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Mercedes Owners Much Richer than Cadillac Owners

14K views 86 replies 37 participants last post by  sfbreh 
#1 ·
#8 ·
Exactly. And the problem with all the rhetoric about moving to NY, increasing prices and the new alpha numerical naming is that no one has a addressed the real underlying problem; there needs to be a compelling reason for someone to select a Cadillac. Making vehicles that are just as good isn't one of them.

What Cadillac does uniquely have in it's favor is it's American, but now it seems they are intent in positioning the vehicle upmarket from its traditional buyers in its home market. So just my opinion, but I'm betting they do a better job alienating their existing customers then attracting new ones. Instead of again trying to run things a German also ran, they should creatively try to include existing customers and move upmarket. It can't be impossible with the Germans all trying to move base product down market...
 
#5 ·
That's an exaggeration of reality. If resale value mattered, no one would buy luxury cars at all. You should see the staggering decline in value for the CL coupe.

Cadillac owners aren't perceived as stupid either. Elderly perhaps, but not stupid.


It's all about prestige and MB has gobs of it.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Thanks for calling those of us who are Cadillac owners old and stupid.......oh and poor...LOL

Happy thanksgiving!

What a great group of auto enthusiasts this site has...

Where I live in the northeast it seems Mercedes are a dime a dozen...and interestingly enough in my small town of 4000 many are a great percentage Asian....

I thought it was the excellent school system that made this upscale town desirable only to find out it's the large percentage of Mercedes Benz that draws people here. ...( kidding of course)

Google gooble
 
#27 ·
Warren Buffets will be the worlds first trillionaire thats all that counts, when "money-is-no-object" it's the Lincoln Town Car & Cadillac XTS is all that matters.

Warren Buffett recently treated himself to a brand new Cadillac and was so impressed with the dealership he sent a letter of praise to General Motors chief executive Mary Barra.

By his own admission, Buffet is NOT a luxury customer.
He's just a very wealthy individual.
 
#15 ·
So where's the rest of the article? This piece is about as vapid as you could ask for.

If they focus-grouped 800 people, there should be more than a few paragraphs here and a very vague "summary.":

probably successful and wealthy entrepreneurs while those who drive a Cadillac are likely white-collar workers

S-L-O-P-P-Y. Where is the rest? Oh, I already said that.
 
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#21 ·
I'm one of those buyers cadillac doesn't want anymore. We have an excellent net worth because of real estate but don't make a lot of money. I have bought or leased 5 Caddys in 10 years. Mainly because I can lease a $40k caddy for $329 while the equivalent mb is $459-499mo. I consider the mb more prestigious but the caddy is the sportier drive and cheaper to own.
 
#54 ·
Cadillac doesn't want your business anymore.


That's interesting... I live in a suburb of a city but on my street there are about 3 Mercedes owning families, many Toyotas, Hyundais of course, one guy with an 80's Brougham lowrider and one guy who traded an Elantra for a black ATS...
Funny, we've got two guys on here that have ATS's, both had Malibu's.
 
#28 ·
Cadillac has been a marketing arm of GM since the '30s or '40s and its sole purpose has been to increase profit over their lesser brands. They have not been engineered to be durable cars that were sold as taxis in Germany and luxury cars in the US. When GM tries to offer similar appointments or performance of MB the first thing they do is take the part and try to engineer cost out of it, which always cheapens the part and causes warranty claims and long term durability issues. GM always moves the cost to the buyer down the road. You can go to the '50s and see mechanical fuel injection issues, or probs with Corvair, or probs with nikasil in the aluminum engine blocks for the vega, or whatever part and era you want to name. That's not to say mb didn't have probs and they did have probs in the mid '90s when they tried to meet Lexus dollar for dollar and part for part.
When most manufacturers introduce a new technology they try to make it durable, GM tries to take cost out before its proven, but they still charge "early adopter" prices. Until GM puts better water pumps on, or radiators without plastic tanks, or better wheelbearings, or better a/c compressors they etc. etc. etc. they wll never be a World Class manufacturer.
 
#42 ·
Well said. That's it exactly. I was adding washer fluid to my DTS this afternoon, and also to my daughters Cobalt. Noticed it was the very same container in both cars. Kind of wondered just how many parts are shared that you don't see, and you wonder why the Caddy is three times the price. Sure, it has extra features. But, as mentioned above, my wheel bearings failed too; equally cheap parts. Not meant to be more durable. How much would it cost to build a car that went 250K miles without repairs?
 
#41 ·
Well, it is nothing to get excited about. The Bentley and Rolls Royce buyer is more wealthier and affluent than Mercedes Benz owner.

There are some buyers that own Cadillac just as wealthy or more so than the average Mercedes owner. It just comes down to what automaker have more vehicle that costs over $100,000+ which Mercedes does have several including some AMGs mixed in there.

The only vehicle Cadillac has close to $100,000 is the Escalade Platinum. In a year, the CTS-V and CT6 will be add in more luxury homes and will be close to 100K or more depending on options and collections (mostly Premium and Platinum).
 
#45 · (Edited)
I think reading the comments on this thread is funny, I read some then I actually read the article.....

It is an interesting article with a head line that makes no sense at all after you read the article. The According to the article the Mercedes buyers on average come from households with the highest assets. Based on the head line you would assume that last would be Cadillac.... and you would be wrong. Last place is Infiniti, so Cadillac is somewhere between the high point and the low point yet the article doesn't point out where Cadillac falls on the list.

Also some very interesting things in the article (now I want to read the study for myself).

