Mercedes Benz India

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Bernard Madoff’s Mercedes-Benz to Be Auctioned by U.S. Marshals

A 2001 Mercedes-Benz E320 once owned by convicted conman Bernard Madoff and his wife is going on the auction block next week.

The black station wagon with 44,146 miles is among 33 vehicles that will be auctioned on Oct. 23 in East Brunswick, New Jersey, as part of a sale of vehicles seized by or forfeited to the U.S. Marshals Service.

A Mercedes like Madoff’s has a suggested retail value of $13,727 to $19,530, according to estimates from auto pricing services Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds.com. The Madoff heritage probably won’t add to the car’s auction price, said Tim Minoughan, auction manager for CWS Marketing Group, which is conducting the sale for the marshals.

“If it were a Bentley or a Rolls Royce or something really high valued, then that would be splash flash,” Minoughan said. “It’s hard to do that with an E320 wagon.”

Other vehicles at the auction range from a non-operational 1997 Nissan Maxima with 127,000 miles -- Kelley Blue Book value $2,450 -- to a 2006 Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren, which Edmunds.com says is worth $357,000.

Sam Israel’s RV

There’s also a 2007 Coachmen Freelander recreational vehicle with 8,939 miles on the odometer that belonged to Samuel Israel, founder of the Bayou Group LLC hedge fund, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a $400 million fraud. Similar vehicles originally sold for $69,999.

Madoff and his wife, Ruth, who has not been indicted, agreed in June to forfeit $170 billion in assets to settle claims with the U.S. Justice Department. The agreement covered real estate, investments, cars, boats, artwork and other property. Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid

Base Price: $87,950

Type: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-door sedan

Powerplant: 3.5L V6 w/electric motor

Power (net): 295 hp, 284 lb-ft torque

Transmission: 7-speed automatic

MPG: 19 city/26 hwy

2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid is also the company’s first hybrid of any type to make it into showrooms. For 2010, the entire S-Class lineup has been given a very minor refresh that includes a new grille, headlight clusters with flavor-of-the-day LED running lights, and new front and rear bumpers. The S400 shares in all of those updates and, aside from a couple of hybrid badges outside and in, the land yacht is indistinguishable from its S-Class brethren, unless you look under the hood. Even then, it's tough to tell the difference.
The powertrain in the S400 is comprised of a 3.5 liter V6 engine, a 7-speed automatic transmission, and a small electric motor mounted between them. The hybrid battery itself is no larger than the 12-volt lead-acid type used to start conventional S-Class sedans, and fits into the same space in the engine bay where one of those is normally found.

The hybrid system in the 2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid is mild, which means it never operates in electric-only mode the way the one in the Toyota Prius does. Instead, the 20 horsepower electric motor assists the internal combustion engine under acceleration, and allows it to shut off whenever the vehicle comes to a rest and instantly restart when the driver steps on the erstwhile 'gas' pedal. The design trades maximum fuel efficiency for simplicity and lower cost, battery not included.

The primary reason we haven't seen a hybrid with a lithium ion pack before is expense, so it's maybe not a surprise that the first one comes in a car with a price tag of $87,950, excluding a $1,150 green tax credit. Mercedes-Benz is hush hush on how much of that money goes towards the battery, but outside estimates range from $8,000 on up. The automaker is likely keeping the number under wraps in the hope that by the time the government mandated 8-10 year/100,000-150,000 warranty runs out, the replacement cost will be down to more palatable levels.Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid
2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid

2011 Mercedes-Benz R-Class Facelift Spy Shots

Mercedes-Benz is determined not to completely write-off its ‘Grand Sport Tourer’ just yet. The 2011 Mercedes-Benz R-Class received a mild facelift in 2007 to help turn around flagging sales, but a second and more extensive update is in fact planned for the 2011 model year as previewed by these latest spy shots of a prototype caught testing in Germany.

The first facelift came less than two years after the vehicle was first shown at 2005’s New York Auto Show, and was implemented mainly to increase the car’s desirability. A cheaper rear-wheel drive model was added to the lineup as well as a more flexible seven-seater model, but other than that the R-Class remained mostly unchanged.

For the next update Mercedes-Benz will give the car a major styling overhaul with a new front-end planned as well as a slightly revised rear and interior. Expected to be launched in the second half of next year, the new 2011 Mercedes-Benz R-Class appears to receive the same squared-off treatment as seen on the A- and B-Class models, including angular headlights and a larger more prominent grille.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Mercedes new E-Class

Mercedes 2010 E-Class Detroit White Sport

German luxury car maker Mercedes Benz today launched a brand new version of its sedan E-Class in India priced at Rs 46.98 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The new E-Class comes with a 3.5 litre V-6 petrol engine, which would be locally assembled here.

The company has so far sold a total of 11,000 units of the existing E-Class in the country.Mercedes Benz India had last month launched a special edition of its sedan C-Class also in an attempt to boost sales. Earlier, the company had projected a dip in sales this year compared with 2008. However, it expects to register impressive growth next year onwards.

Mercedes Benz India Managing Director and CEO Wilfried Aulbur had said this year the company would be lagging a little behind than its sales in 2008.Last year Mercedes Benz India had sold 3,625 units in the Indian market.

Mercedes-Benz launches Actros

For Mercedes-Benz, there is more to the Indian automobile market than just luxury cars. Along with Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, it is now looking to grow its share in the premium commercial vehicle market, which Volvo has ruled unchallenged for a while. Mercedes is not a newcomer to the Indian commercial vehicle market, having launched its Actros trucks and Mercedes-Benz buses in September 2008. The company has sold 580 trucks and 25 buses so far.

Analysts say Mercedes has got the timing right. The economy is emerging out of the slowdown and demand for trucks from the infrastructure sector is projected to be robust in the days to come. Sale of heavy commercial vehicles has rebounded after several months.

Mercedes-Benz’s head of sales and marketing (trucks), Dinesh Jain, plans to focus on specialised segments such as mining (the bulk of Actros trucks have been sold to operators in this sector), irrigation (where the company supplies to contractors in Andhra Pradesh) and special applications such as fire browsing. Jain also has on his target hydro-power projects and project carriers which haul heavy machinery such as nuclear reactors. These sectors require high power and torque and Mercedes claims it has the highest horsepower trucks in the industry.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Partner Abdul Majeed believes the market for heavy commercial vehicles holds great potential. “Earlier, 7- to 12-tonne trucks would do well in the market. But with increasing infrastructure needs, the demand for higher tonnage vehicles will only rise,” says he.

The Mercedes trucks are priced at around Rs 67 lakh on an average. The final price, of course, is fixed after consultations with customers. Jain says the premium helps the company get better profit margins. The commercial vehicles business of Mercedes-Benz, he adds, has been profitable from day one.

For buses, the company can take heart from the huge orders being placed by cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission as well as road transport corporations of various states. Already, the company has sold buses to Maharashtra, Karnataka and Greater Mumbai.

It wants to raise the contribution of commercial vehicles to its sale revenue from the current 15 per cent. To make that happen, Mercedes-Benz will introduce a range of new vehicles such as long-haul trucks, city buses, triple-axle intercity coaches and over-dimensional-cargo vehicles.