For today's luxury brands, a major sales car series often has to wait 5-8 years (or even longer) to change again after undergoing a complete overhaul – in other words, the life cycle of each generation of car series generally ranges from 5 to 8 years.
This has led to many car series after the big replacement, several consecutive years of annual updates are "almost no difference": for example, the BMW 5 Series F10/F18 released in 2010 was not replaced by the new G30/G38 until 2018; the "new" Audi A6L C7 in 2011 was not replaced again as the C8 in 2019.
In these long years, many people have slowly changed from the initial "stunning" to "aesthetic fatigue". There are always people on major automotive forums who keep asking: When will the XX car series be replaced? It's been several years, why haven't you changed it?
Actually... It is not that car companies are not willing to change often, but it is really impossible to change.
Why do cars always change?
From the perspective of car companies, they have invested a lot of time and capital costs in the research and development of each generation of car series, and it takes several years of large sales to achieve cost sharing and profitability; and the main car series is not only shouldering the task of "carrying handles" in sales, but also the "cornerstone" of brand image, and car companies must collect consumer feedback and continuous optimization through the annual update of each generation of car series, which also requires a long life cycle.
Looking at the consumer's point of view from another perspective, the answer is more clear and simple: "We spent 500,000 yuan to buy your "new generation" executive car, and it didn't take two years to become the "previous generation". ”
Therefore, the larger the car company, the more difficult it is to easily change the generation; the more luxurious the brand, the more cautious it is to treat the big replacement.
From the perspective of the market, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi are "first-line luxury brand troikas", and they have a special product iteration rhythm in the oligopolistic competition market. Taking the executive level as an example, the life cycle of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class W212/V212 began in 2009 and ended in 2016; the life cycle of the BMW 5 Series F10/F18 began in 2010 and finally 2018; and the life cycle of the Audi A6L C7 began in 2011 and finally 2019 – either not a big replacement, or a "front and rear foot" synchronous replacement.
Interesting Mercedes
But there is an interesting phenomenon: BMW and Audi's contemporaries, from the first year of the life cycle to the last year before the big replacement, the appearance and interior of the difference is relatively small; even if the middle of the life cycle of the redesign, often only in the details of the difference, the general appearance is similar - this is the main source of "aesthetic fatigue" for fans. But Mercedes is different: even if there are still several years to go before the big change, they can continue to give you a sense of freshness, let you see that "this car is always updating".
In other words, BMW and Audi's products give people the subjective feeling of "big jump upgrade every 5-8 years", like taking a big step to climb a large step, while Mercedes-Benz's product iteration is quite smooth, like riding an escalator that continues to rise.
Mercedes E-Class (top to bottom: 2010, 2011, 2014 Deluxe, 2014 Sport)
Still take the E-class as an example: W212/V212 changed the style of the front fog lights on the 2011 model; added a dashboard LCD color screen to the 2012 model, changed the gear lever from the central control channel to the huai block design, and redesigned the layout of the central control channel; by 2014, not only provided a new E-class "sport version" body kit, but also made significant changes in the styling style in multiple dimensions such as headlights, tail lights, underbody encirclement, wheel rim, steering wheel, dashboard, and center control. And then it was more than a year later – the E-Class was overhauled.
Mercedes-Benz E-Class interior (upper 2010, lower 2015 model)
Each year may not be a big change, but it adds up enough to trigger a qualitative change. The replacement W213/V213 directly follows a large number of details of the 2014 W212/V212 in appearance (note that it is not indirectly inherited but directly inherited), which is called "the seamless connection between the old and the new generations".
Just look at the front of the car, who is new?
And not only will the "explicit level" of the exterior interior be updated, but the implicit "inner level" of the powertrain, configuration level distribution and electrification configuration will continue to be upgraded. If a person who is not familiar with cars compares the last W212 of 2015 with the W212 that was just listed in 2009, perhaps he will wonder whether the two are the same generation of cars.
Mercedes-Benz's new car iteration rhythm to the aftermarket "three automobiles" a lot of pressure: other cars want to play "old to new", buy a new set of dismantling cars under the surrounding enough can be fake and real; to Mercedes-Benz here, it does not work - your appearance is changed, the interior is very different, how to break?
It's a terrible retention rate
Mercedes-Benz, which always attaches importance to the luxury experience and the current brand power, even if it comes up with a yearly update with no small changes every three to five years, it will not bring problems to the owner in terms of retention rate and aftermarket circulation efficiency. Continuous small upgrades have brought about a "smooth" rhythm of product iteration, and the aftermarket's response to mercedes-Benz's new car release is naturally relatively "smooth": the E-class W213/V213 has now reached the end of its career, and after many large and small exterior interior updates, the first batch of 2016 models can still be sold at a price of 350,000 or even higher.
- Not easy, not easy indeed.
As a veteran car enthusiast and Mercedes-Benz owner, I am quite concerned about the unusual new car modification logic of Mercedes-Benz, and I have summarized some views and experiences, which I share with you here.
"Design Language Replacement" is independent of "Product Architecture Iterative Upgrade"
As we all know, the brand tone of Mercedes-Benz is laid by the S-Class, and the "brand soul" of Mercedes-Benz is the S-Class.
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However, each generation of Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the "weather vane" of the design language of the entire Mercedes-Benz product line, even if the E-Class and C-Class have not been replaced when the S-Class is replaced, they will always add the iconic and significant features of the new generation of S-Class design language on the basis of the original design.
It can be said that in the update rhythm of E-level and C-level "one small change a year, one major change in two years", the design of the new S level plays a decisive role. The change in the design of the S-Class represents a change in the design language of the Mercedes-Benz family.
