Daimler-Benz Suspending Delivery of New Mercedes
In an unprecedented attempt to brake a runaway new-car disaster, the giant German auto maker Daimler-Benz said Tuesday that it is suspending delivery of its vaunted new A-Class Mercedes, after embarrassing independent road tests showed the model could flip over if the driver swerved.
Daimler also said it would sharply reduce production of the A-Class until February, while it re-engineers the car’s chassis, shocks, springs and other stabilizing equipment at a cost of $175 million.
Until recently, when questions were raised about the A-Class’ safety, the subcompact had been an instant bestseller in Germany and was widely expected to win the European “Car of the Year” award. The car, which is not exported to the United States, hit German showrooms in September, amid an unprecedented marketing campaign.
Daimler’s decision to scale back production and retool the car inflicts a costly and painful blow to the auto maker, which had staked a sizable portion of its future growth and reputation on the A-Class and had spent $115 million just to promote the new model. It built a new $1.5-billion assembly plant to produce it
“We don’t want to deliver a car when we know we can make it better,” said Daimler Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp.
Until now, Daimler’s international image has been built upon its heavy, powerful, reliable Mercedes luxury sedans and station wagons. Daimler hoped to use the A-Class as an entree to the small-car market, diversifying its production line and competing with such successful small-car makers as Volkswagen, Renault and Opel, the German subsidiary of General Motors.
Given Mercedes’ reputation as a maker of super-safe cars, the auto maker felt compelled to develop a subcompact that matched the crash-test safety standards of a sedan.
In the process of designing such a car, Daimler’s engineers positioned the engine in such a way that it would be forced under the passenger compartment in a head-on collision, and created a vehicle that is remarkably narrow, short from front to back, and high-riding.
Chief Executive Schrempp said Tuesday that this revolutionary basic shape will remain intact, and that the retooling means “a further optimization of the car” rather than “a conceptual change.”
The re-engineering will include a repositioned chassis, retuned shocks and springs, new rear-axle stabilizers and tires of a different size. In addition, all future A-Class cars will be equipped with an electronic stability program, or ESP, which electronically monitors the car’s performance and automatically brakes individual wheels if needed. Mercedes had planned to offer the ESP to A-Class buyers as optional equipment for about $875.
While the changes are in the works, Daimler will produce only 200 A-Class cars per day, instead of 800, as planned. Schrempp said the re-engineering will cost the company about $175 million, spread over 1997 and 1998.
“We take the public criticism and, in particular, the worries of our customers very seriously,” he said.
Still, politicians in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, home of the German auto industry, were calling for the heads of Daimler managers after Tuesday’s announcement.
“The halt in delivery of the A-Class could be a catastrophe for Baden-Wurttemberg and Rastatt as a competitive production location,” railed Volker Kauder, secretary general of the Christian Democratic Union, which governs in the state. Rastatt is the town where Daimler built a $1.5-billion plant to make the A-Class car.
The troubles for the A-Class started Oct. 21, when a test-driver for the Swedish auto magazine Teknikens Vaerld put the model through a maneuver called the “elk test,” in which he swerved without braking to avoid an imaginary moose on the road at 37 mph.
The car missed the “moose,” but the driver was unable to regain control after the swerve. The car flipped back over front, and three of the four people inside were cut by broken glass from the windshield.
Teknikens Vaerld called other media, and photos of the overturned car were published internationally. The driver, Robert Collin--an experienced test-driver who has been a member of the “Car of the Year” jury since 1985--said, “This car must be taken out of the showrooms. As long as people could be killed, this car must not be sold.”
Soon after the Swedish debacle, Danish testers came forward and said they had had a similar experience with the A-Class. Other automotive magazines around Europe tried their own “elk tests,” sometimes duplicating the alarming Swedish experience, sometimes finding the car unflippable.
