Even German taxi drivers no longer hail a Mercedes
Visitors travelling by taxi to the DaimlerChrysler headquarters in Stuttgart used to have one choice of vehicle: Mercedes. The same was true throughout Germany. But on visits in the recent wintry months, the taxi rank has been usually been headed by a Volkswagen, Opel or worst of all a Mazda.
Jürgen Geier, a Stuttgart taxi driver who used to drive a Mercedes before switching to Audi, explains: “Mercedes has really gone downhill in the last few years. I have colleagues who had to take their cars to be repainted practically every week. They have got a lot of work to do to gain their reputation back.”
This anecdotal evidence, albeit from the heaviest users and sharpest critics of cars, highlights the trouble in which Mercedes finds itself. Its reputation for quality lies in tatters as it has been forced to admit that its cars, which once set the industry standard for reliability, are prone to breakdown.
Last week the Mercedes Car Group, which includes the lossmaking Smart small-car brand, reported its worst quarterly profit for 13 years and admitted that this year might be even more challenging. It even suffered the ignominy of seeing its profits overtaken by Chrysler, the previously struggling US mass-market carmaker that merged with Daimler-Benz in 1998.
For Germany's taxi drivers, this comes as no surprise. “Opels [made by General Motors of the US] are half the price of Mercedes and the quality is now the same,” says Anis Ahmad, a Frankfurt taxi driver with an Opel Zafira. M. Daim, who drives a Mercedes from the 1990s, says: “This one is top class but, when I replace it, I won't buy Mercedes again.”
The German Taxi and Hire Car Association (BZP) says that Mercedes' proportion of new taxi sales has fallen since the turn of the century from 70 per cent to 50 per cent. Simultaneously, VW's market share has risen from a tiny proportion to more than 20 per cent and is expected to grow further when it reports figures next month. Opel has benefited from an aggressive push into the taxi business that included offering attractive financing deals.
“Quality at Mercedes played a role in this,” says the BZP. “There were so many problems, particularly with new technology.” Partly as a result of cramming so much gadgetry into its cars without checking whether it all functioned together, Mercedes has slipped in the past decade from first to 28th place in the respected JD Power reliability survey.
“We are seeing things that should not have been allowed to happen in terms of quality,” says one London analyst. As a result, Mercedes' operating margin in the fourth quarter dropped to a miserly 0.16 per cent compared with one of about 7 per cent in the previous quarter for great rival BMW.
Daimler executives have tried to strike an upbeat note. Jürgen Schrempp, chief executive, said last week that the situation would be under control within a year. Eckhard Cordes, the new head of Mercedes, claimed that the cars now leaving its factories were the best quality it had ever made. But analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that resolving the issue, which Mr Cordes inherited last year from Jürgen Hubbert, his predecessor, will cost �500m ($649m) a year. Most analysts expect the company to gain control of the situation eventually and regain some lost clients. Taxi drivers may be among the hardest to woo back. Mercedes gained its dominant position thanks to the durability of its cars perhaps best displayed by a Greek taxi driver who clocked up 2.8m miles in his 240D model. But as the technology failings have piled up, so other reasons have helped erode Mercedes' market share for taxis chiefly the poor domestic economic climate during which many drivers have seen their takings halve.
“Price, as ever, also had something to do with it,” the BZP says. A �20,000 Opel Zafira or VW Touran, both of which will seat seven people, make more economic sense than a �40,000 Mercedes. “Clients don't care and we can earn more [through the added space],” says Mr Ahmad.
However, secondhand sales of older, more reliable Mercedes models are booming in the German taxi market, says BZP with the result that 70 per cent of all taxis still bear the famous star logo.
