The end of the slide?

A good reputation a lot harder to 'regain' then it is to 'gain'. When people have a bad experience with a product they tend to tell all their friends, who tell all their friends, and so on. When all these people start driving BMWs, Lexus, etc, so will others. I personally wouldn't buy any MB made after 1991.

Paul

disillusioned

"Paul" wrote

I find myself in accord with you basically, and think it is a real shame that quality got compromised, rather than market share. Who cares if they sell more cars? Ford can do that, and who wants one of those? Also, those of us who regard new cars as a bit of a waste of money, what are we going to buy when the cars are 10 years old? Accountants for Mercedes may think we don't matter, but by running around in old models with plenty of life left in them, we reassure people at the top of the car buying tree that their cars are built to last. I've just bought an Audi, and the quality doesn't feel quite there yet, but they are definitely in with a shout now that Mercedes seem to not be bothered about usable quality. Nev

A lot of Brits :-)

Ford Escourt/Focus has been Britain's No. 1 car for a decade or two.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Me neither, but that's just because I don't want to pay that much!

-------------------------------------------------- Quote: "The company has acknowledged that there have been reliability issues but we are sorting out the problem. We are investing a lot of money in product quality. The new cars are starting to speak for themselves. We want to make sure all our customers are happy."

-------------------------------------------------- Heard this talk in the year 2000 when I sold my brandnew CL 500 due of windnoise and other problems some days after purchase.Was fed up with the "premium quality".The model was so sought after, I did not loose money on it. Still owning 4 Mercs., had the least problems with the W 210, a truly great car. The others, no better than an OPEL qualitywise. Just more fascinating, like the CLK 55, which made truly big problems in the first year too. Kept it just because my wife insisted to give it a try. AND finally I did not regret all the hassle we went through with it.

What to buy next ? Likely no MB.

With regards to "regain" vs "gain" look at what happened to Audi with their sudden acceleration problem back in the '80s - their regain only came after years and years and people forgetting about their problem.

"sudden acceleration problem"? Can't slam the entire brand just because of some one idiotic problem, shoulda just disconnected the cruise control.

cp

"Dori A Schmetterling" wrote

I was just being snobby! ;-) Nev