what does it mean to own a mercedes today vs owning a mercedes in the past

[The Boss]

im confused...

what does it ACTUALLY mean to own a mercedes today opposed to in the past..

i keep banging on about historical quality and brand etc etc heritage grill blah blah.. but what about the essence of what Mercedes "The Brand" means to you and how is it perceived by the Jones!

 

[LTD]

I don't care what others think of my car.

If I wanted attention, I would have large breasts.

 

[renault12ts]

:d

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

It's not as special as it once was. But that's to be expected as there are so many more of them, and so many more of us can afford to buy and run Mercedes.

I for one am jolly glad that's the case too. I'm sure that if the clock was to be wound back to yesteryear I wouldn't be one of the lucky few who would be able to afford an MB.

 

[Will]

I don't think this applies only to Mercedes. Doesn't the BMW 3-series outsell the Ford Mondeo?

Or going to another level - I see lots more Aston Martin, Bentley etc than you ever used to.

Cars are cheaper these days relatively speaking (compared to peoples earnings, cost of other things like houses etc) and the boom of cheap credit/finance/lease deals of the early '00s led to people buying more newer/expensive cars than ever before.

Even on a more mainstream level, I remember that 15-20 years ago families would be lucky to have one nice car, now most households have two I reckon. And gone are the days of many people driving 10+ year old Cortinas/Sierras/Cavaliers etc - there's loads of newish cars all over the place, even in poorer areas. Supermarket car parks are all full of '56 plate Focuses, Astras, MPVs etc - not old Escorts leaking oil and rusty Triumphs that wouldn't start etc

So - it's not that everyone has become rich, and it's not just that Mercedes are of a lower quality/cheaper or whatever - it's because all people (regardless of class) have had the opportunity to buy better cars, and obviously I think a lot of people have taken advantage of that.

All IMHO of course

Will

 

[Mudster]

Banks have produced ever more increasingly creative ways of financing vehicles, this in turn opens up ownership to a much larger audience.

Deferred value finance, where you basically pay for depretiation only plus interest of course create an anomaly with sought after vehicles where good residuals mean low finance payments and expensive cars for relatively little outlay.

A fine example of this is SLK Mercedes, just look on the offers page of the MB site to see how cheap you can get into one of these.

 

[sean3513]

a mercedes will always have the essence of quality, as with other similar marques.....the problem (or not)......is there are more on the road than there used to be.......imo.

i guess there is more disposable income than there used to be( relatively speaking) and the added extra borrowing available on houses....due to the huge hike in prices.

but do we buy/own mercs for the image or to impress the jones's ?????..............NO!! we buy em because they're mercs.........if the mondeo looked as good and drove as good we would be driving them...............wouldn't we ?????

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I blame house prices.

Twenty-five years ago an MB, Range Rover, Bentley, etc would be a massive proportion of the value of many people's homes. With the massive growth in house prices - and cheap credit - even a 'posh' car is a relatively small compared to the cost of buying a house for many people.

The same time period has also seen many people benefiting from the inheritance (and sale of property) from deceased parents who purchased a house after the Second World War, and who've gone on to sell that property at a time of exceptionally high property values.

Put these two things together with everything else in what was a growing economy, and what happened was an intensification of wealth in relative terms amongst 'normal' people, who had previously aspired to own luxuries and who could now afford to do so.

That's my theory anyway!!

 

[renault12ts]

Prices have stood still for 10 years or more.

 

[Will]

I blame house prices.

Twenty-five years ago an MB, Range Rover, Bentley, etc would be a massive proportion of the value of many people's homes. With the massive growth in house prices - and cheap credit - even a 'posh' car is a relatively small compared to the cost of buying a house for many people.

The same time period has also seen many people benefiting from the inheritance (and sale of property) from deceased parents who purchased a house after the Second World War, and who've gone on to sell that property at a time of exceptionally high property values.

