New York 2014: Outtakes Part 1 – The Masses Are Asses

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

One of the cars I was least impressed with was the Mercedes-Benz GLA. Even when giving the show floor example the benefit of the doubt for being pre-production or early build, this car just screams “poor execution”.

Like the CLA, the interior has a veneer of “premium” – until you get up close and see that the wood “veneer” is really just molded plastic with a tortoise-shell looking finish. The switches are all horribly cheap and the screen jutting out of the dash is reminiscent of a cheap Taiwan-made Android tablet.

Most glaring was the rear hatch area. The amount of seam sealer placed on the top near the hatch struts is gratuitous, even for an early build car – especially for one sitting on the floor of a major auto show. You wouldn’t expect that on a $15k Hyundai Accent, let alone a Mercedes-Benz.

But it doesn’t matter. Mercedes will sell every single one of these cars (or lease them for $0 down, $299 a month at 36 months), just on the back of their stellar brand. Nobody will care about this, the crummy interior or the lack of cargo and passenger space. They won’t even notice it – just the three-pointed star on the hood. As my late grandfather used to say “The Masses Are Asses”.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Wmba Wmba on Apr 23, 2014

    I drove a CLA back in the late fall. The front door cards are too small and don't cover the painted tin at the rear edge of the door. The centre console is of a quality beaten by a Subaru Impreza. The outward visibility is non-existent from your shoulders rearward. The road noise from the front wheels is way too loud and obvious. The traction control is crude and obvious. The gear shift lever is fragile and dumb in operation. The ride is only fair, and the tranny shifts clunkily. On the plus side, the front passenger seat is as fully powered as the driver's. Japan cost-cutters take note. The GLA will no doubt extend this array of amazing features 5 inches higher into the atmosphere. These are Corollas and RAV4s for the dumb but rich crowd and of course, gutterslinger. An Accord slays this in terms of real quality - I've looked closely. Well-spotted, Derek. Since these GLA things are actually on sale in Yourup, I think the extra dollop of sealer is just a freebie.

  • Onus Onus on Apr 24, 2014

    I think of Mercedes this way: They really look neat. On top of that they have some fancy drive trains and I'm a fancy drive train consumer. But, i would never buy one. Too much money, parts are not cheap. Plus you look like a douche when normal people drive Corollas, and Camrys. On top of that the thing will give you countless problems throughout ownership with repairs and such. If we could get the real base model cars, manual everything, diesel, i might give it a try, might. I would have to get the Xenons. One day manufactures will have good headlights as standard. Until then I'll make due. Maybe I'll buy a depreciated copy to screw around with and see how horrible it is.

  • Ryoku75 Ryoku75 on Apr 24, 2014

    Honestly I can't insult gtr, why? Because I choose to not even acknowledge his existence, my previous discussion with him was enough. I'm not great at endurance, ignoring, tolerating, or whatever other word works in there. But I'm quite surprised that I'm one of the few B&B that can glance at his comments, have a short chuckle be it at the ignorance or ... abuse, and leave. Sometimes I feel like TTAC leaves him be solely because he drives comments and page views up. Anyway, as far as cheapening goes, I have minimal fate in modern luxury brands with the likes of BMWs X-series, Porsches glorified VW SUV, Infinti...just everything about them, Volvo for reasons that've been said numerous times (I'm sick of their Shooting Brake teasing), Mercedes for this sad Camry copy, Bentley for their Guinea Pig bodies, Lexus for reasons everyones familiar with, BUT! At least Cadillac makes some semi-luxurious stuff, they're not goofing their press-created "ultra sporty luxury" image up or anything. I just never liked their hipster cred wagon. Lincolns are more or less polished up Fords, which its been like for decades by now. If they can re-work the cooporate front end they'll have some okay stuff. Audis stuff is fine as ever, if a bit VW derived and macho-aggressive.

  • Psychoboy Psychoboy on Apr 25, 2014

    I realize I'm a bit late to the party, but I thought this seemed relevant to the discussion: http://www.autonews.com/article/20140404/OEM04/140409901/mercedes-sprinter-fights-notion-that-it-8217-s-unaffordable In short, because MBUSA has spent the last several decades presenting itself as nothing but a luxury brand in the US, the US market doesn't realize it's little more than the German version of Chevrolet. That leads to the idea that the Sprinter is some upscale expensive rig, and that prevents some contractor grade van shoppers from even looking at it, and other contractors to dismiss it because they don't want to be seen as the too-expensive-for-the-customer guy. They are afraid their customers will look more favorably on a $40,000 Transit than they will a $35,000 Sprinter because one has a blue oval on the nose and the other has most of a peace sign. When my dealership bought our first 'Dodge' Sprinter for parts delivery, several of our wholesale customers asked when we were going to raise prices to pay for it. I just told them we were buying it with the money we weren't putting in the Chevy one ton dually cab and chassis stake bed's fuel tank. Ask anyone who has owned a Sprinter....MB is not an exclusively luxury brand. The article above suggests that MBUSA is intentionally trying to lower their perceived brand image in order to gain more "I can afford that?" customers. And, if the B&B thinks this CLA/GLA platform is a step down for MB, be thankful the A-class isn't coming over here. And yes, there is a forum for everything: http://sprinter-source.com/forum/index.php

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