It’s nice to hear a bit of good news for a change.
Mercedes has just passed a big landmark with sales of the current C Class, passing the 500,000 mark since the car’s launch in March of 2007.
The C Class is the modern version of the 190 – the car everyone said would be the downfall of Mercedes. Too low rent they said. It’ll devalue the marque, they cried. Well, in a sense the words were prophetic, but the 190 itself was a big success.
Mercedes C63 - The best in Class
It is said that in the early nineties Ford tried to buy Mercedes. Their number crunchers looked at the books and concluded Mercedes could never be a successful high-volume car maker – because its cars were built to a specification, not a budget. Meaning that the price was dictated by the cost of build, and not by a pre-determined marketing headline price. This, after the Ford buyout failed, is said to be the reason Mercedes chose to change their winning formula of making bullet-proof cars, instead opting for a high-volume, market-lead plan. Oh dear, what a disaster.
The period from the mid-nineties brought about a massive decline in Mercedes’ reputation. Its build quality declined sharply, and its core market started to desert It. The cars become unreliable (something that could never have happened to a Mercedes in the past) and build quality was, in many cases woeful. Probably the last bullet-proof car they made before this decline started was the old W140 S Class.
But Mercedes has managed to turn things round. They committed to cut profits and invest in build quality. And they have. The C Class epitomises that turnaround. It is well made, well-conceived and cleverly marketed. It has taken the fight to the BMW 3-Series with a passion, and many of the C Class range is considered to be a match and more for the 3 Series (the C63 is a good case in point).
Well done Mercedes.
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