Sad: This older cheap fake diesel AMG is more AMG today than real new AMG

In the end, what better shows the rapid deterioration of Mercedes in recent years? Technically, you could have the W205 generation Céčka in a pretend AMG version with a larger engine than today’s real AMG.

It is absolutely fascinating what a transformation in the internal thinking some, especially premium car companies have undergone during the last 10 years. Even in the middle of the last decade, it was not difficult to hear people from BMW or Mercedes debating the topic “Why do you offer this particular thing?” answer along the lines of: “Because customers want it.”

It is a disarming argument because the client is the master. We can openly say that sometimes customers want trinkets, sometimes technical nonsense and in other cases complete nonsense, but if they want it and are willing to pay for it, why not offer it to them? Sure, everyone should have some internal barriers, but if we’re in a market, they can’t be too narrow – because if it’s something that people really care about, sooner or later others and customers will offer this or that they will take you That’s not worth being proud of. That’s why in the end almost everyone offers, for example, an SUV – it’s a pretty absurd concept of a car supposed to move mainly on the road, but if people like it?

With this reasoning, it’s already amen.

At some point, many car companies completely stopped caring about what their clients wanted. And some, with a clear conscience, even started to offer things that they know well that people don’t want. Do you think any Mercedes clients have called for engine downsizing? We don’t know that person, we don’t know why he would do it, it’s a very compromise solution that doesn’t fit a prestigious brand. On the other hand, we know countless customers of the brand who are unhappy about the downsizing and are purposefully in favor of one or another model because it is the last eight-cylinder, the last six-cylinder, the last whatever. An argument that 10 years ago trumped everything, suddenly means nothing at all.

So it happened that, for example, the new C-class of the W206 generation did not receive a single six- or eight-cylinder engine. In the case of more common versions, it is perhaps sad, but not tragic, the backbone of sales was anyway variants like the 220d, however, the sharp AMG was literally built around bulky multi-cylinder engines. Amen to those, six- and eight-cylinders were replaced by heavy and unstable two-liter hybrids, and even the Germans do not understand why Mercedes destroyed these cars in this way.

Are you saying he had to? He didn’t have to, he wanted to. They have to comply with some maximum fleet CO2 emissions, but the few AMGs don’t really do them, the handful of diesel or hybrid station wagons sold would iron everything out. It’s the car company’s internal obsession with compliance-only nonsense and a blatant disregard for the expressed and unspoken wishes of customers. And sometimes it has tragicomic consequences, as we would say today.

A few hours ago, a colleague started telling me with a smile that his older “fake AMG” is more AMG than the real new AMG. As? It has a W205-generation C-Class, the previous version, in the AMG Line package with “pump stickers” and a 200d engine, which feels more like a caricature than anything better. But he soon explained it – even such a version has a larger engine than the current C63 from AMG.

And indeed it is. The current version has a two-liter with a volume of 1,991 cm3, the older 200d has 2,143 cm3. You may consider it childish play, but especially for Mercedes customers, the engine has always been important, and volume and construction play a role in their perception. So even older diesels sometimes have a larger volume than the numerical name suggests, today we are talking about less than a third of what is expected. And that is, in a word, sad.

For a better visual idea, we selected a car from the ad that fits the description and whose seller was willing to talk to us immediately and provide us with photos. We didn’t choose anything extra, just a similar version (here 220d – same engine in a different tuning – T-Modell, i.e. station wagon) with the AMG package and on the “correct” wheels. Such a car gives the impression of a real AMG quite decently, due to the minimal intergenerational design changes, it still looks fresh and under the hood, even in this version, it has a bigger engine. It was born in 2015 and has 199,000 km, so with a price of only 15,990 Euros, aka 400,000 CZK, it is also cheap. Next to the new C63 AMG with a smaller engine and a price from CZK 2,871,330, definitely.

We don’t know if Mercedes wanted its own customers to think like that, to joke like that. But since he is no longer interested in their opinions some Friday, he probably doesn’t care. Again: How sad…

If you perceive AMG as synonymous with bulky engines, then this old diesel Céčko for 400,000 is really something more than the brand new Mercedes-AMG C63 S generation W206. Where are you going, three-pointed star? Photo: Semi Automobile, published with permission

Sources: Autoforum, Semi [email protected]

Peter Miller

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