Daimler’s Car2go subsidiary has announced the introduction of the first all-electric carsharing fleet in North America. According to company, the plan calls for 300 zero-emission Smart ForTwo electric cars to arrive in the city of San Diego by the end of the year.
Did you know that there are holiday packages that bundle airfares, accommodation and cosmetic surgery? It’s a sort of incentive program for women (and some men) to have their surgery done overseas and is especially popular in Britain and Australia. Well, as some of you may already know, there are similar programs for people who want to buy a new car. These so-called, “European Delivery Programs” are offered by companies as diverse as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volvo. Effectively you’re bundling a discount European vacation with your new car purchase.
The Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows display team has released a new promotional video exhibiting the power-sliding capabilities of its drivers to attract fans to the Mercedes-Benz World at the Brooklands motor racing circuit in Weybridge, Surrey, UK.
Good news for those looking to shop Mercedes-Benz’s next-generation M-Class SUV as the German firm has kept pricing for the two available models at launch unchanged over the respective versions of the outgoing ML, despite the new design, improved engines and upgraded standard equipment.
China has a problem. Although it has the financial and material resources to compete with the world’s automakers, it lacks the design and engineering knowhow. The solution – to companies such as BAIC, Dongfeng, Chang’an and others – is to seek talent abroad; in Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and USA. Research and development centres are popping up in Nottingham and Detroit and recruitment fairs are being held in Munich, Stuttgart and Aachen.
Mercedes-Benz dealers were number one for customer treatment in the US according to an independent study by survey company Pied Piper. The California-based company hired 3,524 “secret shoppers” and sent them to US dealerships in order to determine how their salesmen were performing in anything from explaining a car’s features to closing a deal. This is the third year in a row that Mercedes-Benz, which looks set to top the sales charts this year in the luxury segment, has topped Pied Piper’s study.