Hot! Global sales: December 2013 + Year 2013 total: Audi, BMW, MB

[Mr. Mercedes]

As I suspected. Mercedes profitability taking a BIG hit with the raft of model introductions and associated expenses.

 

[Kilcrohane]

I knew I should have followed my gut and bought Daimler shares.

Figures for Audi and BMW?

https://www.audi-mediaservices.com/...ilungen/2014/03/07/audi_ag__global_sales.html

Global +6.8%, China +6.9%.

I think Mercedes is now getting the 'glow' of the new S-Class.

I think the Chinese are *very* impressed by brand image. Mercedes-Benz up until 2013 may have come across as old-fashioned, faded, unexciting, behind Audi and BMW.

I think the new S-Class has changed that all around singlehandedly. The S-Class is now regarded, rightly, as the best car in the world, even holding its own against much more expensive Bentleys and Rollers.

I think this perception has now found its way into the minds of rich Chinese, who now see Mercedes-Benz as a top brand, the maker of the best car in the world, and suddenly all its lesser products are feeling much more love and respect from the halo effect.

Whether it was by chance or a deliberate decision by the Daimler AG board some years ago, to spend the vast sums required on the R&D of the new S-Class, which will probably never be recouped alone by the relatively small(<150k/yr) sales of the final S-Class range, but look like they will now be in-spades by the additional, in the hundreds of thousands of sales generated in China alone over the next five years or so, we as outsiders will never know, but what great fortune for Mercedes-Benz.

 

[Kilcrohane]

And JLR's counter to the S-Class-inspired surge of Mercedes-Benz in China is?:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/jaguar/86074/jaguar-announces-partnership-david-beckham

Sad. Desperation. Squeaky bum time, as Beckham's former Man U manager might say.

This just a day after GM announces price increases for the Corvette Stingray, due to demand hugely outstripping supply.

I said last year on GCF that the Corvette would be the nemesis of the F-type.

JLR is falling back on the only thing it knows - marketing, PR, propaganda - to try to stop the accelerating fall of Jaguar.

They pulled this stroke once successfully, with Mrs Beckham, and the launch of the Evoque. They tried twice with James Bond, 007(the actor Daniel Craig ), with the launch of the F-type convertible last year, and failed, so maybe they think 'Brand Beckham' will work the third time, and trump 'Brand 3-Pointed Star'.

David Beckham may have had real pulling power ten years ago, when he was still a player, but now he's just a rich, middle-aged man, with lots of tattoos, notoriously little brains, and an overall fading image, trying to 'front' the purchase of a MLS team franchise notwithstanding.

It seems Brand Beckham and JLR have become inseparable, both largely media creations, with very little underlying talent, and both on the downslopes of their once, just a few years ago, seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory.

 

[hoffmeister_fan]

Curious, the thread title is "Global sales: December 2013 + Year 2013 total: Audi, BMW, MB," what does Jag or LR have anything to do with this?

 

[Kilcrohane]

Curious, the thread title is "Global sales: December 2013 + Year 2013 total: Audi, BMW, MB," what does Jag or LR have anything to do with this?

I think you're being a little bit churlish.

For one thing the announcement of Mercedes' surge in China sales came closely followed by JLR's announcement of Beckham as a brand ambassador in China. Surely in itself that is worthy of some juxtaposing note.

Second, the sheer fact that Mercedes' sales in China are surging means by definition some competitors' sales must be correspondingly suffering, as the overall China luxury market is up by less.

Mercedes' awakening in China spells more bad news for JLR(the delay in the Chery JV), its hitherto real standout sweet spot. JLR's appointment of Beckham, a rather desperate PR-driven measure to shift increasingly uncompetitive products is like a semi-official confirmation of the increasingly potent threat posed by Merc's startling renaissance in China.

With the US and Western Europe still mired in recession for the bulk of their populations China and Asia becomes
more important for the overall fortunes of auto makers.

 

[klier]

Curious, the thread title is "Global sales: December 2013 + Year 2013 total: Audi, BMW, MB," what does Jag or LR have anything to do with this?

Kilcrohane will find a way

I think you're being a little bit churlish.

For one thing the announcement of Mercedes' surge in China sales came closely followed by JLR's announcement of Beckham as a brand ambassador in China. Surely in itself that is worthy of some juxtaposing note.

No it is not.

Great to see MB on fire btw! The stronger the competition the better.

 

[Monster]

Any more off topic posts will be removed, keep the JLR talk in their own section.

