Daimler Launches The Last Chance Saloon: Heaven Or Hell?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Mercedes must expand into the smaller segments in a big hurry, never mind the protests from amateur marketing experts that doing so will water down the brand. That brand needs a lot of watering, lest it will shrivel and die. At home in Europe, Daimler’s core customer group on average is around 60 years old. Don’t poo-poo that demographic: There used to be a lot of growth and money in it. However, it is getting frail: The peak of this demographic is soon to retire. Daimler needs to get young stat. Its fountain of youth is a car Reuters dubbed “the last chance saloon” – the CLA.

The car is shown this week at the Geneva Motor Show, as, says Reuters, “a test of Daimler’s ability to shake off a stuffy brand image partly blamed for Mercedes’ failure to keep pace with its two main competitors.”

While the competition is busy and successful in the smaller segments, that growing part of the market has given Daimler nothing but grief. Says Reuters:

“Under Zetsche, who heads both the Daimler group and the Mercedes-Benz business, the company has struggled to rein in undisclosed losses in smaller cars, understood to have reached 500 million euros ($650 million) at the Smart division. The Mercedes A- and B-Class were barely breaking even prior to the smaller model’s relaunch last year on a new front-wheel drive platform known as MFA.”

If the last chance saloon won’t make it, Daimler will be on the way to hell.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • MBella MBella on Mar 04, 2013

    I just don't get all the negative criticism about this car. It hasn't been released yet. The only one of the new FWD cars that has been out for a year anywhere is the B-Class and the general impressions are pretty positive. The A was just released last September in Europe. Very few people have even seen the CLA yet alone drive it. The time for criticizing this thing will be when it comes out and you can actually drive the thing.

  • Rdeiriar Rdeiriar on Mar 04, 2013

    I drove the new A Class, the CLA's hatchback cousin, last week and i have to say it's a very impressive car, the chassis is among the best FWD setups i've ever experienced. The car is sold out until June at the earliest, so it seems i am not the only one that's impressed by it.

  • Stars9texashockey Stars9texashockey on Mar 05, 2013

    I'm no design expert, but I know what I like. The CLA is atrocious looking. It will lease to young women in great numbers. 30 years ago, they would've bought Cutlass Supremes.

    • See 1 previous
    • Corntrollio Corntrollio on Mar 06, 2013

      "It will lease to young women in great numbers." Agreed. As I mentioned in prior threads, the advertising may be directed to men, but this will be a women's car, not that there's anything wrong with that except that Mercedes is wasting ad dollars.

  • Ed Berry Ed Berry on Apr 29, 2013

    The A and B class are un-Mercedes. Not to mention Smart. Why bother making small cars if they lose money in them and dilute the brand? The C-class should be the smallest Benz. Mercedes can't make money on volume, Volkswagen Golf-style. They can only make money by charging a premium price for a premium product. This "a Mercedes in every garage" thinking is madness.

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