Put these two things together with everything else in what was a growing economy, and what happened was an intensification of wealth in relative terms amongst 'normal' people, who had previously aspired to own luxuries and who could now afford to do so.

That's my theory anyway!!

The credit crunch in a nutshell!

 

[Swiss Toni]

I drove a brand new A Class when they first came out.

I was gutted.

I have owned Mercedes cars for years and that awful, poorly built pile of pap confirmed that the firm had sold itself down the river.

How could a firm that built the W124 put their name to such a thing?

What does it mean to own a Mercedes?

Not a lot.

 

[vincenz]

I drove a brand new A Class when they first came out.

I was gutted.

I have owned Mercedes cars for years and that awful, poorly built pile of pap confirmed that the firm had sold itself down the river.

How could a firm that built the W124 put their name to such a thing?

What does it mean to own a Mercedes?

Not a lot.

Got to agree with the above, theres sod all margin in alot of things nowadays and making cars is another example.

There was a fantastic post on here that summed it up about how no one wants to pay for quality anymore, as the vast majority buy cars on credit with payments they can't afford with a view to changing every 2/3 years.

Sad state of affairs but alot of manufactures have gone volume chasing at the expense of quality and Mercedes is another one.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Good question, although you'll struggle to find a hard and fast answer.

I'd say that the essential brand values of Mercedes-Benz haven't changed much, but the way the company delivers those values as products definitely has.

So what are the values? Well, they're encapsulated in the company's symbols: the three-pointed star, initially representing prosperity while later sign-posting an ambition of pre-eminence on land, in the air and at sea; and the laurel wreath, marking sporting victories.

There are those who see the diversification of the product range as being the marque's downfall. Some will say that the rot set in with the A Class, while others would dare to cite the now-revered 190E as marking an encroachment into a market sector that Ford and Vauxhall had previously viewed as being theirs for the taking. Of course, the 190E had quality on its side, which made it a credible proposition for those looking to down-size. The original A Class could have pulled off the same trick if Mercedes hadn't lost sight of its core values in the execution. But the truth is that Mercedes-Benz has always embraced diversity. While BMW has viewed the idea of producing commercial vehicles as being infradig, and in the mid-Seventies were adamant that their model range would never be sullied by estate cars, Mercedes has been happy to produce both, and in doing so has demonstrated that this in itself does not compromise its engineering integrity.

Despite the fact that its car range encompasses family hatchbacks and van-based MPVs, and that the cost of new ownership is far less in real terms than would have been the case 30 or more years ago, Mercedes-Benz is still viewed as a prestigious and aspirational brand today. There was a story doing the rounds on the internet recently about a family living on state handouts, and the headline? "Why work when I can get £42,000 in benefits a year AND drive a Mercedes?" Now, the Mercedes in question turned out to be a patched-up W124 estate that had clearly seen better days, but no matter – the brand alone was strong enough to become a key focal point of the article. Would they have bothered to give such a prominent mention to, say, a Mondeo of equal value?

And despite various onslaughts over the past decade, such as the widely-publicised quality issues that Clarkson has been dining out on for years, and EasyCar's ubiquitous use of the W168 A Class, the image has in my experience managed to survive intact in the eyes of the general public. To some extent, a Mercedes-Benz is still seen as a symbol that the owner has 'made it', although these days this could clearly be far from the truth.

One enduring stereotype is that the Mercedes-Benz owner is older (both in terms of age and wealth-source) than those of rival brands BMW and Audi. To draw an apposite political comparison, one could say that Mercedes-Benz is the Conservative candidate: constantly trading on its traditional values, while in reality it lost ground, only to see a resurgence after taking some harsh criticism on the chin; BMW is (Blair-era) New Labour: brash, dynamic, full of youthful vigour, and increasingly becoming the default choice of the former 'Mondeo man'; and Audi is the LibDem: quietly building its reputation as the other two slug it out, and finally emerging as a force to be reckoned with.

