Mercedes Claims Homogenous Styling Has Been Good For The Brand - Care To Give Your Thoughts?

E class lost it's idendity, way too close to C class

All their cars look the same, just small, medium, and large. Same goes for their suvs.

Bland. Bland. Bland. Just like their German counterparts. But OTOH, they aren't horrifying like their Japanese counterparts.

Sales numbers don't lie. The proof is in the puddin'

Ask Audi, "How's that homogenous styling workin' for ya?"

Unfortunately, it's hard to isolate the effect of homogeneous styling, because it's not the only thing that changed in the past decade or more. Prices have come way down. MB has moved waaaay down-market. MB's defect numbers have risen (that's the wrong direction) so that they're now in the same relative area as Ford.

So lots of buyers might like the homogenous styling. Or lots of buyers might not care enough about the styling being homogeneous to decide against MB. Who knows? Does it matter?

If you measure "success" purely in unit sales and profit, then yes, Mercedes is a success, regardless of the negs, homogeneous styling notwithstanding. MB appears to be doing rather well.

Speaking solely for myself, I used to adore Mercedes' classic, timeless, stately, elegant styling, like what you saw when the E-Class had four round headlights. I believe they've lost that. For classic, timeless, and stately styling, you have to go to Bentley or Rolls-Royce. *I* don't aspire to get a Mercedes. Does anyone care? I didn't think so :-)

"waaaay down-market"? One step below the C class is "waaaaay down market"?

@cidflekken: I'm not talking about Mercedes' changes in only the last decade. The company they were in the 1970s was substantially different, offering only upper echelon vehicles. In the 1990s when they offered the 190E, they became a lot more accessible (affordable) to the masses. Today, in 2018, MB is waaaay downmarket from where they were in the 1970s. You can get an MB-badged car that disappoints, and has been near universally deemed unworthy of the three-point star (e.g., A180)

NOTE: I do not suggest that everything Mercedes makes is downmarket. They've merley extended the lower end of their range.

The compact 190 Mercedes was introduced in 1982, not 1990. That's 35 years ago. And if you're going to talk about them going "dowmarket", balance your discussion with how they're gone upmarket as well, i.e., the Maybach brand, and now Mercedes-Maybach. And even in the 35 years when they expanded their lower-end models, they still stayed focused on their upper end and continued to expand their offerings. Unlike other supposed Tier 1 brands that really could care less about bulding out their upper segment and solely rely on their lower-to-mid-range lineup.

I'm a huge Mercedes fan, but lineup is BORING.

Everyone else is doing it, so I guess Mercedes only has to be slightly less BORING then the competition (AUDI and BMW) to have an edge, which they do.

When they top the charts for luxury sales what did you expect them to say. Luxury buyers at each price point buy into the brand ethos and feel personal enrichment.
As luxury sales leader M-B is not about to change...."If it ain't broke don't fix it!" Having said that I personally would prefer more model differentiation.

If MB cars didn’t have the star I’m not so sure they’d be such a success. MB used to be “cost is no object” over engineered cars and that’s why there are so many older ones still on the road. 5 years ago I sold my 95 E320, it was 18 years old w/123k on it and it looked brand new. The interior was pristine as was the exterior. The black paint was amazing and it was roughly $40k+ when new. The current crop are nice cars but IMO in no way extend this legacy. That car was the last one. They’re still a status car but I’m also not interested in any of their vehicles currently and I have one now and 5 total.

Given that Mercedes as a brand has captivating styling, it has worked. BMW and Audi's homogeneous styling efforts result in utter boredom.

Yes

That's party because Mercedes-Benz designs the S-Class first and then filters that design down to the E-Class, C-Class etc. It ends up with a new design for its flagship S-Class sedan and all the other less expensive sedans end up looking just like it.

BMW does the opposite. It designs the 3-Series first and then filters that design up to the 5-Series, 7-Series etc. It ends up with a new design for its entry-level sedan, and its more expensive sedans (that could cost 3x as much) end up looking just like the much cheaper 3-Series.

The guy spending $110K on a BMW 7-Series probably doesn't want his car to look just like a $35K 3-series. That is precisely why BMW has failed miserably to make a dent in the S-Class's leadership over the last 50 years.

As long as Mercedes-Benz continues to blow away the competition in terms of global sales, revenue and profitability, it will continue with its "same design just different length" philosophy.

If you are the clear world number 1 in sales and are enjoying growth rates your competitor's can't even achieve half of, record revenue and profits, you probably will not take the risk and tinker with your design and risk losing it all.