Bring Back the Mercedes Grill

[def90cars]

The origins of "The Best or Nothing" tagline. As the story goes, Gottlieb Daimler wrote the iconic words on a piece of paper and placed it in his factory to "inspire, provoke and push" his employees to build the best cars in the world.

 

[The Boss]

The origins of "The Best or Nothing" tagline. As the story goes, Gottlieb Daimler wrote the iconic words on a piece of paper and placed it in his factory to "inspire, provoke and push" his employees to build the best cars in the world.

They should have placed the "iconic note" in the offices of the UK marketing office for Mercedes-Benz.

whilst quality varies and has admittedly improved recently, they quality of the marketing decision is appauling!

 

[mrcbenz]

The Boss, have to agree with you on this one sir. The E Class should be about understated refinement and style and suits the bonnet star much more. The star grill does however look right on the AMGs, coupes and SLs, but not the E. It is like a grandad trying to be bling with a piece of chunky jewellery from Ratners ; ) It's just not right. A note to MB ... Please don't try too hard and be like BMW or Audi. Try being a league apart and retain that finesse and refinement with that bonnet star.

 

[The Boss]

are we now facing an era of double star fronts..

if so.. im super worried... both for how ridiculous the cars will look and also .. its an insult to the millions of faithful owners whom have bought Mercedes cars, fallen in love with them, want the star on the bonnet, a smart sophisticated grille and have been loyal to the brand, potentially for many generations.... i for one want them to know the disappointment in their marketing efforts.. Many do not want or need the size of an S class, let alone afford one, to feel the pride of driving with the bonnet star standing proud...

the embedded grille was something reminiscent of what i used to see in the 1980's from a company called "rudemercs"

totally yuk

we are in for era of chav like styling... oh dear!

 

[bpsorrel]

That "rude" look sadly is very popular in Russia. Not sure what goes through the owner's minds when they do that.... sad...

 

[ima poster]

Playing with the car configurator on the German site, I see the C-class saloon/estate and the E-Class saloon/estate can have the traditional grille and star. I have just bought my first Mercedes-Benz and one of the attractions (61 reg S212) was the star and the grille. The sports grille suits the coupe's and convertibles as well as the sports cars, but the chrome grille and star should at least be a listed option. Without it, you might as well go buy a Skoda Octavia or Superb. Which I nearly did, but I liked the view of the star. The new bland nose takes away the Mercedes-ness of the car in my opinion.

 

[The Boss]

playing with the car configurator on the german site, i see the c-class saloon/estate and the e-class saloon/estate can have the traditional grille and star. I have just bought my first mercedes-benz and one of the attractions (61 reg s212) was the star and the grille. The sports grille suits the coupe's and convertibles as well as the sports cars, but the chrome grille and star should at least be a listed option. Without it, you might as well go buy a skoda octavia or superb. Which i nearly did, but i liked the view of the star. The new bland nose takes away the mercedes-ness of the car in my opinion.

well welcome to the wonderfully opinionated world of mercedes

 

[The Boss]

Yes, you are correct,

the decision is not a Mercedes-Benz headoffice decision, but a localised decision but Mercedes-Benz UK...

They can be bought in germany, but will only be supplied as LHD! Not RHD!

They think they want to dictate the market, limit choice and cash in on the generic fleet sales, and slowly forgetting the loyal customers whom stuffed their coffers to allow them to still produce fantastic cars..

they have totally devalued customer loyalty, trying to chase new younger buyers, simply as they can not afford the ridicuously cheap lease deals, and basically bringing to market a car that meets a selected profile of customers.. many of whom as has been said, would be catered for by the a class, cla and gla...

Mercedes is all over the place!

 

[c63chris]

This is clearly something you feel strongly about and it's your opinion but a lot of this thread is sweeping generalisation. Sadly I am not a "younger" buyer as I am the wrong side of 40. I do however think the A class looks great. Since I've got my A45 2 weeks ago I have had 2 people cross the road to talk to me about he car and how much they like it. Both again mature people. Good luck with your campaign but it seems to me this is more about design and appearance rather than an age thing. As a child I thought the star on the bonnet incredibly old fashioned, maybe that's why I'm not interested in keeping it.

 

[The Boss]

This is clearly something you feel strongly about and it's your opinion but a lot of this thread is sweeping generalisation. Sadly I am not a "younger" buyer as I am the wrong side of 40. I do however think the A class looks great. Since I've got my A45 2 weeks ago I have had 2 people cross the road to talk to me about he car and how much they like it. Both again mature people. Good luck with your campaign but it seems to me this is more about design and appearance rather than an age thing. As a child I thought the star on the bonnet incredibly old fashioned, maybe that's why I'm not interested in keeping it.

Yes its a design and appearance thing..

some will prefer a star in the grille, others the bonnet mounted star with a traditional grille... atleast let us have a choice eh! Thats all i ask!

 

[bpsorrel]

I think the main point here is that MB UK have taken away the choice to have the bonnet star and traditional grille if that's what you want. I don't think it's anything to do with age or any other demographic, it's simply the desire to be able to choose a look that you like, just like every MB buyer in just about every other country can.

 

[bpsorrel]

HAHA!! Great minds there Boss!

 

[bpsorrel]

As a side point, Toyota (amongst other car companies) have decided that in the UK we can't have a spare wheel and must instead have a useless can of gunk and an inflator. The spare wheel well is still there but no wheel! I hate that and will never buy a car without a spare wheel of some kind.

Seems like the UK buyer is being punished....

 

[ima poster]

To answer an earlier post, I reckon the A-class looks great with the grille that it has. My E-class looks great with it's star and bar There was a tweet from an MB magazine asking for the best c-class from the new configurator. I cheated and built mine on the German web site. Mwahahahaha. https://twitter.com/zalp66/status/452930006872621056/photo/1

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Have you thought about asking this question on both the UK and general MB twitter accounts to see what response you get?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

There used to be a choice, and the majority of new car buyers chose not to have the "standing" star, so the people who buy Mercedes cars have prompted the decision by MBUK, rather than MBUK choosing who it wants to buy their cars.

 

[rf065]

On reading this thread I was convinced it started on the 1st April! But it appears you are all serious?

The only time I've had a star on the bonnet is with a courtesy car, I failed to see what the big attraction was then as I do now.

Russ

 

[The Boss]

Have you thought about asking this question on both the UK and general MB twitter accounts to see what response you get?

not yet..

i have gathered enough opinions from 5 stealerships that they know whats best..

i will share it with them in time..

 

[The Boss]

There used to be a choice, and the majority of new car buyers chose not to have the "standing" star, so the people who buy Mercedes cars have prompted the decision by MBUK, rather than MBUK choosing who it wants to buy their cars.

NO!

The c-class variant had a choice of sport or trad grille.

the spec of the AMG line up meant it would have the sports grille.

The spec on the se was possibly so bad that those customers then choose the sports model, which admittedly looked great, bar the damn front IMO.

Anyway, your point refers to people buying Mercedes and prompting their decision.

At no time in my living memory has an e-class been offered with both the sports grille or the trad grille

so this is not choice, but dictatorship.. I mean come on.. the War is over?.. no?

 

[Khamen]

On reading this thread I was convinced it started on the 1st April! But it appears you are all serious?

The only time I've had a star on the bonnet is with a courtesy car, I failed to see what the big attraction was then as I do now.

Russ

Sights for the machine guns

K