Good example. I do not like the current italian prime minister at all. In fact I believe, that he committed several crimes and tries to get away with it by changing the law. But this does not affect my consumption of italian wines of all vintages and brands;-). Funny enough: One of the worst glasses of wine I drank in my whole life was a white californian wine, which I had for dinner in a restaurant in the SF Bay area. Obviously the Californians sell their best wines abroad - the Italians do it just the other way 'round;-)
To come back to the topic: I assume that the Maybach was not primarily made for the domestic german market. In Germany DaimlerChrysler set up only two Maybach showrooms in Germany, one in Berlin, one in Munich. I can very well imagine that Singapore will buy more Maybachs than Germany.
I don't have the source at hand but I remember DC saying the main markets are the US and Asia - which makes sense as many wealthy Germans prefer not to show how rich they are.
They miss sales figures by far - and they will never ever be able to make any money from the Maybach brand in the next ten years or so even in case the to-come Baby-Maybach (greetings to Stuttgart - I know you hate that expression!) will be a good seller as break-even is 15.000+ cars.
Jeeze Frank. Relax. So...I stand corrected. I only spent three years in Germany and didn't learn as much German as I'd wished, just enough to get my point across in the machine shops, paint stores, etc. Did marry a girl born and raised in Paris (huge mistake). Thirteen years and five children later we split (naturally after she'd become an American citizen. Got myself a great American born and raised lady now...livin' happily everafter! By the way, I sincerely appreciate the thoroughness with which the German people pursue a project. Nothing like the French. Found out that only one master machinest is allowed in any one machine shop. Putting two together is like putting a couple of pitbulls together in a ring. Never saw any slums in Germany, everyone kept their homes, cars and streets spectacularly clean, nothing like the slobs here in the states. Make some great friends and drank up a fortune in German wines while there (at least by today's standards). Only problem I found about most Germans? They are too much "by the book" for me, at least 40 years ago they were. Otherwise, they and most Brits are my favorites.
"Baby Maybach"? Wouldn't that be more like a top-end Mercedes? If they plan to introduce such a product, then I really don't understand their marketing strategy (and I'm in marketing). I realize that at this point they need the brand to begin show some kind of return, but to force it by introducing a product that may very well cut into the sales of their bread-and-butter line just seems remarkably short-sighted. Unless MB conciously plans to downgrade the overall MB brand in favor of broader Maybach line (unlikely and foolhardy), introducing a 'small' Maybach will serve little purpose other than to confuse MB's top-end consumer by diminishing from the exclusivity of the Maybach brand (still it's major selling point), and at the same time reducing the desirability of the overall Mercedes line by conspicuously promoting another (presumably) similarly-priced product as a major step up from the 'standard' high end Mercedes.
If I were a marketing director with MB, I'd send this plan straight back to the drawing board.
The Maybach concept was misconceived from the start. Sole purpose was to satisfy the egomania of one or two senior execs to have an outrageously expensive car to top Bentley (i.e. VW) and RR (i.e. BMW).
I, as a humble salesman of machines to industry, thus knowing nothing about the general 'consumer', think that honouring/remembering Wilhelm Maybach in some way is, in fact, a worthy idea. I would take one or two 500 or 600 S long-wheelbase models, kit them out with extra-expensive options, add maybe
30 000 to 50 000 euros to the price, add a discreet 'M' logo (not jokes about BMW please) somewhere and call them S-Class Maybach Edition.
I am sure I read at the Maybach launch that the total market in this sector is only 10 000 per annum. This would include Bentley et al. I think DC were being optimistic in thinking they can sell 1000 per year.
ACK. I remember I read several times, that Germany is an under-average market for Rolls Royce and Bentley, if you compare the number of citizens who could afford one to other, overseas markets. From my personal reception I can say that Rolls and Maybach seem to sell about equal in germany. Of the new Rolls Royce and the new Maybach I have seen exactly one each on the road yet;-)
I do not want to argue with you, but what exactly is the current Maybach other than a top-end Mercedes?
Given the fact that most prospective Maybach buyers are quite old, I think the Maybach 57 is too big for them to drive it on their own. I would suggest that Maybach launches a 4 seat convertible, soon. This may sell better than the sedans (but not 15.000 units)
One have to take one other thing into consideration: Chances for Maybach to sell a lot of cars have become smaller, because the new Rolls Royce seems to be a hard competitor. Actually I did never understand the urge to launch a new top brand. Mercedes has succeded in the '60s to launch a top-end limousine, the 600 Pullman. They could have done that again, instead of just providing bad looking stretch S-classes.
The more we discuss this the more I think the present Maybach concept is mad. But then, Mercedes corporate management (as opposed to car division people) has a history curious decisions: electric household goods, aerospace (all loss-making).
If you have that kind of money, wouldn't you buy a Ferrari instead, to add to the S-Class or Jag saloon you already have?
Just read the first review of the CLS. Actually a dramatic-looking car ("just don't call it a coupé...") and good against putative competitors like a BMW 6 or a Jag 'S', but its target group?
