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Expanding infrastructure is a good step but it has to be a complete re-educating of the driving population and correct traffic enforcement. It is a free-for-all driving condition.No rules followed by virtually the majority of the drivers. Wider roads would create a wider traffic mess. I do believe that the drivers licensing should be overhauled with an emphasis on everyone taking proper driving classes, correct driving test, and a computerized written test.An educated driving population and enforcers are key to changing the messy driving culture. Japan and Europe as an example have smaller roads but their drivers follow rules and observe traffic signage. That does not happen in the Philippines.Another factor is to completely redesign the city streets and public spaces in the cities and towns. Proper planning is crucial. Adding public parking spaces either paid or free, adding sidewalks, remove public vending and adding bike lanes. Move public markets away from the main roads as this seems to be the template of all Philippine towns and cities. Every little town if you will take notice has a marketplace at the center along with the church. All of these have virtually no public parking and therefore creating traffic mess every day.The population of all metropolitan areas has grown vertically (condos and high rises) yet the roads are still the same. The number of car ownership has risen drastically as well and should be considered in future planning of new projects.As the number of cars and people grows, each city or towns must be able to foresee ahead of time in order to adjust its infrastructures and services.

We have to start off from the 1980s to answer this properly when the Chinese first began to develop Joint Ventures with foreign companies in order to get the technology and expertise they needed for automobile manufacturing. Before this, in the 1950s to Deng Xiaoping era Chinese car ownership was heavily limited and mostly people just drove the cars that their work units had authorized them to use unless they were very senior officials with access to their own private car.The two most successful JVs were AMC Jeep and VW Santana (the latter based in Shanghai I think).So lets set the stage of what issues the Chinese face in the automobile market right now:As of recently there have been Chinese automobile companies like Geely and Great Wall Motors but for the most part, even today most of the Chinese automobile market is dominated by foreign brands. Volkswagon and Honda are the top 2 brands in the car market followed by Geely (local brand).China’s air pollution problem. While in some cities it is better, the overall air quality still leaves a lot to be desired. Air pollution is a big domestic issue in China as well and most Chinese have smartphone apps to tell the air pollution level are widespread in China.China is a huge oil importer (now the world’s largest). China’s relationship with the middle east is evolving to secure its energy routes.Each of these problems can be addressed to some degree by the Chinese making a major push towards electric vehicles in China.#1 : A large Chinese electric vehicle influx into the market can challenge the dominance of foreign brands in the Chinese market.#2: Major reduction in Air pollution.#3: Reduced dependence on foreign oil imports.While normally countries would have a mix of hybrids and electrics or first make the transition to hybrids followed by electrics, Chinese policymakers prefer to leapfrog straight to electric vehicles due to the promising potential they represent.Historically, Chinese support for electric vehicles have come in 2 phases:2009–2014 first wave:R and D support and financingInitial subsidies that went to buyers but ultimately ended up with the EV producers (so basically they subsidized your purchase of the vehicle, enticing you to purchase EV vehicles. So this was indirectly subsidizing the producers of the said EV vehicle)Implementing emission standards on vehicles that have gone up over time.2015–2017 second wave:Continuing the first wave of policies with more support (more subsidies, more R and D etc.)Joint venture requirement for EV: Foreign EV manufacturers must partner with a local brand to make EVs and market them under local brand as wellThe Dual credit system. Honestly, I’m not 100% sure how it works but from what I understand is is that’s derived from Californian EV policies and basically states that all automakers in China will receive points for the types of cars they produce. So car companies will have to have a certain proportion of their fleet as EV/Hybrids. And if you don't meet the standards, you will have to buy credits from other automakers. This will sorta pressure automakers in China to have at least 5–10% of their fleets be electric.It’s pretty hard to get license plates in China for your car due to the government strictly controlling the number of vehicles on the road but if you have an electric vehicle, you can get a license plate in a more prioritized manner compared to someone who doesn’t.A lot of funding and policy support for battery development leading to a lot of battery makers in China.Similar large levels of funding into charging infrastructure in China’s major cities, alongside highways, in new apartment buildings.Now China is the world’s largest car market. It had 25 million passenger vehicles sold in 2017 alone. And as a result of the above stated policies, a growing proportion of these passenger vehicles are electric.620,000 NEVs (New Energy Vehicles) were sold in China in 2017 which represent more than 50% of the global NEV market share.Another big take is that rather than be concentrated in only 2–3 big NEV makers like the US (Tesla e.g.), the Chinese have almost 12 different brands of NEVs to pick from (JAC, Geely, NIO, Dongfeng, BYD, HA/MA, KANDI, ZD, Z Auto to name a few).And dozens of more companies are forming that showcase their vehicles at autoshows. And in addition, a lot of JVs are forming up between foreign and local companies to further take advantage of the NEV market in China. All totaled up, that’s a huge number of companies for one single market to have.The charging infrastructure is getting pretty widespread as well like the EV charging stations at bus terminals that BYD has built or you can go to company gas stations. Or you can find EV charging stations alongside highways and apartment buildings. There are around 200,000 charging stations in China back in 2017.China’s home grown battery makers (besides big names like BYD) are getting pretty widespread as well with new makers like CATL operating out of Fujian province becoming one of the biggest battery sellers to other EV manufacturers. They also export their batteries abroad.BYD has made major pushes on electrifying all transportation within big cities where charging infrastructure is pretty widespread. So you would see I think around 12,000 electric taxis within Shenzhen alone, alongside 16,000 electric buses. That 16,000 is more than all of the buses running the 5 major North American transit cities, electric or otherwise. Even their trucks are electric, class 5,6 and 8. These are like refuse