 

[Monster]

I think you're being a little bit churlish.

Leave the personal remarks out of it, or you will be out of here again.

 

[Kilcrohane]

Leave the personal remarks out of it, or you will be out of here again.

You never did get over me pulling you up on your engineering remark on the new Range Rover, did you Monster? Still festering away, just itching to hit the banned button, because of the slight you felt back then.

http://www.germancarforum.com/community/threads/official-2013-range-rover.46230/reply?quote=597063

http://www.germancarforum.com/community/threads/official-2013-range-rover.46230/reply?quote=597090

Go ahead fella, push the button. I and others have noticed how juvenile and downgraded the 'debates' on your precious site have become anyway.

Let's see if you need the click hits to maintain ad revenue or whether your simmering petty resentment caused by that early remark I pulled you on gets the better of your commercial judgment. From what I think I know of you, simmering petty resentment wins every time.

For the record, don't pull that 'personal remarks' trite crap. Many others here chuck around far more direct insults with abandon, regularly, but don't get pulled.

Was it the taming of the playground bully 'Betty Swollocks' by me, that in addition to the long-held slight, got your finger hovering over the ban button? Then good, that individual has serious personality issues, and I'm amazed no one sorted him out sooner.

 

[Merc1]

Have BMW and Audi announced yet for Feb?

M

 

[JHF]

Have BMW and Audi announced yet for Feb?

M

Audi, but BMW not yet.

https://www.audi-mediaservices.com/...ilungen/2014/03/07/audi_ag__global_sales.html

 

[Merc1]

MB is outgrowing Audi percentage wise, that is what the need to do.

Audi is going to face a slow down if the A4 and Q7 really are pushed back until 2015. The A5 while still gorgeous in all its forms, it old too.

M

 

[hoffmeister_fan]

I think you're being a little bit churlish.

That's cute. That's like praise from Caesar himself.

But I am digressing from the thread's topic...

 

[Monster]

You never did get over me pulling you up on your engineering remark on the new Range Rover, did you Monster? Still festering away, just itching to hit the banned button, because of the slight you felt back then.

http://www.germancarforum.com/community/threads/official-2013-range-rover.46230/reply?quote=597063

http://www.germancarforum.com/community/threads/official-2013-range-rover.46230/reply?quote=597090

Go ahead fella, push the button. I and others have noticed how juvenile and downgraded the 'debates' on your precious site have become anyway.

Let's see if you need the click hits to maintain ad revenue or whether your simmering petty resentment caused by that early remark I pulled you on gets the better of your commercial judgment. From what I think I know of you, simmering petty resentment wins every time.

If I want to ban you I would have done so already, and I would have made sure you won't come back. It is nice to know you think I care about getting a character assessment from someone on the internet, it is even nicer to know you think about me a lot more than I think of you.

For the record, don't pull that 'personal remarks' trite crap. Many others here chuck around far more direct insults with abandon, regularly, but don't get pulled.
Was it the taming of the playground bully 'Betty Swollocks' by me, that in addition to the long-held slight, got your finger hovering over the ban button? Then good, that individual has serious personality issues, and I'm amazed no one sorted him out sooner.

There is no need to be so sensitive now? We have dealt with other members, mostly in private. If you have any further complains, recommendations, please send a message to the admin.

 

[Kilcrohane]

We have dealt with other members, mostly in private.

I bet you've dealt with lots of members, in private.

 

[Monster]

I bet you've dealt with lots of members, in private.

You are missing out on all the fun, if you ask nicely we might let you in.

 

[Merc1]

MB closing in on Audi:

http://europe.autonews.com/article/...p-with-audi-by-one-third-on-china-sales-surge

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, who has a goal for Mercedes to surpass Audi and BMW to become the world's biggest maker of luxury cars by 2020, is rolling out 30 new vehicles by the end of the decade, a dozen of which will have no predecessor.

Still can't image what all 12 of those vehicles are. Some are known, but 12? WTH.

M

 

[Sunny]

...nicely

I might be going out on a limb here, but I think he missed that transport.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

So we have:

AUDI - 242,400
BMW - 242,017
MERCEDES - 215,753

 

[mini_cooper4]

So we have:

AUDI - 242,400
BMW - 242,017
MERCEDES - 215,753

Good to see BMW is the sure winner for 2014 but I think no one ever doubted it
Audi not being able to pull away when it can... it will surely be left in dust a few months later.