Does Mercedes have the most intensive pre-production planning in the world.?
I’m a huge Mercedes guy, but your assumptions are a bit misplaced. Mercedes does take quite a bit longer in brining new models on line. That extra time is certainly do in part to pre-production planning, but it also has to do with other factors. First, Mercedes has always had long product cycles to help boost resale. Mercedes customers expect this, and values stay higher when your 4 year old SL looks just like a new one. Second, it has to do with less efficiency in product design. The Japanese bring new models more quickly to market because they just work more efficiently. Their work ethic is greater and they don’t take off an ENTIRE MONTH in the fall like all German companies do. Lexus vehicles have always been at the tops of reliability ratings despite their shorter product cycles. In fact, despite all those years designing vehicles, Mercedes reliability until last year wsa awful across the model range — not just the E-class. Every car from the C to the S had quality ratings plummet
