Tag: Mercedes

Here’s Your First Look At The 2022 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren HDK

His post says: “Ooh what is this for??? I could not possibly say… look out 2022.” Which means of course that the new SLR McLaren will make its world debut sometime next year.

For the moment we have very limited information on the new SLR McLaren, but rumors suggest it will be called HDK – High Downforce Kit. Previous rumors suggested Mercedes will build a total of 12 units, but Khoshbin’s post suggest his car will be a “one-off.” So, it is very possible that all those 12 units will be tailored to each customer’s personal taste.

Here's Your First Look At The 2022 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren HDK - image 1042625

Here's Your First Look At The 2022 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren HDK - image 1042625


The scale model posted by Khoshbin reveals an aggressive look, with a vented hood, a massive rear wing, a large rear diffuser, bulkier side skirts, and a single-exit exhaust pipe on each side. In fact it looks quite a lot with the SLR 722 GT – the car on which rumors suggest it will be based on. If so, expect the SLR HDK to deliver more than 617 horsepower – the power of the SLR 722 GT.

One thing is for sure, all 12 units were spoken for, so there is no hope you could get one.

Source: thesupercarblog

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BMW Takes U.S. Luxury Sales Crown for 2020

The 2020 BMW X3 xDrive30e offers performance and style in a very attractive wrapper. The company took the top sales spot for luxury automakers in the U.S.

Depending on how you count, BMW appears to have to emerged as the best-selling luxury brand in the United States, pushing past archrival Mercedes-Benz, which fell two spots to third place.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, BMW brand sales totaled 98,750 vehicles, only a 2% decrease from the 100,797 vehicles sold in the fourth quarter of 2019, for the full year 2020, BMW brand sales dropped 17.5% on total sales of 278,732 compared to the 338,003 vehicles sold in 2019.

Lexus sold a total of 275,041 passenger cars and utility vehicles moved into second place, nosing out Mercedes-Benz. For the full year, Lexus sales dropped 8.3% in 2020.

(BMW ‘significantly increasing” electric vehicle production.)

Mercedes-Benz USA reported sales of 78,078 vehicles during the fourth quarter. On a full-year basis, MBUSA recorded sales of 274,916 Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicles as fell behind BMW. In addition, MBUSA also sold 50,999 Mercedes-Benz vans, which include some luxury vehicles and commercial vehicles, bringing MBUSA’s total sales to 325,915 units, a decrease of 8.9% versus 2019.

Lexus rode its utility-vehicle sales to a second-place finish in the luxury segment for 2020, passing Mercedes-Benz.

“There is no doubt that 2020 was a challenging year for automotive sales, but we have found that these challenges were due more to the circumstances, rather than consumer demand,” said Bernhard Kuhnt, president and CEO, BMW of North America.

“We owe our dealers and regional teams a lot of credit for their flexibility and dedication while adapting to the situation. With their support we felt very confident throughout the second half of the year as consumer deliveries grew quickly — even exceeding own expectations.”

Despite the challenges posed by the ongoing global pandemic, BMW brand sales in the U.S. improved significantly in the second half of the year – including several outstanding months – as the sales network reopened, production restarted, and inventory levels improved.

The last four months of the year were particularly strong, owing much to increased production at Plant Spartanburg, which helped meet customer demand for top-selling models such as the BMW X3, X5 and X7 Sports Activity Vehicles.

(Mercedes launching six all-electric models by 2022 — with two to be built in U.S.)

BMW and Mercedes have been trading the top position for the past several years, but Mercedes’ drop to third position. However, the brand expects to be back on top in short order with an influx of product.

Mercedes may have slipped two spots in 2020, but it’s counting on a wave of new products to put it back on top in the U.S. in 2021.

Dimitris Psillakis, president and CEO of MBUSA said, “We are excited to introduce nine new models in the months ahead, including the all-new S-Class and the EQS electric, and continue to leverage the natural market gravitation of SUVs.”

In addition, sales of Mercedes-AMG high-performance models increased 29.1% to 11,128 units, which pushed the sub-brand to its best-year ever as sales increased 1.5% to 34,079 vehicles.

Audi, the third of the popular German luxury brands, reported its sales dropped 4.8% in the fourth quarter and its sales for the full year declined 17% to 186,620.

Volvo Car USA reported 14,244 cars sold in December, up 15.2% compared with 2019 and its seventh consecutive month of year-over-year growth. The company finished 2020 up 1.8% from last year with a total of 110,129 cars sold. The monthly result continued a strong upward trend, which saw the brand up 40% in December 2019 over 2018.

“Given the challenges our industry faced this year, I am humbled by what our employees and retail partners were able to achieve together,” said Anders Gustafsson, senior vice president, Volvo Car Americas and president and CEO, Volvo Car USA.

(End of year auto sales pick up due to pickups.)

