We were very interested in the Mercedes ConceptFASCINATION's navigation and Internet radio system, called MyComand. PM spoke to Dr. Ralf Herrtwich of Daimler about the system here at the L.A. Auto show.

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Is Dieter Zetsche stupid?

Luxury hybrid vehicles don't resonate well with me. Fuel efficient luxury vehicles might help develop technology, but they are going to have little effect on global warming or foreign oil dependency. Still, for the technology development, I do at least partially advocate for these hybrids.  read more »

At a recent conference in Leipzig, Mercedes-Benz executives took a moment to underscore the company's ongoing commitment to road safety and climate protection. According to Dr Thomas Weber, Daimler AG Board of Management member responsible for Group Research and Development Mercedes-Benz Cars: "We will not let up in our long-standing quest to make motoring even safer and further reduce the number of road accidents. We afford and will continue to afford equal importance to safety and climate protection." As an example, Weber then went on to speak briefly about the 2010 Mercedes E-Class, noting that "the new E-Class will be the safest car in this market segment and, at the same time, consume far less fuel than its predecessor thanks to new engines, intelligent energy management and a raft of other measures." In total, the new 2010 E-Class will feature roughly a dozen new or improved driver assistance systems, including ATTENTION ASSIST, Adaptive Highbeam Assistant and PRE-SAFE brake, with the ultimate goal being to avoid accidents before they occur and in the event they do, significantly lessen their severity.

Lewis Hamilton was the special guest at the traditional final event of the Mercedes-Benz motorsport season in Germany recently.The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver and formula one world champion starred at the Stars & Cars Day in Stuttgart, which was attended by 72,000 Daimler employees and motor sport fans.World Boxing champion Vitali Klitschko was among the [...]

If you make prestige products that come with a hefty price tag, you might well be feeling a bit nervous at the moment. Here in Britain you can buy a great big fully loaded three-year-old Mercedes luxobarge for the price of a bag of sugar. Horrific residuals are a part of an unfolding story that looks set to get worse in 2009.

What do you do if you're a bit typecast with product that isn't all that fashionable in credit crunched and energy cost conscious times? In Munich and Stuttgart they have long known that they need to have a strategy in case the market moves away from large, high-margin premium cars. Make hay while the sun shines, but have a plan for when it doesn't and don't have all your eggs in the premium car basket. There are other tricks to perform that can act as a kind of hedging for when bad times come.    read more »

We knew worldwide sales at the Mercedes-Benz Cars division were going to be down in October; the question was how much were they going be down. Today we have our answer, as Daimler is reporting that worldwide sale of the Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and smart brands decreased 18.1 percent last month to 93,800 new units (compared to 114,600 units in October 2007). Despite the substantial drop, Mercedes-Benz Cars did manage to maintain a slight improvement in its year-to-date total, with the division noting sales of 1,073,700 new units ? a 1.6 percent increase over 2007's 10-month ytd total. Individually, things were even worse at Mercedes-Benz, with the luxury division noting sales of 82,500 new units in October ? down 20.6 percent when compared to the prior year. Year-to-date figures at Mercedes are also down, with the brand achieving sales of 960,300 new units ? a 1.7 percent decline from 2007.

Things must be getting pretty serious when major rivals sit down to discuss combining forces in procurment. But there are signals coming out of Germany suggesting that BMW and Daimler are doing just that. The idea is that they max out on scale economies (and maybe screw suppliers' prices down) on universal/commodity parts that don't impact branding. Bigger volume equals lower unit cost. There's no official statement yet, so maybe an agreement has not yet been finalised. Some suppliers may well view this development with a little concern.