All kind of sales Audi / BMW / Mercedes

[Mr. Mercedes]

I agree.

The biggest problem is the interior of those cars.

Thankfully the guy behind this is going to resign.

As you said the SL and the GT are in no man‘s land.

The new GLC shows us, that they can still build beautiful interiors.

Very interesting. Do you know why he's going and who's taking over?

MB recently lost their interior electronics and UI expert to Porsche.

 

[Swissbob]

Markus Schäfer is the key person. Burzer is his successor.

 

[Swissbob]

Very interesting. Do you know why he's going and who's taking over?

MB recently lost their interior electronics and UI expert to Porsche.

I guess because of his track record. I call him Mr. Dacia interiors, because the low rent interiors were his idea, and he was able to convince OK.

Porsche is a very interesting subject.

They’re completely lost.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

Markus Schäfer is the key person. Burzer is his successor.

Interesting.

And the guy responsible for the worst era at AMG and arguably the weakest range of top end vehicles in over 2 decades is being promoted to take control of production, quality and supply chain management. Talk about dysfunctional nepotism.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

I guess because of his track record. I call him Mr. Dacia interiors, because the low rent interiors were his idea, and he was able to convince OK.

Porsche is a very interesting subject.

They’re completely lost.

Bye bye Mr. Dacia! If OK and the rest of them were dumb enough to pay heed they should also be held responsible.

 

[Swissbob]

Interesting.

And the guy responsible for the worst era at AMG and arguably the weakest range of top end vehicles in over 2 decades is being promoted to take control of production, quality and supply chain management. Talk about dysfunctional nepotism.

He’s his best buddy.
If I remember correctly, I read somewhere that Schiebe was a few years ago head of OKs office.
Nepotism at it’s best.

Edit: That’s also interesting. A married couple.

 

[tristatez28lt1]

Fetzers... they damaged this company almost more than Ola... grifters and talkers

 

[Swissbob]

Fetzers... they damaged this company almost more than Ola... grifters and talkers

Their marketing BS was indeed a little bit strange.

BTW she still drives a R230 Mopf 2

 

[klier]

At this point, perhaps a Chinese takeover or merger would be a good outcome. Imagine the cash and resources they would have access to, to ensure they were 'engineered like no other'. The Chinese have proven they can engineer and manufacture alongside the best in the world now and an arrangement whereby Mercedes were the Halo 'German' brand of Chinese/German automotive powerhouse, representing the absolute best of the best, without having to worry about massive volume, would be quite ideal to me.

Worst idea ever.
And if you go a little more in depth you realize the Chinese car industry is in a bubble which will eventually burst like Evergrande.

MB must forever remain German.

Porsche is a very interesting subject.

They’re completely lost.

Very interesting. Profit margins have dropped to like 2%

 

[Swissbob]

And the Porsche lineup is a total mess.

If we’re looking at the German car industry, BMW has done their homework congratulations , Mercedes Benz did a big U-turn will probably recover from their stupid decisions, however VW is a total mess, Porsche is even worse.

Both lost the plot.

 

[klier]

.......however VW is a total mess, Porsche is even worse.

Both lost the plot.

Well Porsche is spending like 9 billion to rectify things, which I am sure they will. And VW to me seems on a roll again with the new ID cars ID2, ID1, T-Roc etc all look very nice and like a VW ought to look. Physical buttons are returning too. So I am more optimistic.

 

[Swissbob]

It takes 3 yrs to sort this out.

 

[klier]

Yeah I'd imagine at least that long.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

Worst idea ever.
And if you go a little more in depth you realize the Chinese car industry is in a bubble which will eventually burst like Evergrande.

MB must forever remain German.



Very interesting. Profit margins have dropped to like 2%

LOL.

Who knows what the corporate and financial landscape will look like in 5 years given all of the underlying geopolitical and economic issues.

An unlimited pool of R&D funding for MB would be my dream, and the Chinese could offer that, but it's obviously not a realistic or likely outcome.

I think the Chinese car industry will see a lot of rationalisation, through mergers, acquisitions, failures etc, but the industry as a whole will continue to be the dominant force in the automotive landscape moving forward.

 

[Serpens]

Well Porsche is spending like 9 billion to rectify things, which I am sure they will. And VW to me seems on a roll again with the new ID cars ID2, ID1, T-Roc etc all look very nice and like a VW ought to look. Physical buttons are returning too. So I am more optimistic.

I guess you haven’t heard how badly the Rivian and VW software partnership is going. VW is going to have a long path to being stable again.

 

[kiki voinea]

And the Porsche lineup is a total mess.

If we’re looking at the German car industry, BMW has done their homework congratulations , Mercedes Benz did a big U-turn will probably recover from their stupid decisions, however VW is a total mess, Porsche is even worse.

Both lost the plot.

Given the fact that the new Cayenne looks like a total redesign, they probably know that the hype train Porsche has been receiving in the last years won't last forever if they will not bring something fresh to the market

Kudos to them . The new Cayenne looks stunning ( from the spy pics )

 

[Rolf]

Worst idea ever.
And if you go a little more in depth you realize the Chinese car industry is in a bubble which will eventually burst like Evergrande.

MB must forever remain German.



Very interesting. Profit margins have dropped to like 2%

Yes fully agree with you that eventually the Chinese car industry will implode as there are over 120 local brands competing for sales and with all the slashing of prices eventually leading to bankruptcies of at last 90% of those brands some analysts are saying maybe only 10 to 15 brands will be on sale by 2030.

Even BYD is facing a wall now with their sales and in August in China already have some decline in sales of some models.

BYD Down 21% & PHEVs Down 7% YoY — August 2025 China EV Sales Report - CleanTechnica

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. BEVs represented over a third of the total Chinese car market in August. We saw plugins score another million-plus sales in August (in a 2-million-unit overall market, up 5% YoY), but growth has been slowing down, with...

cleantechnica.com

It just shows you that Chinese people are the same as Europe and even South Africa or other Asian countries, they like small cheaper hatchback cars.

The Geely Xingyuan is now the best selling car in China so far this year. In my opinion its styling has some resemblance to the latest Smart models. So could both these models be sharing the same EV parts bin?

 

[klier]

I guess you haven’t heard how badly the Rivian and VW software partnership is going. VW is going to have a long path to being stable again.

Hmmm...yeah haven't been following that much.
WTF VW wants with Rivian is a separate story I guess.

And I now see VW is closing the Zwickau plant from October 6 because no-one wants an Audi Q4 E-tron (which is understandable as it's vile through and through), and VW is also going to close the Emden plant for a few days a week because the ID4 and ID7 are in low demand.

 

[Swissbob]

Regarding the Q4 e-tron, I had one as a loaner with 20“ and sline suspension.

I can tell you, the E93 with 19“ RFT and M suspension feels in comparison smooth like a S-Class.

 

[Swissbob]

Disclaimer: I still own a E93 with 19“ and M-Suspension but I binned the F*cking RFT from Bridgestone.

With Conti SC7 it finally rides like it should. I understand why Alpina always binned the RFT from their models. And used Michelin PS instead.