April 11, 2008
Mercedes-Benz hasn’t sold a car with a four-cylinder engine in the U.S. for the past few years, but they’re taking this sesquicentennial anniversary of the birth of Rudolf Diesel to introduce a new oil-burner engine, according to thecarconnection.com.
The new diesel, Mercedes says, outstrips all its previous efforts in design, technology and output. A 2.1-liter four-cylinder, the new diesel turns in 204 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque, a boost of 25 percent over its current diesel. Though it has more power, Mercedes says the new engine gets better fuel economy and also spits out less carbon dioxide — 13 percent, according to their estimates.
The 2.1-liter version should be followed by smaller-displacement versions.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 10:02 AM | Permalink
April 4, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The Smart Fortwo two-seat minicar received one of the lowest crash-test scores among 2008 car models for protecting passengers, according to federal test results released Thursday, according to The Detroit Free Press.
While the other tests of the Smart produced better results, the scores highlighted the high safety hurdle Smart's U.S. sales team has to climb in order to overcome American buyers' fears about driving the smallest vehicle on the road.
Smart said the results were as expected, although
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:35 AM | Permalink
November 13, 2007
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Linda Moudakas drives a Mercedes-Benz sedan with 140,000 miles on the odometer. For her next car, she's thinking of downsizing. Really downsizing.
She's in line to buy something that looks like a glorified golf cart, a car so short it can be legally parked head first along a curb. No hood. No trunk.
Behold, the Smart car, according to USA Today.
"It's all the talk about the environment and wanting to do something," the Menlo Park, Calif., executive says as she eyes an array of Smart demonstration cars lined up here. To her, buying a Smart car with its 2008 EPA rating of about 40 miles per gallon on the highway amounts to treading lightly on Mother Earth.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:21 AM | Permalink
October 25, 2007
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Automaker Daimler posted its first quarterly loss since 2003, with charges of $3.7 billion from the sale of Chrysler offsetting big gains by its Mercedes-Benz Car Group, according to the Associated Press.
But the 1.53-billion euro, or $2.18 billion, quarterly loss was anticipated by analysts, who were cheered by an otherwise solid performance, noting that sales were up in key U.S. and European markets.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 9:42 AM | Permalink
October 15, 2007
With the separation from Chrysler complete, Daimler AG is very likely to pursue closer ties with its archrival BMW, according to knowledgeable sources inside the automaker, according to thecarconnection.com
For the past several weeks, the German press has been filled with speculation about joint development projects for everything from small cars to new engines. Moreover, Daimler chief executive officer Dieter Zetsche didn't exactly reject the idea of closer ties with BMW.
Daimler, in fact, made one known but ultimately unsuccessful bid for BMW back in the early 1960s and by and large the two companies have kept their distance for the past half-century or so.
In recent years, however, BMW and Daimler have collaborated successfully in the development of hybrids and more projects are possible if they are mutually beneficial, Zetsche said during the special shareholders meeting in Berlin earlier this month.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:18 AM | Permalink
October 4, 2007
BERLIN -- DaimlerChrysler AG Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche reassured shareholders Thursday that the automaker was not forgetting its history with a proposed name change to Daimler AG - instead of Daimler-Benz, the company's name for much of the 20th Century, according to the Associated Press.
The Benz name would remain in the company's flagship luxury brand, Mercedes-Benz, and get plenty of attention, Zetsche told 4,700 shareholders before a vote on dropping Chrysler from the name, a formality after selling a majority stake in the U.S. automaker earlier this year.
Zetsche said the company needed to clearly differentiate its individual product brands from that of the corporate entity, and that surveys showed that Mercedes-Benz was "the most coveted automobile brand in Germany."
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 9:33 AM | Permalink
October 3, 2007
Mercedes is being forced to cut back on its U.S. Maybach stores, according to Automotive News.
You surprise me.
I have always thought this bizarre car was out of sync with the times. It's not so much that it's enormous and enormously expensive; there are plenty of rich folks out there who want to show it.
But the thing about Mercedes' Maybach is that it's not a driver's car. It's a "being-driven" car and I'm not sure that most of today's super rich want to be driven around like geriatics. The back seats are like those in first class on airplanes: they stretch out to fully reclined and are surrounded by a medley of services for the sedantry.