Many years ago I read that for an automobile company to survive it will have to be good a making small runs of a variety of 'specialist' cars (in the days when only long runs of the same thing were economical. Clearly Mercedes is going down this route but the extent seems extreme. The wonderful German expression "sich verzetteln" springs to mind. It is related to frittering away.
Irrelevant aside: I found a Berlinerisch - English dictionary....
My guts tell me that the CLS will not be a huge success for the company. I think that most CLS buyers would have bought another Mercedes, if the CLS would not have been launched. Okay, maybe Mercedes can earn some additional money, because a CLS is more expensive than an E-class.
I see so many more Rolls - but that is because I live not far away from a top-dealer selling RR, Bentley, Aston Martin and such, but no Maybach centre is close...
BTW I find the Maybachs not that elegegant - and I find especially the front of the RR ugly, to me it seems as if the designers had no more ideas left once they came to the styling of the front.
But one has to admit both have a strong presence in real life which IMHO also comes from their hige size.
DC of course can afford the Maybach brand never ever to become profitable - the other brands (and here esp. Mercedes) earn enough money.
A problem the Maybach brand has is the cars are too few in nterms of sales numbers to establish them in the public, so they have to have a model selling so good that it makes at least a slight public presence in countries like Germany.
Another problem is that the brand is _too_ exclusive and at the same time unknown so potential buyers hesitate to jump to it - unknown not in Germany, but in many other countries: Maybach does not really have a _soul_ or brand identity at present, they still have to built it up as the glorious days of the brand are too long ago now (last Maybach was built until 1941).
Now having a model like the Maybach 53 - starting at around 200.000 Euro - would solve those problems and also catch buyers who would never pay 350.000 and more Euro for a Maybach, but are willing to spend more than the 150.000 or so Euro for a MB S 600 L.
Also the 53 is a bit smaller than a 57, giving it the sometimes decisive edge in crowded European cities and parking lots and at the same time not having the _impact_ as the 57 - not to speak of the 62 here...
Plus the amateurs at DC simply did not think about a simple fact: A Maybach 57 with a length of 5728 mm simply is too long for most German/ European garages and multi-storey car parks (being typically no more than ca. 5500 mm) - this is one of the things where you can easily notice the leading guys at DC have no car knowledge at all (with the 62 length is of no importance in that respect, that is no owner-driver car but a chauffeured limo - the 53 will be below
5500 mm).
They will not downgrade the MB brand - it is just the other way round, after _only_ some
10 years or so they now begin slowly to realize they have to try to return to the MB quality of the past. Also the next S-Class (W221 for 2005) will have some styling elements of the current Maybachs (especially th the rear), trying to close the gap from Mercedes to Maybach a bit and at the same time lowering the fear of some buyers about buying and owning a Maybach - having a brand which stands out too far from the rest is not always of advantage, especially not in countries like Germany where you not so seldom get negative comments and/or looks already when showing up in a new S-Class or SL...
As said that is what DC hoped - but IMHO that is no real advantage, it is more of a disadvantage (sticking out too far).
The point is Mercedes failed to have cars in the 150.000+ Euro region - they DO need to cover the region until 250.000 Euros, but they haven't realized it yet, no wonder, the CEOs are no car guys but ordinary loudmouths only.
Once they made the mistake of re-introducing the Maybach brand - and that was controversial a long time, we can see this simply by the fact late prototypes still had the Mercedes grille and were named _Mercedes Maybach_, they decided against to not to make the S-Class owners feel inferior, the S-Class should stay the top-of-the-line MB - the move with the Maybach 53 seems ok to me, but I doubt it will boost sales really much. To establish the Maybach brand DC will need _at least_ 10 years, 15 (or even 20) is more likely and within that timeframe they have to quadruple their sales efforts: What they do now is the old and well-known snobbish _We are MB, we have the very best cars and they sell alone_-attitude - which is nothing but amateurish only.
And also prospective buyers realize DC does not really stand behind the Maybach brand - there is only three service points for Maybachs in Germany, Stuttgart, Berlin and Munichm, means that in this country with more than 80-million people Maybachs have to be hauled around by truck for hundreds of kilometers for simple service - ridiculous!!
There is a similarity with the old Horch brand which is owned by Audi (and thus Volkswagen AG): Years ago Audi re-bought the brand name and all the rights, but Mr. Piech of Volkswagen - a man not undisputed, but an extremely knowledgeable car guy - decided against re-viatalizing the brand, but later simply bought Bentley, a brand which - unlike Maybach - was present in the last
63 years (last original Maybach dates back to
1941) and well-known all over the world - Maybach was a brand mostly unkown outside Germany resp. Europe.
I personally would not have re-launched the Maybach brand, there are too many problems involved in that like drawing away too much manpower from the Mercedes brand plus many, many hundreds of millions of Euro cost (if not billions).
Ok, we now look forward to the next DC adventure, the B-Class, a VW Golf-class(!) competitor: How on earth can one give a car a name shouting out loud _this is no first class product, but a second-rate product only like a B-movie is_??? ============:-(((((((((
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