Which car is the most prestigious

[speedy]

Oto- who in their right mind would want a 1000hp honda civic? A diesel at that! MB is a good company who has figured out that the profit margin is much higher on volume vehicles. By that I mean production numbers in the millions. You can't recoup your R&D cost and manufacturing cost on vehicles that are limited to 4000 to 5000 units per year. The cost would be astronomical and would price itself out of the market, ie Bugatti (Veryon at 1.8 Million dollars a piece). Bugatti is a company that has been sold and bought multiple times and has yet to make a profit! VW only bought it as a "marque brand". Unfortunately, MB is delving themselves into the "high volume market" with the C class, R class and the Smart vehicles. I think car makers need to stick with what they do best, Honda (high volume, good quality, fuel efficient cars) and MB (high quality, high performance, luxury vehicles). Unfortunately, the shareholders at MB want a steady 30% return on their investments so I guess, what better way to increase revenue is to capitalize on your name brand and mass produce a mediocre product. I think the SLR and AMG's are still there to make the "old" customers happy and make the new one's dream that they own a car who shares a lineage and technology as the marque.

[speedy]

If your talking about this C class, this car might win. Check out this cali car!
http://www.rchdesigns.com/amg/index.htm

[airshaq20]

Hey guys..chill up...its just a poll.

Here's my say.

You cant compare the US and the Philippines. In the US, all the cars mentioned above:

1. depreciate 50% in the first 2-3 years.
2. they are all entry level luxury cars
3. in the philippines, these are multi-million peso cars and they appreciate once they have philippine tags; in the US, they are just merely "cars" when they go out of the dealership - nothing really is prestigeous and they dont really hold their value.
4. jaguars - have the worst quality in the list, they dont even make their own engine
5. A lot of people look up at Lexus but really, lexus is a souped up Camry - the IS is even sold as a Toyota in Japan. Who are they fooling? Putting a bigger engine, a leather seat and some features doesn't make it different. Its still Toyota.
6. FYI - the C class, the 3 series and A series are considered sports sedans in the US, nobody in the US buys this for "comfort"...if you want a lazy-boy ride, buy an S class, a Cadillac or a Ford Victoria.


Lastly, there's no need to argue over these things. How many of you have owned (not borrowed from parents) 3 or 4 of the cars listed above to even make a good comparison?

[speedy]

Airshaq, personally, I would'nt consider any of the above and your right about the differences between the us and philippines. 2 totally different socioeconomic situations. Interestingly enough, I did test drive these cars, expt for the VW and audi, in 02. I took home a Bmw 530i.

[Hero33]

the point is, with ford platforms jaguar is now both cheaper and mass-produced, putting them in the hands of more people and lessening the exclusivity.

5 years ago the cheapest jag was $80k. now you can get an x-type (aka the ford contour) for less than half of that.

Yes, but in the Philippine context, to which I was referring to, Jaguars are less common than the ubiquitous 3 series.

[Wouie]

Ibang tao ibang opinyon, so depende lang sa tao yan.

[BlueBimmer]

if i sit beside an E90 in traffic on my E36, i certainly would not 'wink' or signal in some way to a fellow bimmer owner, that would be gay hehehe

[OTO]

speedy ask anyone on the Modification section of Tsikot and I'm sure at least 1 user will say he dreams of owning one. As for the diesel it was another comparison. MB for the past 10 years has been cutting corners. Recently though they've took notice that their products haven't been up to their past standards. They're improving but they do this slowly. To make sure their quality goes up again they've cut their profits from 3 to 1 billion a year to make sure their car is built properly.

MB has the brand equity to overcome any quality issues for the past decade but that cant save them forever. Having a car on a limited run (In MB's case because of projected sales) or high price helps in making it prestigious. Ask any marketing student or prof they'll tell you the same thing.

Veyron could be priced lower but VW knows that the average Veyron buyer would have enough money to pay for a limited run car. Hence the 1.8M price tag. VW is trying to push their brand up market but the problem is even if they make great products they're still a VW the "people's car". They have Audi already so I dont see why they even bother. One example would be the new VW Golf GTi it has good specs. Won a lot of awards but hte problem is people would still go for a BMW 1 Series because it's a BMW and not VW. Brand matters. Prestige matters. Image matters.

Smart is a brand separate from three pointed star. It is akin to a Toyota and Lexus. That's how Benz can sell mass market cars without the problem of lowering the prestige of their cars.

MB is a prestige brand of late has been known to have poor quality. Do a simple google search and you will see how bad it has gone. It has gotten so bad that they had to do a recall. BMWs can outperform MBs in any of the benchmark I've seen but people look up to the brand because it is more prestigious.

The shareholders want a better return for the past few years and recently have acknowledge to cut MBs profitability because of the quality issues of the past 10 years. They know that if they dont improve on quality MB's brand equity will go down and kill the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg.

Does MB marquee evoke "old" people as customers? A lot of young people look at it as an old person's car. The SLR's an automatic and has room for golf clubs. What kind of image does that project? In the UK the CLS' sat nav has the location of every gas station and golf club in the whole British Isles. What does that evoke in your mind?

Airshaq I have to disagree with you on most of your points. Go to Autolink and search MBs and you'll notice that depreciation is almost as bad here as it is in the US. However which way you put it the cars I posted above are still entry level executive autos. Even though Jaguar is bad quality it is still a Jaguar. Ferraris of old were known to had quality issues as well but they still hold their value. On the Lexus I think one reason why people think that way is because of the origins of the mother company & the fact is it is Japanese, a country known for good inexpensive cars. That isn't a bad thing but who wants a leathered up overpriced Japanese car? That may be a reason why Lexus hasnt entered the Philippines because of the way they may be perceived. Chrysler's 300C is based on the previous E Class platform but has a sticker price lower than a C Class.

This comparison was made to see how Tsikot members perceive each car. If it was based on personal experience I would have stated otherwise. I also wouldn't expect much respondents either.

[theveed]

My goodness, it's amazing how some of you take opinions of others so seriously and so personal...

Unless you're some guy from Car and Driver, Top Gear, Motor Trend or Jay Leno, all our opinions weigh exactly the same... Personal bias, no more no less...

[BlueBimmer]

goodness!!