In other words, when the Mercedes-Benz car changes its design is not only related to whether the product architecture is replaced or not; if the time node of the Mercedes-Benz family design language changes is in the middle of the life cycle of a certain generation of its products, the design of this generation of products will also be corrected.
For example, in 2005, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class W221 was launched, replacing the "Butterfly Ben" W220, and a significant feature of the new car's appearance was the long chrome decoration connecting the two taillight groups. So the E-class W211 immediately "had a sample" and added this design to the 2006 model.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class (left W220, right W221)
Mercedes E-Class (left 2004, right 2006)
The 2010 Mercedes-Benz S-Class brought an extended V221 and changed the front and rear brackets and headlights and taillights. The following year, the 2011 C-Class W204 was completely reborn, without a major replacement, from both the appearance and interior aspects of the drastic changes to match the design language of the new S-Class.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class (2010 models)
Reborn C Grade (W204)
In 2013, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class W222/V222 was introduced, bringing an all-LED headlight cluster with a daytime headlight, ribbon LED taillights, and a "full body" dual screen. The 2014 E-Class immediately changed the "four-eyed" xenon light set to full LED headlights with eyebrows, designed a new ribbon LED tail light, and changed the visual style of the central control screen and dashboard. In 2015, the C-class W205/V205 went on the market, living off a "small S-class" appearance.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class (upper W221, lower W222)
Mercedes E-Class (upper 2011, lower 2014 model)
Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W205)
In 2020, mercedes-Benz S-class W223/V223 was launched, how the E-class and C-class were changed, needless to say.
The product architecture life cycle is very long, and the iteration time is fixed; but the design can be alive.
Long-term, well-thought-out, ingenious, and overall planning
For every big car company, it is necessary to plan the product line in the long run. The research and development cycle of a generation of car series is very long, and when you see a new generation of XX cars on the market, in fact, the next generation of the new generation is already in intensive preparation.
For Mercedes-Benz, this plan is even more complicated: since the design of the new S-Class represents the family design language of the next generation of Mercedes-Benz, when and in what form should the S-Class present what new design for the Mercedes-Benz family? When iterating on the family design language, if its product line other than S-class is not at the time of the big replacement, how to add the design elements of the upper and lower levels on the basis of the original design to add a "smooth feeling" to the big change?
The E-Class remains the most vivid answer: every change in the design language of the Mercedes-Benz family is almost in the middle of the life cycle of a certain generation of the E-Class. After the E-Class W212/V212 added the two styles of "Sport" and "Luxury" in the 2014 model, and changed the "four-eye" light group to a single full LED light group, it achieved a lot of details between the 2016 model and the 2016 model's major replacement W213/V213; based on this idea, we also have reason to believe that after the 2021 E-Class will move the appearance and interior design closer to the S-class W223/V223, it will also achieve a high degree of similarity with the next generation of E-class in many feature points, achieving " Smooth Transitions".
Mercedes-Benz E-Class (2019, 2021, W214 road test camouflage car from top to bottom)
This plan is undoubtedly ingenious and thoughtful. On the one hand, the E-Class of the 2014 model matches the new generation of S-Class in terms of appearance details; on the other hand, Mercedes-Benz has already left a backhand for the subsequent W213/V213: the long-wheelbase V213 is completely independently developed for the Chinese market, it is not only a simple extension, but also redesigned the entire rear body, adding a rear triangle window that looks like the Maybach S-class - pre-judgment and then pre-judgment, can you stand it?
When the design language is iterative independent of the product architecture, the car company has a more flexible and free product line planning, avoiding the situation such as "the square angel eye headlights are used after 5 years of the 5 series of big replacement" - but at the same time, the Mercedes-Benz "two-legged walking" planning is much faster than the traditional "big replacement, medium-term change, big replacement" rhythm, and the difficulty brought to the car companies to consider the overall situation will be significantly improved.
"Change the soup without changing the medicine" VS "Old bottle of new wine"
Some people criticize Mercedes-Benz for changing the design of the original product architecture as "changing the soup without changing the medicine", but I think That Mercedes-Benz obviously has a deeper insight into the user's consumer psychology - you can change a complete set of new powertrains without changing the appearance, but consumers will always respond to this kind of "old bottle of new wine" car, and will always respond to the attitude of applause and not to be seated.
In fact, under the flexible product line planning of Mercedes-Benz, its models "change soup" every three times, "change the medicine" with a difference of five, and then "change the soup and change the medicine" after a while, which can not only continue to bring freshness to consumers, but also disrupt the rhythm of competitors' product releases at a high frequency.
Coincidentally, GM seems to be quite fond of this novel redesign. Buick Encore car series underwent intensive design changes in 2018-2021, and finally completed a major replacement; and the second generation GL8 (commonly known as "fathead fish") extended this idea, making the product architecture life cycle significantly extended.
An image analogy: in the rhythm of product iteration, the traditional "big change - medium-term change - big change" is like Intel's "Tik-Tok", regular and old-fashioned; Mercedes-Benz's approach is more like the ARM camp's small steps, tight, tense and exciting.
And you don't look at it to change the design at every turn, people are just fast-paced, luxury brands should have the same family inheritance - E-class W213/V213 Central Control's iconic arc curve, inherited from the W211 released 15 years earlier than it, can not say very similar, can only say exactly the same.
A while ago, my family who drove the V221 S300L wanted to change cars, I drove my E-class to the Mercedes-Benz 4S store to understand the terminal price of the V223 for him, and talked about the new C-class. I quipped that after the S206 (the new generation of C-class travel) was launched, wouldn't it be impossible to buy the S205 now? As a result, the sales brother immediately and seriously refuted me: in our Mercedes-Benz, the models are classics.
The confidence and confidence behind this bold statement shocked me for a long time, and it was really worthy of the century-old Mercedes-Benz.