Lead by example: PH Blog
Why the appointment of Tobias Moers to head up AMG can only be good news for the likes of us
Kallenius moves up the corporate ladder
It'll be interesting to talk to the de-mob happy head of AMG after what's been a pretty healthy period of growth and diversification.
But, with all due respect to Kallenius, I'm more excited about his replacement, a man Mercedes R&D boss Thomas Weber describes as having "gasoline in his veins." The kind of accolade you'd expect in a corporate press release about a new appointment for a performance division. Weber could've added "is a bit of a geezer" and "is pretty handy at Gran Turismo" to his attributes too, current development head Moers being exactly the kind of bloke you'd want in charge of AMG. And one of the reasons it's succeeded better than its BMW and Audi equivalents in maintaining its identity amid the corporate marketing machine.
Kallenius moves to head of sales and marketing and, like his predecessor Volker Mornhinweg (now head of vans!), is one of those career bosses moved at regular intervals around the company as part of the corporate whirligig you'll get in any big organisation.
C36 launched Merc-AMG tie-up 20 years ago
Anyway. I'm interested to talk to Kallenius and hear about his part in AMG's 20-year evolution as part of Mercedes proper. But I'm also excited to hear that his replacement is the kind of chap who seems more at home with banter and hands-on hard driving than he is smooth-talking with the shiny suited bigwigs. Moers has been with AMG since 1994 and in charge of model development since 2002. From CLK Black Series to SLS AMG, all have had his fingerprint on them and I remember on the CLS63 launch him nearly thumping his hand through the table as he hammered home the point making the then-new twin-turbo V8 sound like a proper AMG engine was a key development goal. Fake engine noise through the speakers clearly isn't his style and stuff like that clearly matters to him, which bodes well for the tie-up with Aston Martin as well as future AMGs.
Dan
He might have his work cut out with a growing issue for AMG though.
I see far too many people, here included, banging on about how they drive an 'AMG' even though it just has some wheels and mats with the logo on. That there are now official model designations with AMG in them doesn't help.
Aspiration is one thing, but it would be a shame if the good name of AMG was further diluted by turning it into the Mercedes equivalent of S-Line.
You can have a BMW 3-series 328i, or 335i or.... Which one is the real 3 series?
You can get a Ferrari 458, California, FF or F12. Which one is the real Ferrari?
Ummm, all of them?
You can have a BMW 3-series 328i, or 335i or.... Which one is the real 3 series?
You can get a Ferrari 458, California, FF or F12. Which one is the real Ferrari?
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I think you've misunderstood the question. All the cars may be C-class, but which one is the real AMG.
It was pointing out that AMG styling is being used to sell bread and butter C-class, yet only a few have the AMG engine,
The whole car business is dilluted with this bs now. Makes it even more fun to drive a TVR.
I have seen a few daft poverty models sporting AMG badges recently. It is the new M badge trend, as fitted to diesel dullards. I thought the shallow owners had bought fake badges from ebay. Seems like the AMG brand will mean nothing in no time.
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