How many niches is too many?

[rockandrollmark]

This seems to be a trend across the industry. I could choose many, but Merc seem to be the worst culprit...

Mercedes-Benz Line-up c. 1989

• 190E
• E-Class Saloon | Coupe | Convertible
• S-Class Saloon | LWB Saloon | Coupe
• SL
• G-Wagen

Today's line-up (2019)

• A-Class
• CLA | Coupe | Shooting Brake
• GLA
• B-Class
• C-Class Saloon | Estate | Coupe | Convertible
• GLC
• E-Class Saloon | Estate (plus an MG Streetwise-inspired plastic clad variant) | Coupe | Convertible
• GLE
• CLS (...no shooting brake, yes)
• S-Class Saloon (plus a Maybach variants, including a LWB land-yacht) | Coupe | Convertible
• GLS
• G-Class
• X-Class (...Navara with posh seats)
• V-Class (...Vito with carpet)
• SLC
• SL
• AMG GT
• ...and the new ECQ Electric thing

I make that 29.5 body styles! Similar story with BMW and the ever expanding range of X1, X2, X3, X4...

Were Mercedes-Benz (and BMW, and the VAG brands) really losing out on market-share in the past by not having a car for every sub-niche? I personally applaud the likes of Volvo. Granted if you go back to '89 they only had four cars they could sell you (340, 240, 740 and 480) but their lineup looks positively retrained in comparison to the competition:

• S60 | S90
• V40 | V60 | V90
• XC40 | XC60 | XC90

I keenly await the arrival of a jacked-up Scenic RX-style B-Class

[rockandrollmark]

cmvtec said:

A few years ago, I could probably tell you a bit of information about each car in a manufacturer's lineup.

Now, I am quite often surprised when I see a Merc or Audi and wonder wtf it is and where it's supposed to sit in the range.

Also, I'm finding it difficult to tell most Mercedes saloons and coupes apart when there's nothing to scale them against.

I saw an X6 and a similar coloured X4 parked up alongside each other the other day, and I’m not exaggerating when I say I could barely work out anything that differentiated the two.

[rockandrollmark]

ralphrj said:

Potentially.

Number of Mercedes-Benz cars sold worldwide:

1989 - 548,600
2018 - 2,382,791

Edited by ralphrj on Monday 20th May 16:40

I’m by no means stating this as fact, purely speculation, but I imagine a lot of that is related to how people “buy” cars these days too? I’d be more interested to see gross profit of Merc and its position verses competitors 1989 vs. 2018.