w211 4 matic coming soon.

[grober]

Missunderstanding

Sorry John,
if I wasn't clear in what I said. I totally agree Mercedes dont make a 4matic RHD E211. I am not disputing that. What baffles me is why not? I included the list of countries to illustrate the potential market they appear to be ignoring. Now many are former UK island colonies on that list with little road surface
BUT
Australia/New Zealand a whole Continent with its share of unmade roads.
Bangladesh,India,Pakistan India undergoing huge economic development.
Indonesia,Malaysia fast economic developement also well the formula one guys think so.
Botswana,Lesotho,Malawi,Mozambique,Namibia,Somalia,South Africa, Swaziland,Tanzania,Uganda,Zambia,Zimbabwe,= a very large chunk of Africa. ( This is straining my o-level geography to its limits) South Africa make most of the C class models that the UK gets anyway.
Japan,Hong Kong,Barbados,Brunei,Singapore, prestige wealthy markets for most manufacturers
united kingdom-one of the most profitable and loyal markets for MB in europe well ,it was
I don,t believe the technical arguement despite changes in the front propshaft layout. Economic arguements are what holds sway as you say and I am merely questioning their wisdom in the long term.
Mercedes cars used to be about technical excellence and reliability and derived a prestige reputation on that basis. Somewhere along the line they decided on volume production and forgot why people bought their cars.
I,m sure when the Range Rover was designed there were bean counters saying "why bother its a limited market". And as for British Leyland lets not go there cos we all know what happened to them! Is there a market for this feature, audi think so and LHD mercedes 4matics seem to sell well in the USA and most of Northern Europe. It appears to me that Mercedes UK are "telling" us what we need rather than "asking" us what we want. After all we are just potential customers what do we know.

 

[glojo]

It appears to me that Mercedes UK are "telling" us what we need rather than "asking" us what we want. After all we are just potential customers what do we know.

I understand completely what your saying and I would love to have a 4Matic, but it might be a tad unfair to be too critical of Mercedes-Benz UK.

I say this because when you look at the poor range of choice that the USA has, it makes you realise how lucky we are.

The diesel powered vehicle is not that popular in the US, but the 320CDI is the exception to the rule, the US however do not import the 320CDI estate?? As far as they are concerned Germany does not make this vehicle????

Australia is a huge land mass where they enjoy driving big engined vehicles, but again the 320CDI in any form is not imported. (The 280CDI is though)

I have no idea who makes the decisions and how they are made, but the 4Matic is made not only at a different factory, it is also produced in a different country (that might have changed) This factory did not even have the facility to apply the latest paint technology)

I suppose from a technical point of view it 'might' be a fairly simple job to get rid of that horrible lump!!!!! but then there is the huge cost of re-tooling and making different casts?? As I previously stated, I would buy one tomorrow, but I understand the problems.

Incidentally Mercedes-Benz list the armour plated S600 as a standard vehicle in South Africa. (by that I mean it is advertised in the S-class brochure and is not a special order )

John

 

[grober]

Maybe someday!

Hi John,
maybe I was being a little hard on MB UK. Perhaps its not down to them. One things for sure if MB UK ever did start marketing 4matic versions of saloons and estates in RHD I guess we know 2 guys who would be very interested.