To add to my previous posting on “Car Sales”, despite the down economy and auto industry being down as a whole. Mercedes-Benz AMG line up and BMW M division sales were up. People are still spending money!
AMG sold 24,200 vehicles in 2008. That was our best year ever for AMG vehicles. BMW’s M division posted sales of 26,772 cars that is their second best year ever.
Adam Denault
www.mybenzguy.com
I had an interesting conversation with someone over the weekend…
I was asked what kind of discounts we, Mercedes-Benz, are giving on cars. I gave him an answer that I don’t think he expected. His reply to me was he thought everyone was doing “like 25% below invoice on new cars”. I explained to him we don’t have that kind of markup in our cars.
This has been a common conversation/question for the last 3 months or so. I would like to thank the news media, with their normal bad news/negative news reporting, for grouping the entire auto industry as a whole and tagging all automakers as being in one big mess. Let me just say not everyone is as bad off as is being portrayed. Yes, no one had a great year last year, but some of us had year after year of sales growth. To note Mercedes-Benz had 14 straight years of record growth, and I believe that BMW was along side of us with those numbers.
I thought that I would post the numbers of where most everyone finished last year.
Luxury Brands
Other Automaker totals:
For the majority of the automakers what these numbers don’t show is things were going good for the first 3 quarters of the year.
In summary, while we were down for the year in 2008, we are not giving away cars, we are not going out of business or filing for bankruptcy, we are not even in a state of panic, but we are being a little more aggressive in pricing.
If you are interested in a new vehicle, we are open for business so please don’t hesitate to call. I would be happy to assist you with your car buying needs.
Adam Denault
www.mybenzguy.com
Mercedes-Benz has just announced the launch date for the 722s. If you are one of the lucky receiptiants, only 25 of you are in the USA, then you should be excited for a February 20th launch date. Only 150 vehicles are being produced for the world. They were all offered to previous SLR owners via mail last year. If one is to be found on the showroom floor you should expect to see a $545,000 MSRP plus a $2750 Dealer Destination fee. This is the last of the SLR’s to be produced. What’s next? I guess we will have to wait and see.
Adam Denault
I know I am just a car guy in this great big world. I saw something on the CNN that hit home this morning. First off , let me say I do not know them, but there is a family not to far from RBM North, that has a great need. I know times are hard for everyone now, but this is a little different. They aren’t asking for a hand out.
Two of their children have illnesses that require regular treatment. In an effort to help pay for their medical expenses they have listed the majority of their personal belongings on Ebay in one lump auction. See here. A donation site has also been set up if anyone is interested. They have vowed to give a portion of whatever is received to Autism Speaks and Still’s Disease foundations to help others with the same needs.
In reading through the auction I found their computer, digital camera, and video recorder as part of the listing. Being a parent of a 1 year old that seemed to strike me the hardest. For the other parents out there think of all the memories you have captured of your kids over time. They are priceless! They are willing to give up those belongings because the well being of their family is more important.
I know I can’t save them myself, but I wanted to make an effort to help them. One resource I have, like them, is the power of the internet. Maybe it is just skipping lunch today and donating $5.00 to them, or maybe something greater? I don’t know, but I felt I needed to take a few minutes and try to do my part by posting this.
You can see their website at http://www.everythingweown.org/. I am sure any help is greatly appreciated.
Adam Denault
Here are some additional photos of the UMI interface in action. The biggest advantage of the UMI is the ability to control your iPod or iPhone from the COMMAND controller versus your multi-function steering wheel with the regular iPod integration kit. I have included what the real-time traffic screen looks like. Navigation controls are easy to use. You can control your view point from your COMMAND controller… heading up, birds eye view and settings in between by simply pull back or pushing forward on the controller. The I use the UMI the more I am impressed with it. I think for current C-Class owners who want navigation this is a no brainer.
Adam Denault
Thanks to someone who happend to read my blog and let it be know. An adaptor has been made to fix this problem. It is made by Scosche. You can purchase it at the Apple store. Its called the passPORT. Here is the link for more information or for purchase.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TS696LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0MQ&mco=MjE1MDc5OQ
Adam Denault
www.mybenzguy.com
Mercedes-Benz has received a number of reports stating our clients in model year 2006-2009 vehicles with either the iPod interface or Media interface system are having charging problems with new 3g iPhones, 2nd generation iPod Touch and new 4th generation iPods. This is not a Mercedes-Benz defect, but a change in the Apple circuit design. When Apple produced their new products they changed the charging pin or charging circuit. The Apple products do function correctly but it does not charge the product.
I will keep you updated with any news from Mercedes-Benz.
Adam Denault
A very common obstacle I have to over come is “why is your “_____” more expensive than the one I saw at “XYZ Motors” around the corner?” Let me start with the fact that the average price gap is somewhere between $3000 – $5000. Not a huge gap to try to overcome, but most buyers are price conscious in today’s economy.
Well here are some differences of the value of CPO… Continue reading
