Wednesday, March 05, 2025

A Kansan senator makes an ignorant assumption involving the MB auto brand.

 

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A Kansan senator makes an ignorant assumption involving the MB auto brand.

r/mercedes_benz - A Kansan senator makes an ignorant assumption involving the MB auto brand.


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[–]Mike312 13 points  

That's the truth.

Worked at a couple dealerships, and nobody buys a car if there's nowhere near you to service it. 50mi seems to be the line.

I can count the number of Porsches in my town on both hands because the nearest Porsche dealership is an hour and a half away.

Sure, you'll get some odd ducks; I knew a bunch of good ol' boys in the hills fixing up w124s for beer money or to give their kid something safe to take to college.

[–]ka1ri00 C43 AMG, 13 C300 9 points  

Yep. No dealership = no 3rd parties willing to work on them which then = no benzs around.

When i lived at home nobody would ever work on my AMG. When i moved to where i live now theres like 5 euro car indies within 10 mi of my house.

[–]cats_catz_kats_katz 4 points  

Hello fellow Mercedes driver, how do you do?

[–]ka1ri00 C43 AMG, 13 C300 9 points  

Very well. My cars are vastly superior to american made vehicles so ill continue to buy em.

[–]redls1birdR129 W210 W166 X294 3 points  

German Engineering.. Am I right??

[–]lastchickencooking 1 point  

Fkn Hell yes, read a paper on this for my bachelor's thesis.

In the us dealership density is one of the most important factors for car sales. There is an order in which these typically spring up in rural communities. (If you have a small community only one dealership can survive, this dealership will usually work with the most profitable, for them, brand)

There is a foundation for MB not existing in the smallest communities, with them having an unfavourable market segment. But I don't wanna quote the list from back then, as that data is heavily dependent on company policies and therefore probably outdated by now.

[–]busterbcook01 S600, 02 C32, 04 SL55, 04 E55, 06 E500 19 points  

When we bought a house in the country, the neighbors thought we were running a stolen car ring until they realized all the cars were really mine. It is fun to park the SL among a long line of pickups.

[–]dadzcad 5 points  

LOL! My neighbors thought I was a Mercedes salesman!

Okay…well, I do have 4 at this house.

[–]Khevynn 3 points  

Lol I know that's right. Part of me can't wait to move back to the mainland from Hawaii so I can pop up withy car. It will be worth the hassle.

[–]GeneralissimoFranco2011 W212 E350 Bluetec 3 points  

Kansas hi-pos also like pulling over out of state tags for shit like 5 over.

[–]Khevynn 1 point  

Yeah. I drove back home one time from Cali andyom told me to be careful in Western Kansas for sure.

[–]seamus_mc1999 E55, 2005 E500 Wagon 14 points  

That Tacoma and tundra are probably more American than most of what you see on the road

[–]DaveDL012020 S560 4MATIC Sedan 2 points  

While I acknowledge your logic, it is skewed.

By your logic, everyone that owns a GLE/GLS/EQS SUV is driving an American vehicle, not a German one. Is a GLE 63 an American vehicle?

By your logic, everyone that owns a G-Wagon is driving an Austrian vehicle, not a German vehicle. Is a G580 an Austrian vehicle?

One of my other vehicles is a Chevy SS...I don't go around telling everyone I drive an Australian vehicle, it is an American vehicle.

[–]maufkn_ced 8 points  

lol my Gle43 def has an American vin.

[–]DaveDL012020 S560 4MATIC Sedan 0 points  

Well...do you drive an American vehicle or a German vehicle?

[–]runnyyolkpigeon 7 points  

German designed vehicle that was manufactured at their American plant.

[–]DaveDL012020 S560 4MATIC Sedan 2 points  

LOL...that doesn't answer the question!

[–]xXMojoRisinXx 1 point  

Just because you provided a binary in which neither was ideal doesn’t mean their answer was the most accurate.

