer it as an add-on option for the 7 Series and costs about $2,300.

Such systems owe their development to rapid advances in automotive electronics. But those technological gains have a downside, causing baffling and at times hard-to-fix problems that have eroded the reputation of Germany's automakers, leaders in the field.

Luxury sedan buyers tend to be middle aged or older, and many of these consumers are overwhelmed by the multitude of new functions. After breaking ground with its innovative iDrive system, introduced in the 7 Series, BMW has gone back to make it easier to use.

In the new S-Class, owners can troll through dozens of functions, such as suspension setting adjustments, controlled by a central system. But common features, such as radio and temperature controls, can also be adjusted the old-fashioned way by flicking switches or pressing buttons on the dashboard.

But all these features come at a higher price -- the S-Class starts at $82,000 in Europe, an increase of nearly 10 percent. "This is an opportunity, but also a risk," said Pieper.

If consumers like the sedan, the higher price will boost Mercedes' earnings. Pieper estimates the S-Class cars traditionally contribute a fifth of the automaker's profit.

But if the car isn't a hit, customers might balk at the price.

New boss Zetsche is counting on the model's profit margins to accelerate Mercedes' financial recovery. Last month, he said his first priority was to restore its profit margins to average levels for luxury carmakers -- or between 6 to 8 percent of sales, a level that has eluded Mercedes in recent years.

On Friday, Mercedes offered European customers a two-year warranty with unlimited mileage -- a tactic similar to the warranty plan he introduced at Chrysler in 2002 to allay concerns about reliability.

Mercedes already is showing improvement in sales, which rose 12 percent in August. Sales of Mercedes-brand vehicles were up 15 percent, bolstered by strong demand in Europe for the new A-Class compact and B-Class wagon and for the new M-Class sport utility vehicle assembled at Mercedes' plant in Vance, Ala.

Mercedes plans to expand its large vehicle lineup, adding a new R-Class large luxury wagon and a larger SUV, to court well-heeled customers looking at alternatives to the traditional luxury sedan.

While larger than the S-Class, the new vehicles don't diminish its importance in the range. Said Robinet: "The S-Class is still the standard-bearer for Mercedes-Benz."



You can reach Christine Tierney at (313) 222-1463 or ctierney@detnews.com.

CE750

I KNEW IT! MB fell victim to the cost cutting bean counters that ran it. The problem doesn't lie in faulty German engineering, which is inferior to Japanese engineering. Hopefully they learned a valuable lesson.

I am told that W211's as late as mid '04 build dates were still plagued (in many cases) with reliability issues.. Maybe the W211 should have been a 2005 model, and they should have stuck to their tried and tested 9 year cycle rather than shorten the W210's life span and go American style on their model year changes!

Once bitten, twice shy - hopefully!