 

[grober]

In the 80's owning a Mercedes Benz meant driving a very expensive German manufactured fuel injected, independent rear suspension, collision cell bodied, bullet proof reliable, austerely finished automobile when the majority were driving a cheaper British built carburetted,rear cart axle, faux wood finish, rusty tinbox of variable quality. In the 90's the cheaper mass market opposition largely caught up with the technology, Mercedes quality plummeted-particularly body paint wise while they achieved greater production volumes and lost a bit of exclusivity. I think in the new century they are trying,with some success in the latest models, to regain the "high ground" they have lost. They have yet to regain their reputation for top reliability from the mainstream and executive Japanese manufacturers. Exclusivity in Mercedes ownership still exists with higher cost model ranges but you will pay dearly for the privilege.

 

[Nasco12]

Is owning an S, an E or an SL from today so very different from owning their equivalents of 20, or even 30 years ago? They're still pretty good cars when they work which is most of the time, while doing much the same sort of thing. And they're better and cheaper.

By the way, apart from the paintwork/rust, what other quality issues were there in the 1997-2003 period?

 

[grober]

Just off the top of my head ---Valeo radiators,Road springs,Ball joints, Spring Perches, Gearbox ECUs, crank vibration dampers, crank position sensors, S class air suspension failure, ML interior trim, the A CLASS------!, diesel glow plugs and injectors, turbo seals,dash lcd display failure ,burnt valves, variable valve timing leaks, battery drain down, SBC brakes, Multiple electronic component / SAM unit failures. etc. etc.

 

[neilrr]

Just off the top of my head ---Valeo radiators,Road springs,Ball joints, Spring Perches, Gearbox ECUs, crank vibration dampers, crank position sensors, S class air suspension failure, ML interior trim, the A CLASS------!, diesel glow plugs and injectors, turbo seals,dash lcd display failure ,burnt valves, variable valve timing leaks, battery drain down, SBC brakes, Multiple electronic component / SAM unit failures. etc. etc.

& Chrysler.

 

[Charles Morgan]

& Chrysler.

& Smart

 

[neilrr]

Is owning an S, an E or an SL from today so very different from owning their equivalents of 20, or even 30 years ago? They're still pretty good cars when they work which is most of the time, while doing much the same sort of thing. And they're better and cheaper.

By the way, apart from the paintwork/rust, what other quality issues were there in the 1997-2003 period?

It's completely different.

Mercedes-benz cars of 20 or 30 years ago & older were much more expensive than just about anything else & much rarer than they are today. They were special cars.

My loaded 1986 2.3-16 cost over £37,000 in 1986, the same as a house in many areas.

The money went into over engineering & over building the cars so the original owner could keep their car for 8, 10, 12, 20 years or indeed forever if they wanted to. In the long run this made the cars much less expensive than anything else as you didn't need to buy a new one every three or four years and thus avoided the never ending depreciation spiral.

MB have seemingly decided that the first buyer, who will typically keep the car 2 or 3 or 4 years, is their only customer today & not subsequent owners. The cars are designed & built to try to make it through the warranty period.

My Dad had a pretty basic Ponton in the early '60's in California & it used to be the case Mercedes drivers would acknowledge each other with a headlight flash when they met on the road. I remember passengers unaware of the tradition smiling because of the salute. No other marque did that. In the mid '70's a mate's mum had a Signal Red 350 SL which would draw a small crowd of schoolboy petrol heads whenever it was parked at school.

Now, I'm afraid Mercedes has lost that caché.

YouTube - Faszination Mercedes Benz

P.S. Is that a young Michael Schumacher at 1.12?

 

[wemorgan]

With brand values I try to define my own. Not to be arrogant, but to be of independent thought. I watch and read advertisements and sigh with their patronising statements. Simply give me the facts and then let be decide what it all adds up to. I've driven cars that some may mock; Citroen ZX and BX, but on each occasion the car and the brand has been relevant to me at that point in my life.

To me, today Mercedes stands for quality, refinement and elegance. Whether it always meets those criteria is debatable.