[–]RiceNation 2 points  

You make a good point, but the SS is objectively an Australian vehicle. All of them were assembled in Adelaide and shipped to the US. I’m not even sure the LHD conversion was done stateside.

[–]DaveDL012020 S560 4MATIC Sedan -1 points  

The amount of souls that know what an SS is here in America is a very small amount of people. It is a nice color, dark green, if it were black or silver, it would just look like an Impala or Malibu.

I get complimented almost every time I drive it by the elderly and people that know. The little old lady at Costco said she liked the color on my Malibu…I always say thanks!

But it has Chevy badges…and profits (if any) came back stateside.

EDIT. You make a good point as well…perhaps the SS wasn’t a good example…but my most previous BMW was an X5…made in America! German or American? German to me!

[–]RiceNation 2 points  

It’s a bit more complex than the profits coming back stateside, as Holden was a subsidiary of GM. However, Holden’s profits weren’t all coming back stateside as ofc, your overseas subsidiary for a certain market is expected to be able to support itself. Holden (as well as Ford Australia) are pretty distinct from their American counterparts.

But before I sit here and ramble on, yes BMW is German, because even if they are assembled stateside, the core design and pipeline is the same as their home continent. I’d argue that despite Holden having been a GM subsidiary and sharing GM parts, they have a fundamentally different design and catalogue than say, Chevy.

Now for the nitty gritty, and don’t take this as a gotcha, but GM actually bought the VG commodores that would be sold as the SS and their profits came from an up-price when the models were sold in the US. Base MSRP for the model that would be sold in the US (as we didn’t get anything but the top trim) was 50,000 AUD, which in 2015 was around 35k USD. MSRP for the SS was 45-48k USD, depending on source. The average customer likely paid something to the tune of 15,000-20,000 dollars more than it originally cost for GM to bring it into the states.

Now you are correct, the parent company determines the “nationality” of the car in most cases. However there is definitely a difference in some cases between manufacturers and subsidiaries. There is a world of difference between Volkswagen, Porsche, and Bugatti despite the two latter being subsidiaries of VW, and sharing many common parts and supply chains. Bugatti is still considered French despite this.

[–]DaveDL012020 S560 4MATIC Sedan 1 point  

MSRP on my car with the only two options is $47K or so…2017 MY. I ended up paying $5K less than sticker new, thanks to “discounts” despite ordering it.

And yes, perhaps my specific example of the SS was a bad example. But it is the car I own and seemed to get the basic point across.

Someone at GM mentioned to me NASCAR had spam thing to do with the SS coming stateside and another mentioned the unexpected “success” of the G8…although the GTO was a completely failure.

GTO and G8/SS in America were premium cars here, “pedestrian” versions with manual cloth seats did not exist as they did in Australia.

Good information, thank you.

[–]redditusersmostlysuc[🍰] -1 points  

Not the point.

[–][deleted] 1 point  

Well that and states with poverty levels rivaling Central America probably aren’t buying luxury cars

[–]SeemedGood 12 points  

Let’s be real for a moment here. Time to unwad some panties.

As an owner of 4 MBs located in rural America, he’s absolutely correct. The nearest dealer to me is 90 minutes away. The second nearest is a 3.5 hour drive, and the 3rd nearest is 5.5-6 hours away. When I lived in the CT suburbs, there were 3 dealers within about 40 minutes of me and another 4 or 5 within an hour.

In 2024 Mercedes sold about 373,000 vehicles in the US the vast majority of which were sold in the top 5 major metropolitan areas. For context, Ford sold about 732,000 F150s.

[–]catsdrooltoo2015 E63S 8 points  

The only farmer I was close with was like that. He had a 15 year old Toyota pickup covered in dirt and cigar ash, and his wife had a new E class for a daily and new ML for when she took the dog to swim at the ponds.

[–]redditusersmostlysuc[🍰] 2 points  

Not one of the farmers I know has a MB. GMC Yukon Denali, sure. Not a MB.

