Mercedes Woes Pull Down DaimlerChrysler

[motorguy222]

Mercedes,one of the most well known luxury car divisions is having problems.

While many put down American made autos,it seems that D/C is having a hard time.

While it may not be a problem regarding their reliabilty etc.,it may seem to be that American and Asian auto makers are makeing products that now rival Mercedes at more affordable prices.

The following are excerpts from the whole story.

The link for the story follows the excerpts.

"Overall fourth-quarter net profit at DaimlerChrysler fell 63 percent to 526 million euros ($712 million) from 1.4 billion euros a year ago as Mercedes struggled with quality problems and a weak dollar that hurt its results in the key U.S. market."

"DaimlerChrysler CEO Juergen Schrempp called the Mercedes result "unacceptable" and announced a plan to cut costs and boost revenues that he said would improve the division's profit margin to 7 percent by 2007. Currently it's 3.5 percent."

"The dollar, which hit an all-time low against the euro in December, contributed to Mercedes' problems, as did competition from Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Toyota Motor Corp.'s luxury brand, Lexus. The weak dollar has decreased profit margins in the United States, Mercedes' No. 2 market."

"Yet Schrempp acknowledged the exchange rate was not the real problem. "One thing is quite clear: even without the exchange-rate effects, the operating profit of the Mercedes Car Group in the third and fourth quarters would have been unacceptable," he said."


http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsst...0050210/420aea50_3ca6_1552620050210-289642169

 

[JohnBrowning]

This has been on going!The quality problems have been on going. Remember they are being compared to Lexus and such. Chrysler's quality was even much worse then Diamlers when they were taken over but Chrysler had already made huge leaps and bounds in quality from their 1980 standpoint before they were bought out. So Chrysler quality has gone up since the take over or buy out but Diamlers has not. Add to this that most of the market has improved in quality and it is in effect the same as a decrease in quality for Diamler. GM moved up a lot in the last two year in quality and one of the Korean manufactures moved up a lot as well. IF you look at luxury segment Lexus has stayed at the top and Cadilac has vstly improved.

I predict that now that DCX has the ball rolling in the right direction in the USA with all of the take over holding they will begin to improve Parent companys quality issues. I am thinking it is going to take them two years to get their trend moveing in the right direction and another three to put themself in their comfort zone for quality.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

I think there may be too many automakers.

 

[Jimbo]

I sold my DCX stock last year because it was going down with no end in sight. Having test driven a C230, it seems to me that Mercedes is falling behind, not that any of the new Chrysler or Dodge cars appeal to me either.