Tales from Mercedes

This could be against my contract, but shhh.
As you may know, I work for the best car company in the world, Mercedes-Benz. I thought I would share some information I deem to be safe about my job here.

I drive an E63 AMG S-Model sedan the other day and the wagon variant a few weeks ago. Sadly, mostly all my drives are on the lot. No less: wow.

God smiled on me today and I got to sit in the passenger seat if an SLS AMG Black Series into the shop for about onetoday minute today. We are all fairly cynical but that car turns heads and gets taken photos of.

Excuse the potential disjointedness of my thread as u may be posting during break time.

Senior Mercs with V8s: approved.

Junior Mercs with four cylinders: overpriced pieces of junk.

Sorry, just had to.

EDIT Sounds like quite a job to be had. What are your tasks, other than driving cars around parking lots at a snail's pace?

I am actually one of two shuttle drivers. I'm normally driving the shuttle all day (an R350BT for those that have forgotten) but currently I'm a car jockey in the mornings.

I also moved around a CLA 45. They have a weirs exhaust burble.

As an employee of M-B Canada and Daimler Ferrer, I must defend all our cars. As an individual...

We drive quite a lot each day so there's usually not much downtime. When we aren't, we can do carious other tasks around the dealership but often just chill out for a few minutes.

Take an AMG and go do burnouts in front of the Brampton plant while screaming obscenities in an Italian/Maritime accent.

[quote=Ferrer;1004010]Senior Mercs with V8s: approved.

Junior Mercs with four cylinders: overpriced pieces of junk.

Sorry, just had to.

EDIT Sounds like quite a job to be had. What are your tasks, other than driving cars around parking lots at a snail's pace?[/quote]

Honestly, I hate the interiors on all Mercedes now. Have you seen the navigation screen on the CLA 45? It looks like they taped a tablet to the dash and called it a day. They couldn't find a better way to integrate that? Really?

I hope that this is not the trend for future cars.

Kitdy- that must have been a lot of fun! To date the most powerful car I've driven yet is a first generation Acura TL Type S.

[quote=NSXType-R;1004026]Honestly, I hate the interiors on all Mercedes now. Have you seen the navigation screen on the CLA 45? It looks like they taped a tablet to the dash and called it a day. They couldn't find a better way to integrate that? Really?

I hope that this is not the trend for future cars.[/quote]
Yes, I have indeed seen it because a close relative has one of the new A220 CDIs and sometimes drive it.

I do agree that the screen looks like an afterthought, but actually the interior is a nice place to be in. The seats are comfortable, the materials are nice and the fit and finish is good.

Actually the interior is the least of the junior Mercs problems. Which is a shame because even with my limited experience with senior Mercs I know they can make cars the work properly.

Not that any of this matters, though, because junior Mercs seem to be selling like hot cakes based on styling and badge. Even the CLA, which is rather expensive, is easily seen on the streets.

Currently, we can't keep the 2014 S Class or CLAs in stock. The GLA will be even bigger for us I'd imagine.

Then we have the 2015 C Class coming in October...

The interiors on the small Benzes are fine, barring the awkward HVAC placement and that damned screen. That screen is really goof and when I have to use a B Class to shuttle if my whip is in the shop, all my customers ask if its attached or it folds in, but they all like it. I hate it, but what I think doesn't matter.

Never buy a car with air suspension.

[quote=f6fhellcat13;1004022]Take an AMG and go do burnouts in front of the Brampton plant while screaming obscenities in an Italian/Maritime accent.[/quote]

Brampton Assembly represennnnnnt! We owned them and sold 'em cuz they sucked!

I just drove a brand new S63, and let me tell you, if you have the means, spin it as it's the nicest car I've ever been in. The seats are better than any in my house!

smart cars are engragingly terrible. I've driven them before but I do it much more often now. They are heinous pieces of garbage, and this has nothing to do with their size and everything to do with every other thing about them. [URL="http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/09/daily-chart-18"]They have also lost Daimler a shocking amount of money[/URL]. More than (an estimated) 3 billion Euro!

The Smart is indeed awful. The worst thing is the gearbox. Being a small cheap transportation device what was wrong with a conventional manual?

It also costs as much as a car.

Just avoid.

[quote=Kitdy;1004174]smart cars are engragingly terrible. I've driven them before but I do it much more often now. They are heinous pieces of garbage, and this has nothing to do with their size and everything to do with every other thing about them. [URL="http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/09/daily-chart-18"]They have also lost Daimler a shocking amount of money[/URL]. More than (an estimated) 3 billion Euro![/quote]

I agree that they're terrible. For the same price or a little bit more you could get a Honda Fit and get twice the amount of usage out of it with similar gas mileage. You can also carry almost 3x the amount of people. My friend is 6 ft 1in, he was able to fit in the back more comfortably than a Corolla.