Companies that lasted - I'll buy that - QUALITY companies that lasted - For example? I have been utterly dismayed at the degradation of quality in most areas of the manufacturing community in the last 30 years or so. I still have a number of pre-historic products in my home that were a) evidently built by people who cared what they were doing b) built by companies that "lasted", because c) I have from time to time purchased newer versions of the same brand only to find that they have been cost-cut, out-sourced and obsolence-planned to the point that they are utter junk. I know this smacks of "old-fartism", which I certainly am capable of - but sometimes the old farts have a couple of things going for them - like experience and wisdom.
I asked for examples, so I'll give a a couple: My wife has burned out three of the new KitchenAid pro mixers in her catering business in the last two years - KitchenAid has been "improved" by outsourcing to, I believe China. She always has to fall back on my old, American-built KitchenAid.
Craftsman power tools. Crap for the most part these days. My personal experience includes a belt sander that keeps destroying it's bearing mounts for the rollers, a 1/2" "Pro" drill that died the first time I chucked up a 1/2" wood bit in it, and a circular saw that utterly burned up it's motor while under no significant load, cutting
1/4" plywood, with no sign of slowdown or bogging - just a bad smell and sudden stop. But I still have and use frequently an old Craftsman table saw that has seen enough board-feet of lumber to build the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Go figure.I have an ancient Maytag that I keep trying to hide in my shed because it's so ugly - but every few years, I'm obliged to drag it out to fill in for another "new and improved" washer that's died in the middle of a family re-union (always on a weekend - how do they do that?)
Cutting costs - OK. Maintaining standards? Pure distilled horse-manure. You can replace standards with marketing easily with a young market that has been educated to believe everything should be disposable after three years. Whooopeee!!! I'm driving a Benz til the lease runs out!!!
As a purely objective experiment, discounting for accidents, lets see what the attrition rate of the current crop of Dodges, um, I mean MBs is compared to the mid-80's W123s after 25 years. I'll bet good money that the survival ratio is not even close. Do you want to put your money on that bet, or merely bet that
25 years from now there will still be some kind of Chrysler Benz product for sale that happens to have the star logo on it that your stockholders can trade in?To quote my friend - this is nonsense. I have owned more vehicles than I care to think about. This has included Chevy Vegas and Cadillac ElDorados. I mention these two for a reason. At the time I owned them, I found NO significant difference in engineering between the Vega and the Cadillac. (OK, non-sleeved aluminum blocks on the Vega wasn't a reall cool idea), but mostly it was only more badly-executed bells and whistles on the Cadillac. Can you make a company profitable this way? You bet. Can you make a fine automobile this way? No way in hell.
Do I have a problem with all the plastic parts on my buddies ML? Nope. I don't care if you build them out of gingerbread - as long as gingerbread WORKS. I have a problem with shoddy, ill-fitting plastic parts that break.
I have no doubt that MB can "last" as a brand. But my argument is that sometimes a brand should represent more than the tri-star logo surviving on some cost-cut, out-sourced, marketing-above- engineering machine. It should represent the engineering and production values that established that marque. One can fail to recognize this, and still turn a profit. There will always be those who will jump at the MB name, just because of the reputation it earned at one time, but no longer deserves.
Ultimately the question is this. Can the current corporate culture continue to educate the consumer to purchase stuff that is worse than they purchased last year? I believe the answer is yes. So yes, MB will last - as a brand - as a stock exchange entity - but as a premier manufacturer af fine automobiles? That is the real question.
Sorry if I sound a little impassioned about this, but it's a bit like finding out that the girl you had a crush on in high school is now a hooker. Yeah, I'm sure she's making a living, turning a profit - but it just isn't the quality you fell in love with.
Cheers,
Conrad