Mercedes Benz starts the year on a C-note
Correspondent | Friday January 24, 2014 15:49
Of course, it being the start of a new year means that a lot of new and refurbished ideas are floating around; some are busy making new resolutions, some are making resolutions about getting last year’s resolutions underway.
Regardless, no one can boldly stand up and claim not to have a plan. It needn’t be a brilliant plan because the keyword here is PLAN. Now if someone says that they are not really making any plans then that is untrue because saying you are not really making a plan is in a way making a plan not to plan.
But what about those that plan to follow other people’s plans? Well that too is a plan because you are planning to follow someone else’s plan. So while we are on the topic of planning, it is interesting to note that not all plans are to be followed through, regardless of what might be going on around you and what everybody might currently be involved in.
There is a true story about a man called Glen James who was homeless and lived in the streets of Boston since 2005. Then, according to the tale, one beautiful morning while wandering around, James happened upon a backpack with 40 thousand US Dollars inside. Did he keep it? No, he took it and turned it in to the police, which also contained the owner’s passport. The police found its owner and returned the money.
The story caught on like wildfire and after seeing the news, Ethan Whittington was inspired by Glen’s gesture and started a campaign to generate donations on the internet to help get the homeless man off the streets. The amount raised was 160 thousand US Dollars, or four times the amount in the backpack. So the obvious question is; are you bigger than your current money or is your money bigger than you?
Regardless, Mercedes Benz are not about wandering on the streets, they will not be found grazing on the church lawn nor will they take a backpack full of money to the nearest police, no, they are in the business of generating money by making awesome vehicles.
But again the question that rises is; are they interested in making awesome vehicles or are they interested in making money from those awesome vehicles? Would they make an awesome vehicle if money was no incentive? What drives them, money or well, the awesome vehicles? When it comes down to it, one has to consider how Mercedes Benz got to be where they are now; pure genius and hard work.
Their products speak for themselves and frankly they need no introduction at all. If you have ever seen a Toyota then chances are just before that Toyota or right after it was a three point star car.
They are known for class and comfort, desirability and respect. In fact, such is their abilities that they are now associated with maturity and success, age and wisdom. Which is why it always seems odd to see a youth driving one, you automatically think “yeah, daddy’s car.” But that wasn’t the case with last year’s C-Class model. It radically changed how people view Mercedes Benz, no longer was it seen as an old successful man’s ride. Young executives are seen riding around town cosseted in them and ever since the re-introduction of the A-class again last year, the ladies are going crazy about that car too, old and young, Facebook and Twitter types. So when it comes to the new C-Class, Mercedes wishes for the numbers to speak for themselves, and here they are:
100kg
That is how much weight has been lost by the new car, which of course means beautiful handling and improves performance. They did this by using aluminium in constructing the vehicle.
50%
That is how much aluminium has been incorporated into the making of this car. This of course means it is much lighter on its feet than the old car which only had about 10% of the stuff.
20%
That is how much fuel the new car saves up from the outgoing car. This obviously is good news seeing as fuel prices don’t seem t have any intentions of going down.
8cm
Although they have made it lighter, Mercedes Benz have somehow managed that while elongating the new vehicle by 8cm, 95mm longer than the old one, 40mm wider and 5mm lower.
2.4 million
That is how many of the old model they have sold since its introduction in 2007. Clearly they know a thing or two about numbers and it can safely be said that at least 2 million people around the world think that Mercedes Benz deserves their money, hard earned or otherwise.
60 km/hr.
That is the maximum speed at which the vehicle will automatically follow any car in front of it with the driver only having to control the direction changes. This means that when the vehicle you are following brakes your car brakes too and when it accelerates…well you get the point. This is an optional feature that only works when your car is fitted with “Distronic Plus”, something that helps in those traffic jams.
200km/hr.
Assuming that you will never need to travel at those fairly ridiculous speeds to start with, the new car will automatically brake to avoid potential collusions at up to that speed. This leaves a lot to be desired obviously.
So, clearly, this C-Class has found a new note to sing and it has moved even more up-market than before. This means it is even more of a Benz than it ever was, whether two million people will agree or not is irrelevant because that will not stop Mercedes Benz from being awesome car makers. There is a saying that goes something like, “I don’t care about the financial status of the jungle and I will not eat grass, that’s just not my nature, I’m a lion.”