[–]TheBloodyNinety 4 points  

Idk if he’s right or wrong, though off-hand experience might suggest a yuppie to be less likely to live in farm country due to available jobs…

But I might be suspicious if a bunch of protestors showed up in Kansas and they all drove MBs.

That said, I’m guessing the anecdote here is not accurate. So idk why I typed this much.

[–]rule34chan 3 points  

Yeah, I came to say something like this. I don't know what the context of this quote here is, nor do I care, but it seems he's using unverifiable anecdotes about car brands as "evidence" to make a political point.

[–]tubawhatever93 190E Sportline x2 75 450SEL 06 E500 wagon 84 300D 96 S500 1 point  

I agree. He's not wrong but he's probably fibbing a bit to cover his ass. People are definitely angry at these Republican town halls, to the point the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee has told them to stop having town halls where they cannot closely control the narrative. To imply that these town hall protesters are all just jaded Democrats or "outside agitators" driving in from a different district just tells your voters that they should ignore them, but I he has any evidence of this and simply made it up.

[–]Aesrone2017 S550 4Matic Coupe 3 points  

Accurate assumption.

[–]Peelboy 3 points  

He’s kinda right…

[–]slashinvestor2024 EQE SUV 500 4Matic & 2019 C 220 Cabriolet 5 points  

Ok lesson learned... In Quebec there are many mercedes dealerships even in rural areas. Then I looked at Kansas, and wow there are three dealers and the state has a whole bunch of nothing.

That is just insane that Kansas has as many senators as California. No wonder the US is backwards and MAGA.

[–]redditusersmostlysuc[🍰] 2 points  

Uhh, what? How many Mercedes Dealerships are there in Manitoba, or Alberta? WTF are you going on about?

[–]slashinvestor2024 EQE SUV 500 4Matic & 2019 C 220 Cabriolet 2 points  

In Alberta there are more than in Kansas. I did not realize that Kansas was that low in population and that rural. I am used to rural, but not that rural. Hence lesson learned. But because of lesson learned I also now understand why the minority runs rodshot through American politics. You have a fraction of the American populace controlling the political landscape. That is never a good recipe for the long term. Sure you should not have city folks dominate the rural, but the pendulum has completely swung the other way now.

[–]eastamerica2008 E63 AMG 5 points  

I live in rural America (2+ hrs to any major city). I have an E63 and a Land Rover.

Wtf? I hate these broad assumptions.

Also, guy down the street has a fucking perfect DeLorean in his garage, and daily drives a 2020s Porsche Panamera. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Dude also definitely voted for the orange man (judging by his yard sign).

[–]sir_snufflepants 7 points  

Good thing statistics are made out of more than Reddit anecdotes.

[–]WeasleyIsOurKing7 -5 points  

Be a good little girl and do that thing where you assume everyone using Reddit is from the US and speaks fluent English

[–]AppStateNick 4 points  

He's literally responding to a comment that starts with "I live in rural America," you walnut.

[–][deleted] 3 points  

Lmao he SAID he lives in rural America

[–]Zbinxsy 2 points  

What point is he even trying to make?

[–]NevaGonnaGinyuUp 2 points  

I honestly agree with him. I live in upstate NY and no one drives Mercedes that lives in Batavia or Wheatfield or any rural areas here.

Trump is not helping these people at all. He’s helping those who drive worthless g wagens like remedial trash.

[–]ProblemOverall94342016 GL450 1 point  

“If your wife yells, ‘honey, come get this transmission out of here so I can take a shower!’, you might be a redneck.”

[–]Intelligent-Orchid19 1 point  

Kansas here that just bought a MB this wkend. I live in the metro...I am def out numbered by big ass trucks. In the metro and rural.  Not sure I follow his point based off this snippet.

[–]redditusersmostlysuc[🍰] 1 point  

If you think you are going to go into rural America and find a bunch of Mercedes 350GLE's then you are smoking crazy. The Senator has a VERY good point.

[–]NevaGonnaGinyuUp 1 point  

Trumps target base is not rural Americans. It’s Benz drivers aka the rich


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