Well, it's finally come to pass. Let the fur fly:
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Mercedes-Benz. German automotive industry publication Automobilwoche reported yesterday that BMW global sales have overtaken Mercedes-Benz sales this year, making BMW the largest global premium brand… (www.autoextremist.com)
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Mercedes-Benz. German automotive industry publication Automobilwoche reported yesterday that BMW global sales have overtaken Mercedes-Benz sales this year, making BMW the largest global premium brand. And so the inevitable, titanic shift in the global luxury market has come to pass - after Mercedes-Benz managers squandered the legacy of one of the greatest premium brands in the world. Led by Juergen Schrempp, their serially incompetent egomaniacal ex-leader who single-handedly ran the company into the ground, Mercedes embarked on a disastrous down-market strategy to make the brand more "approachable," while blindly embracing electronic technology for technology's sake - which literally destroyed their heretofore bullet-proof reputation for quality and prestige overnight. Which in turn drove legions of formerly loyal Mercedes owners in North America away from the brand and into the waiting arms of BMW, Lexus and Cadillac. Mercedes-Benz will take years to recover their previous glory, if ever. And even then they may never see the luxury automotive world from the top position again. Dieter Zetsche is a good man, a smart executive, and he has the automotive media wrapped around his finger, but even he will not be able to get American consumers - who used to equate the Mercedes-Benz with the pinnacle of automotive engineering and prestige - to forget the transgressions of the brand over the last five years. It's ironic that the same disease that has crippled GM in the new automotive world order, the dreaded "too many models, too many divisions, be all things to all people" marketing folly - is the same exact strategy that has crippled Mercedes-Benz. In GM's case, some people never learn. But in M-B's case, the blind arrogance of its management will go down in automotive history as the ultimate example of managerial stupidity. No group did less with more than Juergen Schrempp and his posse of stumblebum cronies.
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