Buying a car the Mercedes way

Press, 21 January 1982, Page 13

Buying a car the Mercedes way

From

KEN COATES,

on

tour in West Germany

Soothing orchestral music is piped through the plush customer reception centre of the Daimler-Benz company's car factory in the West German town of Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart. It is the morning of an ordinary day when, as usual. 1800 shiny, new Mercedes cars will roll off the automated assembly lines. Most will leave by truck and train, but between 500 and 600 will be driven away by new owners. Alone among German car firms, Daimler-Benz bucked the industry plunge downwards last year, and increased production and sales. There is still a four to sixmonth waiting list, though once it was two years in Germany.

All is an example of German efficiency and modern technology. Customers, whether tourists or welldressed Germans, will have ordered their fancied model, right down to colour (there are 30 possible choices), upholstery and extras, some months earlier. Production began five or six days ago, computer-controlled. The spacious reception centre, set apart in landscaped neatness, opens at 7 a.m. Over a public address system, a girl crisply announces that Herr Hinz’s new Merc, its computer number denoting precisely the variant ordered, is ready outside. Herr Hinz, from West Berlin. arrived two hours ago at Stuttgart on the overnight train. He brought his wife and two children with him —

they are making a holiday out of it.

The family has rested upstairs in comfortable, quiet day-rooms. The children had a nap in beds provided, while their parents took a shower then ate breakfast in the restaurant.

To Daimler-Benz it is just part of the service, but to the company Herr Hinz is just as important as their thousands of customers all over the world.

The German is spending $12,850, which includes 13 per cent sales tax, for his fourcylinder Mercedes. A five-litre sports coupe would, with leather upholstery and extras, cost the best' part of $43,000.

“We make sure the customer is absolutely satisfied," says senior executive Mr Gunter Alisch, who has been with Daimler-Benz 24 years.

“If someone drives to the petrol pumps outside and considers the automatic gearbox is faulty, we will replace it immediately in three to four hours."

Picking up a new car at the factory not only saves delivery charges, but saves the company storage space. And constant emphasis on quality has kept the oldest car-makers in Germany among world leaders — they even sold last year 5000 cars to the Japanese, the world’s most successful car salesmen.

In Britain, the giant Leyland conglomerate lurches from crisis to crisis.

In Germany, DaimlerBenz. with 11 factories and

148.000 employees, looks to expanding exports to 170 countries and invests millions in new robots. But then for workers it is far from an “us and them” attitude: For a start. 95 per cent of the workers at the Sindelfingen plant belong to the giant Metal Workers’ Union, compared with 27 different unions for British Leyland workers. A works council, which looks after employees' interests and negotiates wages every 12 months, has 25 fulltime members paid by the company, and 26 who still work in the factory. They are all experienced workers with 20 to 30 years' service. Workers also elect 10 representatives to a supervisory board — on which there is an equal number of company representatives. This board, the chairman of which has two votes to avoid statements. ratifies board of management decisions. It is part of what in West Germany, is termed co-de-termination.

Many British Leyland workers would not dream of buying a British car, preferring more reliable Continental makes. But Daimler-Benz encourages employees to buy Mercedes, at a 23 per cent discount, and they are entitled to a new model every 18 months.

Not so long ago. when there was a two-year waiting list in Germany — the company insisted on fulfilling its export drive — the frustrating wait made many West Germans furious.

And frequently, factory

workers sold their new models after a year at well above list price.

“It was very difficult for us." admitted Mr Alisch. “But we do want the worker to identify with the car he makes, to take it home as his own. point to a fender, perhaps. and say. ’Look, that is my work!’" It is also good business for Daimler-Benz, which will have sold 17,000 new Mercedes cars last year to buvers from its workforce of 38.000.

The company canteen serves more than 10.000 hot meals daily at a cost of $3.70 each. Wages average between $8.2'0 and $8.70 an hour and are the highest in the world for the car industry.

Compared with Britain, industrial relations are tranquil. Only occasionally do workers wield the big stick of militancy, and in 15 years have been" on strike ' only three times. Every worker after 12 months can apply for a different or more interesting job, although like car plants everywhere. Daimler-Benz has thousands of dull, repetitive jobs, in spite of automation and robots, or perhaps because of them. On a conducted factory tour by special minibus that trundles past huge multi-spot-welding machines and assembly lines, you can still see workers with files or grinders in their hands.

“We can only survive if we produce special quality," says Mr Alisch. And to ensure this happens. 1500 employees look to quality con-

trol. More than one-quarter of the workforce are from Turkey. Yugoslavia and Italy; some have been with Daimler-Benz for 20 years. It is the firm's boast that in 35 years no worker has been laid off because of a fall in production. Two shifts keep the plant humming day and night, producing a finished car every 35 seconds.

And to compensate for the festive season break, workers clock in on four Saturdays before Christmas and four after. Holidays amount to 30 working days, or a six-week vacation. Recent wage rises have been from 6 per cent to 7 per cent — roughly equal to the country’s inflation rate.

Daimler-Benz has insisted on exporting half its production. as widely as possible around the world — reasoning that business should be buoyant somewhere at anygiven time. Americans are the best customers abroad, and last year bought 60.000 Mercedes. It is quite the “in thing" for successful young executives in the United States to be seen in the sleek new S-class sports models. Regretfully, Mr Alisch looks up the sates records showing that New Zealand’s import licensing regulations meant only 100 cars were imported last year. The company’s S4BOM profit last year, at a time of cutbacks for the motor industry around the world, would delight the founders Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.

The name Mercedes, was introduced by an astute Austrian diplomat and businessman. Emil Jellinek. who lived in Nice. He entered an early Daimler racing car in the Nice touring competition in 1899. under the pseudonym. Mercedes, and won first prize.

Mercedes, a Spanish girls’ name, meaning mercy, was the name of Jellinek’s favourite daughter. He went on to gain sole rights to sates in several countries for a new model Mercedes in the early 1900 s and it was enormously successful. The name stuck.

Il was not until 1926 that the two oldest automobile firms merged to form Daimler-Benz.

Today. Deutsche Bank is the largest shareholder in the public company, and Kuwait owns 13 per cent of shares. During the Second World War. about which the company is naturally silent, it manufactured among other things, engines for Messerschmitt and Heinkel aircraft. Today, the drive is for less fuel consumption and marked success has been achieved with light-alloy engines, modifications of both engines and transmissions, new design to reduce air resistance, and fuel injection techniques. Turbo-charged diesel engines mean less noise and better fuel consumption, bringing the diesel, for which the company has long been famous, very close to the performance of the petrol engine.