Luxury Cars: "We're Baaack!"
Increasing signs that reports of the death of luxury cars are greatly exaggerated are emerging from Sindelfingen. To the joy of Daimler stockholders, and to the amazement of pundits who predicted we’ll be driving scooters, Daimler nearly doubled its profit guidance. According to the new reckoning, between €2.5 and €3b should appear below the bottom line as EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) by the end of this year, says Daimler according to Das Autohaus. That came as quite a surprise.
A few days before, on Wednesday last week, to be exact, Dr. Z. projected €1.5b at the annual stockholders meeting. Which didn’t make stockholder too happy. Some demanded Zetsche’s head. Dr. Z had to make daring predictions, like Daimler’s sales will grow twice as fast as the industry average. After the meeting, his bean counters went back to their books and found more money. Projected money.
The positive prediction is based on “very good results of Mercedes-Benz-Cars,” says Daimler. “These are caused by high sales, a strong model mix, good pricing power, in addition to a favorable cost structure“ says the Daimler statement, obviously penned by someone who usually authors spreadsheets.
Daimler is not alone with the positive outlook for the expensive segment. Most makers of upper class conveyances report the return of customers which they already had written off as dead. Fashionable prudence can be nice. Until the old spending habits recur.
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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Daimler Deathwatch. Daimler Deathwatch. Daimler Deathwatch. Daimler Deathwatch. Daimler Deathwatch. Daimler Deathwatch. Daimler Deathwatch. When is it coming? Can you rehire Farago as a writer only?
Daimler is in absolutely no danger at this point. The lineup in North America is a very poor representation of their true breadth of vehicles, and industries. I would be very interested in an insider's view of the company (former and current). Out of all the companies we've discussed, Daimler has perhaps been the least investigated. And yes... I truly love most of their older cars from the 1950's to mid-1990's.