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THE’ rai INDEPENDENT Driving you round the Benz Mercedes was once a byword for quality, and its customers the most loyal. Then it all went wrong. But the only way is up for its new chairman says Gavin Green Published: 11 October 2005 The company aims to polish up its act and become world-class once again Erom The Bible's Cain to the fashion bibles' Kate, history is full of high-profile falls from grace. But in the car business, little can compare with the decline of Mercedes-Benz. the world's greatest car brand; “engineered like no other car in the world"; a byword for quality and craftsmanship, the globe's best-selling premium car badge. Then, a few years ago, it all went terribly wrong. Quality collapsed. : It isn't just anecdotal evidence from disillusioned Benz buyers, although heavens, there is enough of that. | was a victim, too. My new Mercedes C-class estate was, by some margin, the worst car 1 have owned, with six unscheduled visits to the (arrogant and lazy) dealer in three disillusioned years of ownership. Worse for Mercedes, the customer satisfaction surveys backed the gossip. Mercedes plummeted to near the bottom of ownership studies carried out in America, the UK and Germany Tr wasn't just railing its natural premium rivals - BMW, Audi and Lexus. The three-pointed star was frequently behind the mass makers too - the likes of Ford and Vauxhall, and even thé Johnny-come-lately Koreans. In one UK survey, the 4x4 M-class was the worst car of all Heads rolled. But in the case of Mercedes’ supreme boss - DaimlerChrysler chairman hirgen Schrempo - it took a long time to get him to the scaffold. Alter pressure from investors, Schrempp finally announced in July that he would be leaving at the end of this year. Company shares jumped 10 per cent Schrempp's chairmanship saw much action, but few achievements. He oversaw a lot more than Mercedes slipp m the best quality in the world to near the bottom - as if that wasn't unforgivable enough. He also engincered Mercedes-Benz's disastrous takeover of US mass maker Chrysler in 1998 - which has seen the company’s share price fall by almost half. He oversaw an expensive and disastrous alliance with Mitsubishi that foundered just as rival Renault was making a hse success of its Japanese partner, Nissan. The Smart small car business has been a financial catastrophe (although I'm fond of the cars) - overall losses are reckoned at more than £2bn. And the Maybach luxury car brand has been a disaster: sales are a fraction of those anticipated. So the only way to go, for new boss Dieter Zetsche - moustachioed former head of the Chrysler Geision, who takes over as chairman on January 1 - is up. Aty 
