Germany's taxi drivers lose faith in Mercedes

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Satch

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Article in Financial Times today must make depressing reading for Jurgen Schrempp.

German Taxi & Hire Car Association says that since 2000 MB share of new Taxi sales has fallen from 70% to 50% at the same time as VW & Opel have risen.

Problem: reduced reliability, especially with the hasty adoption of new technology, and price in a poor economic climate.

But MB still accounts for 70% of the overall Taxi market because many drivers are now buying up the older, more reliable vehicles (I presume this means pre W210 models) and pressing them into Taxi service. Example given is of one Gregorios Sachinides who has clocked up 2.8m miles in an E240D.

On the positive side huge efforts have been made and what is coming out of the factory now are claimed to be of the best quality ever made (maybe because some of the more pointless electronics are removed and Bosche have had a good kicking) but putting right the quality problems on existing vehicles is costing them Eur500m per annum.
 
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