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BMW and Benz cross swords -- again
We're equal opportunity reporters here at the Carsales Network -- and some of us are also parents who have heard all that 'he started it' stuff in the past.
So when a prestige car company like BMW fires off a shot at Mercedes-Benz, we know to expect a counterstrike. And the returning salvo usually arrives swiftly.
BMW issued a press release last week, announcing that the current generation V8-powered M3 would shortly pass 1000 sales since the car was introduced to Australia in October 2007. That result strongly suggests that the V8-powered E90-generation M3 has been accepted by the local market, in spite of concern that buyers wouldn't embrace the new engine after years of straight-six powerplants.
All fine and dandy by itself, but BMW aroused the ire of management at Mercedes-Benz with the following mention in the same press release: "Since the new M3 arrived in Australia, Mercedes-Benz delivered 772 examples of the C 63 AMG."
David McCarthy, Senior Manager Corporate Communications for Mercedes-Benz described the sentence to the Carsales Network as "disingenuous" and raised a number of concerns with this release:
1. The C 63 hasn't been on sale as long as the E90 M3,
2. There was no mention of the CLK 63, which is a more realistic competitor to the two-door M3 models,
3. Benz was selling C 55 models at the same time that BMW introduced the E90 M3, but there's no mention of them in the BMW press release,
4. The way the text reads implies that the C 63 is being outsold by the M3.
Unfortunately, over the year to date for 2009 and the full year for 2008, the M3 did outsell the C 63 -- and there was just one selling month last year (January '08) when the C 63 wasn't officially being delivered to buyers, according to VFACTS figures. That month was one in which BMW sold 45 units of M3. If you deduct that figure from the 843 cars sold by BMW during 2008 and 2009 so far, you're left with a figure of 798 -- versus the 792 units of C 63 sedan and wagon sold by Benz for the same timeframe.
Now Benz may well have a point, saying that if you include sales figures for the C55 that was still selling after January 2008 and the CLK 63, which has continued to sell as recently as September 2009, then the sporty V8 models from the three-pointed star have an edge in sales.
Last year, sales of the C 63 totalled 341 units, but -- presumably thanks to Benz's 'Let's Talk' campaign -- the sports model jumped up to 451 sales so far, in 2009. By contrast, sales of the M3 outnumbered the C 63 last year, on 490 units, but that figure has dropped back to 353 units for this year to date.
But an email response received here from Toni Andreevski, BMW's PR & Corporate Communications Manager, explained that BMW is currently out of stock of the M3 and cannot find an M3 for its press fleet, for example, until May of next year.
BMW, as a lot of car companies did, presumably reduced their stocks and pulled back forward ordering with the onset of the Global Financial Crisis. Benz, by comparison, led with a campaign to clear stocks -- and that has yielded better bragging rights for sales in 2009.
"There's no doubt that 'Let's Talk' did a fantastic job for us," says McCarthy, "but it needed to, because we had too much stock. Then you have the situation where you don't have any..."
So you can't really argue that the Benz is more popular than the BMW or vice versa -- not when the market has been so volatile over the past year and a half and the two companies have approached supply and inventory issues from completely different directions.
Andreevski provided no comment on Benz's 'Let's Talk' campaign, but wrote, in effect, that sales of the two competitors represent a win for V8 sports sedan consumers, however you cut it.
"Both the BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG have been incredibly successful, since going on sale, highlighting the appeal of V8 engines in this market segment," he noted. "The sales data BMW released highlights how successful the M3 has been compared to its predecessors in such a short time. The same can be said for the C 63 AMG."
For the record, by the way, the V8-powered E90 M3 has been on sale for about two years and its near 1000-unit sales tally is a substantial gain over the 1579 units of the E46 M3 with six-cylinder engine sold during the seven-year period it was available.
AMG developing baby SLS
AMG is believed to be readying its second in-house sports car to slot beneath SLS and take on Porsche's Cayman.
Though sources are being coy on the name of the baby AMG, they have admitted the Daimler board was so impressed with the SLS that it has given Volker Mornhinweg's team a green light to go after its cross-town rivals.
The "little" AMG won't have the SLS's signature Gullwing doors, but it will retain a smaller version of its aluminium space-frame chassis and will certainly carry over its round-nosed styling signatures.
The car could carry a more-modest version of the 6.2-litre V8 AMG engine to battle, relying on light weight instead of thumping horsepower to sneak below the five-second barrier for the 0-100km/h sprint. Don't expect it to appear before 2013, though.
BMW's baby M
While rival AMG has gone after the supercar market with its SLS, expect BMW's M division to respond with a baby blaster.
Sources at M insist that while it would love nothing more than to combat the SLS head on, its key priority is to rush in a sub-M3 hot BMW on to the market. While BMW itself has this market nicely covered with the twin-turbo, in-line six-cylinder 135i (and even the 123D) coupe, highly-placed sources insist the next-generation 1-Series will have a high-speed M flagship.
The baby M should line up against the next Audi S3, which would pitch its pricing at around the €35,000 mark. With M now headed by former MINI brand manager, Kay Segler, the idea of a hotter two-door has taken root in M division, with Segler insisting: "The priority right now is a more affordable model underneath the M3."
It's not likely to carry over the M3's screaming V8 engine, though. Sources insist it will probably develop the 135i's straight-six to punch out around the 330hp mark. One thing's for sure, though: the baby M will not follow the naming tradition of the rest of the range to carry a simple "M" before its body series.
"The M1 name to us is a sacred thing for a car that marked an important turning point. It won't be called the M1," a source insisted. Instead, it could be simply the 1-Series M.
Benz C-Class coupe and CLS
Mercedes-Benz is hoping to stun some sex back into the bottom end of its model range with a secretly developed coupe set to be the star of 2011's C-Class facelift.
The first coupe ever built off a C-Class platform, the upcoming Coupe won't take cues from the larger four-door CLS, but will instead be immediately identifiable as a two-door, sleeker C-Class.
Mercedes-Benz has long ignored the ongoing success of BMW's 3-Series coupe, but sources insist the new C-Class Coupe will follow its philosophy to a tee. It will use a slightly shorter wheelbase than the rest of the C-Class sedan range and may even be launched ahead of the rest of the C-Class range.
While it will carry forward much of the underpinnings of the current C-Class, sources insist the C-Class Coupe will play host to an all-new interior package. Benz is acutely aware that the current C-Class has received criticism for the standard of its interior materials, and it has made enormous efforts in this direction. The manufacturer is also planning to introduce a new range of direct-injection V6 and V8 engines when it launches its new CLS in June next year.
Based heavily on the engineering of this year's all-new E-Class, the four-seat CLS "coupe" will again target buyers looking for a sleeker, sportier machine with the security of the E-Class's crash safety and engineering. Yet it will be the engines that will be the stand outs, with an all-new, direct-injection V6 replacing the unloved and outdated 3.5-litre V6 from the E-Class and a new, direct-injection V8 to supersede the still-silken E500 engine.
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