Time was when being cocooned like this in the back of a massive car with names that harked back to horse-drawn days - coach, brougham, landrau, limousine - was the way to go. Rich meant being old and deserving of privacy, privilege and respect.
But today, being active into advanced years is practically as important as being rich. Rolls-Royce still produces monsters, but most of today's super expensive cars are high performance driver's cars, whether Accuras, Audis, Cadillacs, Bentleys BMWs, Lexuses or other Mercedes-Benzes - to say nothing of Aston Martins, Ferraris or Porsches et al.
Automotive News reports that 29 of Maybach's original 70 U.S. dealerships have given up their franchises and while a Mercedes spokeswoman was quoted as saying: This is just about where we want to be," one has to wonder if that is putting a brave face on it.
After all, Automotive News reports Mercedes had hoped to sell 600 Maybachs a year in the U.S. when it introduced the car about five years ago, but last year sold a paltry 146.
- Peter C. T. Elsworth
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 10:38 AM | Permalink
September 13, 2007
While Daimler continues to plug money into the never-profitable smart project, its very dogged determination has attracted at least two wannabes to the Frankfurt auto show this year, according to thecarconnection.com.
Volkswagen's UP! Concept is one, and Toyota 's IQ city car is the other.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:21 AM | Permalink
FRANKFURT, Germany — Two decades after diesel cars all but vanished from American roads in a cloud of sooty smoke, are Americans ready to give them another try?
That is a big question at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, as European carmakers roll out “clean diesel” vehicles — their answer to the call for more efficient, climate-friendly cars, according to the New York Times.
Betting that diesel power will become an alternative to the hybrids popularized by Toyota and other Japanese carmakers, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen all plan to sell new diesel automobiles in the United States in the coming year, and many of them are on show here
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:12 AM | Permalink
September 12, 2007
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Mercedes-Benz expects to turn a profit on vehicles using the sophisticated new hybrid system it developed with General Motors Corp. and BMW, DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche said Tuesday, according to the Detroit Free Press.
GM has conceded it will initially lose money on the system. Zetsche credited his more optimistic expectation to Mercedes' higher sales price. Despite that, Mercedes will use the system on only one of the many hybrid models it plans to introduce over the next several years, he said.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 9:59 AM | Permalink
July 19, 2007
Here’s your chance to check out the smart car which is in town as part of smart USA’s “street smart” road show, a national tour to introduce the iconic two-seater to U.S. consumers.
Mercedes-Benz’s smart car, which has sold 750,000 models in 36 countries since it was launched in Europe in 1998, is stopping in Warwick today and near Waterplace Park in Providence tomorrow and Saturday.
I took a short test drive in one this morning with smart rep Kia Goddard and found the car fun to drive and comfortable, even on the highway where it more than held its own. It did not feel unsafe – it has a host of safety features – and, Boy, does it attract a crowd.
Top speed is about 90 mph, while fuel consumption is more than 40 miles per gallon. And it is so short - just over 8-3/4 feet long by about 5 feet wide - that it can be parked perpendicular to the sidewalk!
The road show features 4 smart fortwo cars for test-drives on a closed course, a mobile smart exhibit with interactive displays and virtual safety demonstrations and a safety display – safety is the number one question this side of the Atlantic, according to smart reps – featuring the “Tridion cell” (reinforced steel cage), dual and side airbags, electronic stability program and anti-lock brakes.
The display is open today at the Mercedes-Benz dealership at Inskip in Warwick and at 5 Moshassuck Street near Stillman Street and Exchange Street tomorrow, 12 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, 12 to 5 p.m.
- Peter C.T. Elsworth
Posted by at 11:03 AM | Permalink
June 20, 2007
MUSCLE cars are inseparable from America and the ’60s, their innocence sweetly harmonized by the Beach Boys, their more sinister side chronicled in films from “Bullitt” to “Grindhouse.”
Today’s revival of the old horsepower wars still features familiar Motown combatants like Corvette, Mustang and Charger. But it is Mercedes-Benz, once known for conservative sedans and sleepy diesels, that is overwhelming the competition, according to the New York Times. Forget 400 horses: the AMG division of Mercedes is the new King of Zing, churning out models that top 600 horsepower.
Posted by at 11:27 AM | Permalink
