Latest In A Mobile Revolution By Mercedes-Benz dealerships

Mercedes Benz has announced one of the most advance and technically superior offer to the dealers in the form of Apple iPads. The company has started the MB advantage program in which the facilities to dealers are being focused highly. This innovative approach of offering iPads to all of the dealers will help the dealers immensely in making the financial decisions even when they are not in the offices.

The operating system of these iPads is also quite simpler and static. The salesperson can feed the VIN number of any of the Mercedes Benz cars and he will be able to get the latest schemes, discounts and net prices of the model offered by the company for that particular mode entered. This facility will allow the sales person to work freely even when they are not in the offices or any of the popular places. Mercedes Benz received many of the complains regarding to the problem of asking the latest prices and offered of models every now and then which was hurting the impression and performances of the dealers. With these facilities, they will be having readily availability of the prices and other factors of any of the models which will definitely boost their confidence and will make them traveling freely without any hesitation of calling back to offices for each and every smaller detail.

Another benefit of these iPads is that the sales person or the dealers who are offering the Mercedes Benz models on hire will be able to recheck the car when they are offered back by the hirers and will be able to write down all the possible damages of scratches by standing in front of the cars itself. This facility may not sound quite attractive but practically their significance is quite higher. Many of the dealers are facing the problem of rectifying the scratches or damages in the cars that are given for hiring purposes. It will become quite simpler for the sales person or the dealers to go outside with the iPads, to write down the scratches or the condition reports and to feed it in the computers when they are into the office.

“This is a mobile revolution into the dealerships and we are quite intended to do so as we wish to have our dealers falling no where short in performance”, said the Vice President of Marketing of Mercedes Benz Andreas Hinrichs while an interview to Wall Street Journal yesterday. This is truly the revolution and we need to appreciate the presence of mind and the innovative approach of Mercedes Benz.

Daimler boss plan for small car mercedes

Small cars were the big message from Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche as CAR sat down with him at the 2011 Geneva motor show to discuss the future of Smart.



Electric vehicles - the future of Smart?

Smart will not become an electric car specialist, despite sticking to its small car roots, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche pledgedj. ‘Smart is an ideal car for cities, and certainly in cities electric drive will be good for Smart,' he said. 'But it will be a long time before EVs replace internal combustion engines in general and that goes for Smart as well’.

Dr Zetsche believes that in a demand-driven marketplace, without major incentives or regulatory changes, many consumers will choose vehicles without the range or charging issues associated with current EVs.

That doesn’t mean Mercedes is staying out of the EV game. Rumours that the upcoming A-class EV had been scrapped were dismissed by Dr Zetsche.

Smart moves in the US?

The shift of Smart’s US sales distribution from Penske Automotive Group to Mercedes-Benz does not represent the end of Smart in the US. Penske had done an excellent job for Merc launching Smart in the US in 2008, claimed Dr Z, achieving a mutually-unexpected first-year sales of 27,000 units. But the subsequent freefall to 5000 Smarts annually put the dealer network’s viability in doubt.

'An alternative was to take a network which is strong and stands on its own, and can have some added volume with Smart. That’s the Mercedes US network. So that’s one part of the logic.'

There's another important reason. 'The other is that you are required to create CO2 credits in California and other states and we intend to do that through Smart,' he said. 'As these are essential to our other sales then strategically it would be questionable if you were not in control with that part of the business.'


Economies of scale – a question of alliances

Audi seems to have the best of both worlds – premium image and pricing, but economies of scale from sharing components with other VW group’s brands. How could Mercedes compete with this?

Dr Zetsche disputed the assumption, claiming that when it came to the premium-segment vehicles (C-class to S-class), Audi could not leverage economies of scale to compete with Mercedes as easily as in the sub-compact segment (with its A1 and A3).

To compete with the VW Group at the lower level, Mercedes has been chasing economies of scale. 'That's exactly what drove us to the decision to go into cooperation with Renault,' explained Zetsche. 'To combine and develop small four-cylinder engines together and benefit from the high volumes, and on the other hand do the next Smart platform together (and based on the architecture of Smart) is right for us'.

The next-gen Smart ForTwo will be co-developed with the Mk3 Twingo, but Daimler has convinced Renault to morph its conventional city car into a rear-engined, rear-drive runabout. We'll see the first fruits of the Daimler-Renault alliance in 2012.