{"id":28,"date":"2011-03-10T14:57:59","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T22:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/?p=28"},"modified":"2011-03-10T14:57:59","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T22:57:59","slug":"oxymoron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/2011\/03\/10\/oxymoron\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;oxymoron&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I&#8217;ve been looking around for a new car, so of course I have been thinking a lot about the different brands on the market and the models that they offer. But even before that, I have always been pretty updated on the topic out of pure interest.<\/p>\n<p>One thing that would come as a surprise to most people is actually my <em>lack<\/em> of interest in Mercedes. Obviously they offer some really great models, my favorite being S class (it&#8217;s like a space shuttle in there&#8230;&lt;333), E class (you can&#8217;t deny that they look awesome), and their high end sports line such as SLS (of course), etc. HOWEVER, their range of models priced anywhere from mid 20Ks to 120~K (not taking in account their sports models).. is what really killed it for me.<\/p>\n<p>Funny enough, Elaine brought up the topic and had the class tweet about their opinions on Mercedes offering lower range models and whether or not that effects their image&#8211; Most people seem to think that it <em>doesn&#8217;t<\/em> actually effect them that much and it is a good way for them to expand the market. .. Although I do agree to some extent.. as in I have to admit they have been successful in introducing these lower range models such as the B and C class.<\/p>\n<p>This <a title=\"Mercedes C230 \" href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/2001\/11\/19\/1119test.html\" target=\"_blank\">Forbe&#8217;s article<\/a> talks about the lower-end Mercedes C230 coupe and it also expresses the same concern: &#8220;Finally, an inexpensive Mercedes is an oxymoron, since the three-pointed star is all about prestige. A Mercedes is something people have always felt they had to work for; to &#8220;achieve&#8221; a Mercedes for a mere $26,000 might undermine the value of the brand.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here is the new C-class vs. old<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Cclass\" src=\"http:\/\/www.motorauthority.com\/content\/thumbs\/2\/0\/2011_mercedes_c_coupe_preview_main_630-0520-630x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"310\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"c-class\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carpictures.com\/media\/images\/full\/04B6H554418423A.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You have to admit.. they have really worked on that model. The thing is.. you can also tell that they&#8217;ve shifted the particular model&#8217;s target market to the younger crowd. The older C class almost looks like a shrinked, cheap version of the S-class. The new C-class has a whole new look of its own.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"B class\" src=\"http:\/\/autotraderca.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/b200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"613\" height=\"345\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the fact that Mercedes is now everywhere on the road that really turns me off. Anyone that is determined to have a Mercedes could go with the C class or B class. In terms of the price and specs of these models, you could be getting a lot more value from models of other brands that wouldn&#8217;t cost nearly as much. (Price really is based on perceived value..)<\/p>\n<p>I can see that Mercedes is making an effort to try out a variety, seeing what works for them. In\u00a0<a title=\"Chloe Tarbet's blog\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/chloetarbet\/\" target=\"_blank\">Chloe Tarbet&#8217;s blog<\/a>, \u00a0&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/chloetarbet\/2011\/03\/09\/mercedes-new-approach\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mercedes&#8211; New Image<\/a>,&#8221; she shows Mercedes&#8217; newest initiative in marketing&#8211; &#8220;The company has switched gears a bit (pun intended) and is focusing on building their reputability as a leader in car safety and innovation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Well.. that&#8217;s something new..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I&#8217;ve been looking around for a new car, so of course I have been thinking a lot about the different brands on the market and the models that they offer. But even before that, I have always been pretty updated on the topic out of pure interest. One thing that would come as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5932,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alicewang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}