流年不利的梅赛德斯
以前，坐出租车前往斯图加特(Stuttgart) 参观戴姆勒?克莱斯勒(DaimlerChrysler)总部，只有一种交通工具：梅赛德斯(Mercedes)。整个德国，情况也一样。但是最近冬季的几个月里，游客们发现，出租车队经常由大众(Volkswagen)、欧宝(Opel)甚至是马自达(Mazda)领头。
于尔根?哥耶尔（Jurgen Geier）是斯图加特的一个出租车司机。他以前开梅赛德斯，最近换成了奥迪（Audi）。他解释说：“过去几年，梅赛德斯的确在走下坡路。我的一些同事几乎每周得为车辆重新喷漆。要挽回名誉，梅赛德斯还有很多工作要做。”
尽管这种坊间流传的证据来自用车最频繁的人群和最尖锐的批评者，但它突出了梅赛德斯陷入的问题。曾以质量著称，现在已声誉扫地。它被迫承认，梅赛德斯曾在汽车可靠性上被列为行业典范，现在则濒临崩溃。
梅赛德斯轿车集团上周公布了十三年来最差的季度利润报告。该集团还拥有亏损的小型车品牌Smart。它承认，今年的形势可能更具挑战性。它甚至不得不承受其利润被克莱斯勒超过所带来的耻辱，克莱斯勒作为苦苦挣扎的美国大众车制造商，在1998年与戴姆勒奔驰合并。
对德国出租车司机来说，这一点都不奇怪。法兰克福出租车司机阿尼斯?阿马德（Anis Ahmad）开的是欧宝赛飞利（Opal Zafira），他说：“欧宝[由美国的通用汽车（General Motors）生产]价格是梅塞德斯的一半，它们的质量现在是一样的，”M?戴姆（Daim）从90年代开始一直开着辆梅赛德斯，他说：“这车是顶级的，但如果要更新，我不会再买梅赛德斯了。”
德国出租车协会（The German Taxi and Hire Car Association (BZP)）表示，新的出租车中，梅赛德斯销售量的比例从上世纪末的70%下降到现在的50%。与此同时，大众从微弱的市场占有量上升到20%。当它下个月公布报表的时候，预计将有更大的增长。对于出租车业务的强力介入，包括提供诱人的融资条件，欧宝从中获得了好处。
德国出租车协会指出：“梅赛德斯的质量是其中的一个重要因素。他们有很多问题，特别是在一些新技术方面。”在权威的JD Power有关可靠性的调查中，梅赛德斯从10年前的第一名滑落到现在的第28位，部分原因是它把很多小配件一股脑儿塞到一辆车上，却没有测试它们是否能够和谐运转。
一位伦敦的分析师说：“我们发现，许多在质量环节上本不该发生事情的发生了。”结果，梅赛德斯第四季度的营业利润率下降到可怜的0.16%，与此形成对比的是宝马（BMW）上个季度的7%。
戴姆勒的决策层试图重振雄风。首席执行官于尔根?施伦普（Jurgen Schrempp）上周表示，形势将在年内得到控制。梅赛德斯的新主管埃克哈德?考德斯（Eckhard Cordes）表示，现在出厂的汽车质量是有史以来最好的。考德斯是去年接替他的前任于尔根?胡勃特（Jurgen Hubbert）的。但是摩根斯坦利（Morgan Stanley）的分析师估计，解决这个问题将每年花费5亿欧元（6.49亿美元）。大多数分析师认为，该公司将最终控制住局势并赢回失去的客户。但出租车司机也许是最难赢回的客户。梅赛德斯曾凭借它的可靠性获得市场的统治地位，最好的证明是：一个希腊司机驾驶一辆240D车开了280万英里。但随着技术故障增多及其它原因，其中主要包括低迷的国内经济环境使得司机的营业收入减半，梅赛德斯的市场份额不断被蚕食。
德国出租车协会说：“价格永远是一个重要因素。”一辆两万欧元的欧宝赛飞利或是大众途安（VW Touran）能坐7个人，它们比四万欧元的梅赛德斯更有经济价值。阿马德说：“客人不会计较，而我们能赚得更多（因为更加宽敞的空间）。”
不过老款的、可靠性高的梅赛德斯二手车买卖在德国出租车市场仍很火爆。德国出租车协会表示，70%的出租车仍然挂着著名的星星标志。