Audi is the number one selling luxury brand in China (not Mercedes) according to this study. Also according to this article the newly rich seem to find BMWs popular. The article states that they talked to some 800 owners of luxury automobiles in 10 different cities. Also according to this article Mercedes buyers on average have 1,838,818 in assets and Infiniti in last place has 1,047,963. Which means that the difference between first and last isn't as big as the head line might suggest. Also while Cadillac isn't as high as Mercedes (and no one is as high as Mercedes) it isn't the disaster that some try to make it out to be.

edit: looking at different articles about this study paint a much more positive image of Cadillac, that their owners are viewed as being mature and successful.... BMW drivers are viewed as being ****s in china it seems.......
 
#53 ·
Maybe the MB crowd and MB Watchers here can inform me.

I had a colleague in the 1990s who talked a lot. Because our boss was also an idiot, they hired her w/o a background which would've revealed that she had sued three or four previous employers. DUH.

Mostly she talked about her freakin MERCEDES. Did I mention I have a MERCEDES? Oh, I love my MERCEDES so much!! Last night I went downtown in my MERCEDES!...

That and her wonderful side business and I forget what else was just so peachy and better than anything anyone else on staff had. Well, you get the pitcher.

So, are all MB drivers like that? :confused: I don't hang out with unbelievably wealthy people, so hlep me out here!!

Oh, did I mention it was a 190? I rode in it a couple of times. Pretty unimpressive. :fall:
 
#59 · (Edited)
So, are all MB drivers like that? :confused:
I drive the Eclipse to work. Most people where I work don't even know I own one.
Most people drive "regular" cars and trucks, so those are the subjects of most of the car talk.
 
#57 ·
I don't think that it comes down to "they don't want your business" as much as it comes down to that people who have been able to afford Cadillacs in the past and purchased them won't be able to do so in the future. When you could get a CTS for in the $30,000 range for those shoppers it made sense (3 series, A4, and C class were too small for them). They are likely to migrate to something like the Chrysler 300 (or into a bigger more well optioned cars from non luxury brands). They will just not buy an ATS no matter what because it is too small (its the exact reason why they don't buy 3 series, A4, or C class). Cadillac had a high number of those people shoppers in their camp. While those in my area who end up leasing the 3 series, A4, and C class are those who want to appear successful in life (though obviously are not).

Honestly after sitting in the ATS coupe if I was buying it would be my choice over the BMW 4 series, Audi A5, and C class coupe (a 2.0T 6 speed manual). Though I am much more of a product person (don't care if people think that I am successful or not).
 
#58 ·
They will just not buy an ATS no matter what because it is too small (its the exact reason why they don't buy 3 series, A4, or C class). Cadillac had a high number of those people shoppers in their camp. While those in my area who end up leasing the 3 series, A4, and C class are those who want to appear successful in life (though obviously are not).
Indeed.

It's easy to forget that Cadillac initiated a successful downsizing in 2003 with the Sigma CTS. Before that, the smallest Cadillac that sold well was the Seville (50k units/yr) which was priced and sized similarly to the Q45, LS400, and Continental.
 
#66 ·
I still believe in the idea that no matter how much time passes, or how much better Cadillac vehicles are, people are going to be buy German cars because they're German, and not American cars because they're not German.
 
#68 ·
How do Mercedes owners wealth rate compared to jaguar/ land rover owners?

How about compared to Lexus owners?

Curious why Cadillac was singled out in this discussion?

Would Lexus even though it's owners are poorer be considered a successful luxury brand?
 
#75 ·
What are Mercedes owners going through?

My 1995 C280 has never had a major mechanical problem in its life. And my 2010 E350 has never been in the shop for anything other than standard maintenance. All I've ever had to do on it was replace the battery.


So, you want your car to be in the shop every other couple of months? Go for it.

I'll stick with Mercedes.
 
#83 ·
* Yawn *

This is all about attempting to paper over the conclusions in the other report and or in the source for this one concerning Lexus in China - with no clear profile development and the MB as old person retiree.

Such as reported here - hang on

* QUOTE *

The American carmaker General Motors has found the Chinese market to be a life-saving opportunity for the reinvention of the Buick brand. Since 2005, when Bob Lutz, the vice chairman of G.M., famously declared Buick a “damaged brand,” America’s oldest surviving automobile make has successfully positioned itself in China as a top-tier luxury carmaker.

Largely the result of effective marketing and remodeling, China’s romance with the Buick also has historical roots. The last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi, was the proud owner of two Buicks, as was the country’s first provisional president, Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The black Buick 8 driven by a onetime premier, Zhou Enlai, is still displayed at his former residence in Shanghai, now a museum.

In 2010, Buick sold over 550,000 cars in China, more than triple its sales in the United States.

“We joke that our market revived Buick from the dead — it’s only partly a joke,” said Liu Wen, a reporter for China Auto News.

On Sina Weibo, the country’s most popular microblogging service, a recent posting tried to sum up the car clichés. “A gathering of Mercedes indicates a get-together for old folks,” the writer said. “A group of BMWs means young nouveaux riches are about to run someone over and have a party; several Audis, and you know it’s a government meeting.”


* END QUOTE *

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/bu...hj2HeB9SsSPyRA
 
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#87 ·
I forgot the 190E we had, but that was before I was born. It and the W124 are the cars spoken of most highly by my parents.

The W124 saved my dad. Some drunk driver T-boned him in it, totalling the car. He had it rebuilt at great expense, but as much as he wanted to keep it, it wasn't the same car. Ours was green.

My mom apparently ruined the 190E. Drove it around without oil til the engine just seized and stopped working.
She also ruined the Grand National she used to just drive to work, spilling coffee all over the passenger seat and getting the T-tops stolen out of it (traded in for the 190E because she got pregnant).
 
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