The global recall of 680,000 Mercedes-Benz cars equipped with a brake-by-wire system once touted as revolutionary will cost the automaker E25 million, reports Automotive News Europe. But the damage to the Mercedes brand image as a technology leader could be far more lasting.
Robert Bosch spent Euros150 million to develop the braking system with Mercedes, but even before the recall had conceded the technology was virtually dead. The German supplier says it does not have anyone working on a new generation of the system.
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George Magliano, an auto analyst with Global Insight in New York, said recent quality issues have hurt the Mercedes image. “For a luxury marque, this isn’t good.”
Mercedes ordered the recall to check the electronic braking system that has led to safety fears on some E- and SL-class models.
The glitch can cause the brake-by-wire system, which includes ABS, to fail. But the car can still be stopped because the backup hydraulic system still activates the front brakes, a DaimlerChrysler spokesman said.
Besides the recalled E and SL classes, the brakes are standard on the Maybach and SLR McLaren and on the Mercedes CLS due this summer. Pressure has mounted on Daimler-Chrysler in recent months.
Externally critics charge that Mercedes-Benz quality has slipped and D/C executives are preoccupied with the company’s problems in the US, Japan and Korea.
Internally, the management board is at war with itself. In late April, it renounced Chairman Jurgen Schrempp’s global expansion plans and demoted incoming Mercedes boss Wolfgang Bernhard.
