Fleecing premium car buyers.
Discussion
Ok so I understand the law of dimishing returns, and the additional cost of premium kit.
However, it staggers me that on some very expensive cars, manufacturers massively hype some of the options.
A perfect example. Buy a £40K Mercedes SLK and want metallic grey? £645 for metallic. Quite a bit more than circa £450 for metallic on a Fiesta, but hey ho premium brand, better quality paint maybe, can live with that.
But say you want your Mercedes SLS AMG in metallic grey. Ah, well, they don't do "normal" metallic grey for the SLS, see, you have to have AMG metallic paint. That'll be £1,755 please! Nearly three times the cost!
Want to upgrade the alloys on your SLK to different design, same size? A not unreasonable £205 to do that.
Want to upgrade the alloys on your SLS to different design, same size? £810! Or £1,715 if you want forged alloys.
Want to upgrade the leather in your SLS? £2,140. But hang on a minute, this is a £168,000 car, the most expensive Mercedes money can buy. Shouldn't it come with the best grade of leather anyway FFS!?
It just feels a little like the marketing department thought "Hey, if we find someone with the price of a decent house to fling at a car, then happy days, we'll fleece them for the options!"
And no, I can't afford a new SLS (or even a new SLK for that matter, at least not without finance but let's not go there) so it's completely immaterial, and yes I know that someone that can afford the car can afford the options.
Just seems to be a monumental piss take of their very best customers to me.
However, it staggers me that on some very expensive cars, manufacturers massively hype some of the options.
A perfect example. Buy a £40K Mercedes SLK and want metallic grey? £645 for metallic. Quite a bit more than circa £450 for metallic on a Fiesta, but hey ho premium brand, better quality paint maybe, can live with that.
But say you want your Mercedes SLS AMG in metallic grey. Ah, well, they don't do "normal" metallic grey for the SLS, see, you have to have AMG metallic paint. That'll be £1,755 please! Nearly three times the cost!
Want to upgrade the alloys on your SLK to different design, same size? A not unreasonable £205 to do that.
Want to upgrade the alloys on your SLS to different design, same size? £810! Or £1,715 if you want forged alloys.
Want to upgrade the leather in your SLS? £2,140. But hang on a minute, this is a £168,000 car, the most expensive Mercedes money can buy. Shouldn't it come with the best grade of leather anyway FFS!?
It just feels a little like the marketing department thought "Hey, if we find someone with the price of a decent house to fling at a car, then happy days, we'll fleece them for the options!"
And no, I can't afford a new SLS (or even a new SLK for that matter, at least not without finance but let's not go there) so it's completely immaterial, and yes I know that someone that can afford the car can afford the options.
Just seems to be a monumental piss take of their very best customers to me.
Has it maybe occured to you that, say, the alloys on an SLS are rather more expensive to manufacture, and sold on a considerably smaller scale, and therefore have to cost more than those on an SLK? The same could be said for almost any other part of the car. It's smaller volume, so the development/testing costs have to be recouped more intensely.
Or, f
k it, maybe it is reasonable to charge more on a higher price-point car anyway? Everything about the car is more expensive, seats and alloys included, so you should look at it more in terms of percentage cost. In percentages of the purchase price, the SLS's metallic paint is less of an increase by the numbers you quote.
Or, f
k it, maybe it is reasonable to charge more on a higher price-point car anyway? Everything about the car is more expensive, seats and alloys included, so you should look at it more in terms of percentage cost. In percentages of the purchase price, the SLS's metallic paint is less of an increase by the numbers you quote.McSam said:
Has it maybe occured to you that, say, the alloys on an SLS are rather more expensive to manufacture, and sold on a considerably smaller scale, and therefore have to cost more than those on an SLK? The same could be said for almost any other part of the car. It's smaller volume, so the development/testing costs have to be recouped more intensely.
Or, fk it, maybe it is reasonable to charge more on a higher price-point car anyway? Everything about the car is more expensive, seats and alloys included, so you should look at it more in terms of percentage cost. In percentages of the purchase price, the SLS's metallic paint is less of an increase by the numbers you quote.
This. Volume/amortisation. Plus a bit of milking.Or, f
k it, maybe it is reasonable to charge more on a higher price-point car anyway? Everything about the car is more expensive, seats and alloys included, so you should look at it more in terms of percentage cost. In percentages of the purchase price, the SLS's metallic paint is less of an increase by the numbers you quote.
McSam said:
Has it maybe occured to you that, say, the alloys on an SLS are rather more expensive to manufacture, and sold on a considerably smaller scale, and therefore have to cost more than those on an SLK? The same could be said for almost any other part of the car. It's smaller volume, so the development/testing costs have to be recouped more intensely.
Triple the cost for metallic? It's just paint! 
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