[Leica] 20D Leica portrait, now Not Invented Here

[Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie)]

PMFJI here but the loss of Merc quality was a conscious management 
decision. Merc new that other makers were selling cars which were much 
less well made in an engineering sense but which had managed to get a 
very high quality image with customers by good marketing. This is much 
more profitable and they wanted to join in but they blew it. It is 
surprising what poorly engineered cr*p the car buying public will be 
loyal to as long as it is reliable but they failed here, the one thing 
they could not afford to let slip - the reliability - was one of the 
casualties of their change of emphasis.
Sad
Frank


On 15 Jan, 2005, at 06:43, mcyclwritr@comcast.net wrote:

> Remember how the world fawned over German automotive engineering and 
> build quality a few decades ago? Mercedes' reliability ratings now 
> reside with toilet bowl scum on the J.D. Power list. Why? Poorly 
> controlled, if not utterly out-of-control, labor costs. Lousy work 
> ethic. Could outside suppliers have been contracted to offset high 
> salaries and spotty output?