Sales by Cadillac, General Motors’ top brand, saw its sales drop 17.1% in 2020 to 129,495. GM executives are hoping the new Escalade will boost Cadillac’s fortunes in 2021. Meanwhile, Lincoln, Ford Motor Co.’s luxury brand, reported a 6.1% decline in sales to 105,410 units. Much like it’s Detroit-based competitor, it’s counting on its recently rounded out line-up of utes to grow sales in 2021.

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U.S. New Car Sales Continue Rebounding – But the Industry Isn’t Yet Out of the Woods

Pickups like the Ford F-150 have been the industry’s heavy haulers during the pandemic lockdown.

Two months after much of the United States began entering lockdown there are clear signs of recovery by the U.S. auto industry – though the American market still could end 2020 down nearly 25% from last year’s levels.

Automakers hoping for a rebound have been flooding the market with hefty incentives, such as 84-month, no-interest loans. But the risk is that these profit-eating givebacks could become “the new normal,” warned a senior analyst with J.D. Power.

After hitting bottom at the end of March, the new car market has now posted five weeks in a row of improving sales, said Power analyst Tyson Jominy, In the latest in a series of weekly briefings on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. For the week ending May 10, sales were off 26%, said Jominy. By comparison, the market was off by nearly half for the full month of April.

“We absolutely could see a step back in the second half” of this year, warns J.D. Power.

As has been the case since most of the country went into lockdown in March, results varied widely from one market to another. Sales in Tampa were down a mere 1% from where they had been expected to come in pre-pandemic. Among major cities, New York remained one of the hardest hit – surprising few since it has been one of the pandemic’s epicenters. But while demand was off by 48% from original forecasts, that was still a big improvement from the week ending May 3, when sales were down 63%.

Detroit was another market in rebound, according to data Power collects directly from dealers using its PIN network. Another epicenter, the Motor City was off by 98% in mid-April but saw demand last week climb to “just” 29% below forecasts made before the pandemic struck.

Inventories are beginning to be stretched, especially for pickups. But manufacturers are only beginning to start production back up.

(Toyota production to be down a third through October.)

On the other hand, Dallas, which was virtually back to normal at the beginning of May saw sales slide to 10% below forecast last week – something that appears to reflect one of the industry’s big concerns, a mounting shortage of inventory, said Tyson, particularly in the segments of the new car market that remained relatively viable during the depths of pandemic downturn, full-size pickup trucks, in particular.

“Inventory will be a big concern,” Jominy warned, until automakers can get factories running anywhere near to normal.

By the end of March, the entire U.S. automotive manufacturing network was idled. Only a small handful of plants have now come back online, starting late last week with those run by Hyundai, Kia and Mercedes-Benz. Several more manufacturers, including Honda, Tesla and Toyota, fired up this week, and Detroit’s Big Three, General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler, are planning to relaunch operations on the 18th.

(GM sees no COVID cases at plants worldwide, wants production back to normal by mid-June.)

But production schedules are expected to be limited for at least a month, in part, to get everyone used to the many steps taken to reduce the risk of new outbreaks of COVID-19 within those plants. So, if anything, “It’s going to be very disruptive” from an inventory standpoint, said Thomas King, Power’s chief data officer.

Inventory issues will vary by product segment and region of the country. Motorists in southern states, such as Texas, could find pickup pickings grow slim in the coming weeks. But there remains a glut of sedans and other passenger cars that were already selling slowly ahead of the pandemic.

Dealers have been racing to adapt to new ways of doing business, such as online sales, during the pandemic.

Expect to see manufacturers rethink some of the hefty incentives they began offering as the pandemic struck. They’re already trimming back the typical giveback by about $300, according to Power data, especially on big trucks. But buyers still will find some of the most lavish deals ever, incentives still averaging $4,700 a vehicle. By comparison, the figure was around $4,100 in January.

The industry has been expanding the availability of low and no-interest loans – and not just on new vehicles but also on “nearly new” Certified Pre-Owned models. During the most recent week, fully 17% of new vehicle buyers went with 84-month, zero-interest loans, double the rate at the beginning of the year.

The problem is that every $1,000 of incentives adds up to a $1 billion cut in industry profits, noted King who warned that, “The longer these programs remain in the market the greater the risk they become the new normal,” consumers holding back when these deals are withdrawn.

(Nissan looking at nearly $3B in spending cuts as its balance sheet crumbles.)

The industry may have no choice but to keep up the level of incentives. With so many variables and unknowns, Power officials warned that it is difficult to make clear forecasts for year ahead. At best, it will likely be mid to late summer before demand returns to pre-pandemic trend lines and the full year could see sales slip as low as 13 million, down from 17.1 million in 2019.

That doesn’t even account for the widely feared prospect of another major outbreak of the coronavirus late this year, or an even bigger slide in the economy. If any of a number of troubling scenarios play out, said King, “We absolutely could see a step back in the second half” of this year.