...to introduce myself. My name is Lutz, I'm from Germany. I had a 95' C220.[sm=smiley13.gif]
I'm very eager to make some interesting post around here!

Cheers

 

we are more than eager to hear from you too.

welcome.

... is your car a taxi?

 

Thanks for welcome me!

Do you mean the C 220? I sold this car in 1999. I don't have a car anymore. A C 220 is a petrol engine car with 150 hp. It was no Taxi. It has too many modifications (tuning) and options to be a Taxi. (Too luxury) I never saw a C class Taxi cab or a Mercedes Taxi with petrol engine. I think they doesn't exist. (or just a few anywhere)

92 percent of German Taxi's are Mercedes, the rest are VWs, Volvos, BMWs, Toyotas etc.
About 85 percent of all Mercedes Taxis are E Class, the rest are some Vitos and a few S class.
All German Taxis have something in common: They are Diesels. Another important fact is that German Taxis have a very cheap interior, there's only plastic in many forms, all black, no air conditioning, nothing. You can't compare an individual Benz with any noisy Diesel-Taxi-Benz. That's not the same. A Taxi Benz isn't much more expensive than a Toyota Camry.

As a curious guy I was asking a Taxi Driver why he spend so much money to drive a Mercedes, it would be cheaper to get a Nissan for example. He replied that all other Taxis are Mercedes' also. Germans are somtimes very traditional too. It's good for Mercedes!

Did you ever been in Germany?

 

i have been to stuttgart, sindelfingen and hamburg for training. about a month each time. i found the food quite expensive and so are the taxis (if i can find any).

the production line was very interesting. they do different model on a single line and how they make an error free system... is very effective.

i only have met a problem once when the customer was complaining about the poor power on his S320 140 model. after a couple of months, i found out that the engine they have installed belongs to an E-Class!!! i kept wondering why the engine parts that i have ordered for the engine was always wrong. the data card says it was right. then another one from korea turns out with the same problem.

 

Oh you've been in Germany!

To live in Germany is very expensive.

An E-class engine in a S-class model is rare case. I heard that all German carmakers have such problems from time to time. It's because of the specific production system you saw in the manufactory.

Regarding to your training sessions in Germany: Are you in partnership with Mercedes-Benz?

 

i work for the mercedes-benz dealership for 7 years, but now not anymore. they are doing lots of dirty management here in china such as tax evasion, internal political management system, charging the customers for warranty parts and claiming it from germany at the same time, favoritsm, and corruption from internal departments.

i know one malaysian service manager in shanghai who molest all the female employees, eat expensive meal and charge it to the company, and many others things.

now i am working right next door to BMW and Mercedes-Benz dealership to compete in terms of quality and efficiency. i do Jaguar, and Volvo too. still the meager income can hardly support me and my family.

my job is a trainor and technical advisor.

 

Mercedes is a honest company, they wouldn't allow such dirty management. Did you ever thought about writing a letter to Mercedes-China or Mercedes-Germany? Tell them what's happen. Trust me, they're very interested to hear that. Someone with your experience and knowledge (also about other marques) would jump into a better position with better higher salary. Please contact the Mercedes headquarter. Every international company has a special department exactly for such problems, ask for it - they're really listen to you. They're able to give you a much better ranked position also. If not, they can write a letter of recommandation for you, holding you in high esteem, because you're very concerned about customers satisfaction and company culture. These are the goals of Mercedes since over 100 years.

 

MB is much more interested in making money. They are bean counters just like any other corporation in the free world. If the Malaysians and Chinese are making them money they're happy. Besides, to show concern for such things as sleepwalker mentioned would be to admit that they allow such things to happen under their umbrella. They'll resist doing that for the sake of the mark. If it became political they would have video tapes produced about sensitivity, sexual harassment, and corporate fraud and require every employee to watch it and then declared the problem solved ... and hope they don't lose too much money in the meantime.

 

SORRY I HATE C CLASSES

 

mercedes-benz in germany also can only give limited quantity of cars to sell in china.

among the 2000 cars that they allocate each year, it will be divided to about eight dealerships, and from there it will go to the small dealers which could earn a profit of $1200 per car. something was going on under the table already during the change hand procedures.

by october, the sales department got no more car to sell! all was sold out on the way that germany intend it to be. then comes the grey market vehicles. chassis or VIN numbers that suppose to exist in taiwan, hongkong, korea or malaysia suddenly starts appearing. they cannot sell all their units and have to load it in a small boat with hardly 10 inches enough left to the water line, and load vegetables on the top of it.

now my problem is on warranty claim. all things are going bananas and the after-sales got most of it.