Peter wrote:
hmm, but what about the affect on Mercedes of being merge / bought out /
? with Chrysler. Now Mercedes cars are near the bottom of the
reliability stakes, because of the use of American design models!


Mercedes has had a ball of fun in the US. They started by telling their
German engineers to design an SUV like the US, with US parts and then to
make it in a part of the US with no engineering background or experience
of mass production. Hence the ML320. The US dealers refused to sell the
product for about a year AIUI because of the quality problems. If you
feel like real laugh, try a ride in the back set of one or if really
brave, try driving one, you'll soon realise why it became the ML430.
They then decided to become a world leader in high volume cars, and
arranged to take over Chrysler, change the management who understood the
US customer and fired all the experienced US engineers. I believe they
also managed to obtain access to a Chrysler cash mountain at the time,
not quite sure on this. The PT cruiser was already finished as a
rebody/redesign of the Neon and has sold well. However Mercedes decided
to replace the somewhat dubious mechanics of the Intrepid,for which
spares were always necessary (auto box 60K miles, water pump 55K (total
parts and labour cost to replace pump in 3 hours one day $130, including
fetching the replacement from 20 miles away), oxygen sensors 75K) but
readily and cheaply available, with more of those from Mitsubishi, some
of which are as available as hens teeth. Pity they never sold the
Intrepid in Europe as it was the most comfortable long distance 6 seater
car I've ever driven. However sales have been declining for some years.
The Chrysler engineering was quite good, however the build quality seems
always rather variable. The new 300 series etc AIUI is now rear wheel
drive, the ones I've seen have IMO the charisma of a brick. I'm waiting
to see if they can compete with Honda and Toyota, I doubt it even with a
Merc engine, as I understand that the workforce are not at all happy
with German management styles. Mercedes haven't got at the Caravan yet
AIUI, so sales there are holding up a bit better. In Europe I read that
Smart are up for sale, having lost money from day 1 and IMO they make a
57 Mini look as safe as a tank when in a collision. The German
management appears to be hell bent on cost reduction in Europe and
moving sourcing and production round to cheaper and cheaper locations.
The resulting products seem IMO to be getting to resemble those of BL at
it's worst. They also have lost a lot of their best dealers by deciding
to deal with the public direct in the UK. One UK Mercedes dealer
internally,just over a year ago, described the A series as less reliable
than a Corsa and not even in the same league for build quality IIRC!
Anyway, as you can see Mercedes quality is now German? engineering
driven with virtually zero US influence. Their mistakes are their own!!

I wonder if Screwfix have the same advisers?

Regards
Capitol