and sanitation trucks etc. And there is a electric monorail of around 200 kms as well to handle mass transit.Now this was all the positive stuff. Now we come to the challenges.The first issue: The current electric vehicle market in China has grown to its current extent primarily on the back of major Chinese government spending in the area to subsidize the purchase of Electric vehicles. Chinese subsidies make up nearly 30–40% of all NEV sales in China since 2009. Extrapolating on that point, it means that 30–40% of all profits made by companies in this sector are composed of subsidies alone.Now, this is not too glaring of a problem if you take into account the fact that it’s the same situation in most countries: Electric vehicles as a market only exist because of heavy government spending and subsidies in this sector. They just can’t compete with the current non-NEV vehicles in a straight up competition.The second issue is the fact that in the above point where I mentioned that there were a lot of JVs and domestic Chinese companies entering the NEV sector, quite a lot for a single market, it could also be a bad thing: Overcapacity. Too many manufacturers might start making NEVs too fast to take advantage of subsidies while they last and result in a huge glut of NEVs. A similar thing happened with China’s Solar Panel overcapacity issue a while back.But while solar panels can be exported abroad to countries like Pakistan which have their own energy crises, electric vehicles can’t be if the importing country doesn't have the necessary charging infrastructure to support them.The third point is one of differences in consumer behavior between China and the US. Chinese consumers buy electric vehicles as a sacrifice for the betterment of the environment. Americans buy electric vehicles like Tesla because they are cool. What that means is that Chinese consumers have to overcome mental barrier to buy an NEV and they are not considered desirable vehicles the way a Tesla is. This is why although China is the biggest market in the world of NEVs, only 1/3rd of them are to private buyers. The rest are to public buyers.The fourth point is EV infrastructure disparity. Most of the charging infrastructure in China is concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. And while the NEV infrastructure is massive, it’s not enough to meet China’s publicly stated target of 5–10% of all vehicles being NEV.The fifth point is about the raw materials needed to support NEVs: 1) Lithium 2) Nickle 3) Cobalt. China must develop sustainable supplies of these critical elements and must do so in direct competition with the US which has already intervened heavily to secure Lithium mines in foreign countries at the supposed behest of Elon Musk for his Tesla cars. Cobalt is mostly supplied from the Congo where the Chinese have been heavily involved with investments. As China’s appetite for NEVs has grown, so have prices for cobalt resulting in pressure on maintain prices on batteries and NEVs in the global market (as well as pressure on China’s own companies that require more subsidies to remain competitive). A potential repeat of the rare earth issues with China over battery raw materials can’t be ruled out and while alternatives to rare earths were developed, you might not be able to replace cobalt, Nickle and lithium in batteries.The sixth point is Market Access in China. China has tariffs on NEVs as a way to force manufacturers to produce in China. China also maintains a list of battery makers and if you get your NEV made with those battery makers you qualify for subsidies and none of these battery makers include the biggest foreign battery makers like LG, Samsung and Panasonic. The South Korean battery makers got blocked from the market after China placed sanctions on them as a result of South Korea and US cooperating over the THAAD missile defense system so these firms have 0 batteries sold in China.The seventh point is the air pollution problem. Now, NEVs are supposed to reduce air pollution but that’s only if your power grid is powered by clean energy. China’s power grid is still 60% coal (down from 70%) but there’s a certain irony in charging your environmentally friendly NEV with electricity produced by a coal plant. Most of the coal plants in China seem to have been moved to the western interior away from cities but they still pose some level of a problem. The batteries themselves are also a pollution concern due to the material waste of depleted batteries.This seventh point needs some elaboration because the NEV push and push for renewable energies are supposed to be symbiotic. But China’s power grid management has major inefficiencies in it. Every province is allowed to decide how much power gets transferred across borders to the next province. So if the North Eastern provinces where you have a lot of wind and an excess of renewable energy output want to export this energy to some southern province, the southern province won’t buy it. They would rather buy power from their own power plants because it boosts their own GDP and helps their year end reviews from the center.The Eight point is the internal political system of China when it comes to central-local government relations is pretty fragmented. If the central government gives way too many targets to local governments who have limited fiscal resources, they aren’t gonna do anything. The governments at the local level are evaluated every 3 years, but NEV technologies like fuel cells, batteries and charging infrastructure start to pay off in 15 years. The central government needs to provide incentives at the local level to promote investments by local governments in these longer term technologies if they are serious about change here.The Ninth point is that batteries have their own kind of pollution. Chinese government regulations require that the NEV manufacturers have to take back batteries once they are depleted and dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner. Currently the NEVs don't care because they are selling a ton of batteries right now and it’s gonna be 9 years until they start to come back. The problem is, once they do start coming back in 9 years there is no set up to process, recycle or dispose of them in a safe manner. So what's gonna happen in 9 years?So this sets us up for the following questions in the coming few years:How exactly are the Chinese going to continue their policies on NEVs in the future. Are they going to continue subsidies at the same rate or phase them out? The Chinese have already announced that they are going to phase out subsidies overtime and concentrate existing ones more towards longer ranged electric vehicles. And how will demand for electric vehicles be impacted by phasing out of subsidies in China?How strict are the Chinese going to be in implementing the dual credit policy.Are the Chinese really going to commit to a All-NEV future target or just sort of loosely follow it.Current Chinese NEVs are shorter ranged than their western counterparts, how will efforts to extend their range fare in China?How good of a battery life are Chinese NEVs going to have compared to western counterparts.Will Chinese consumers shift their perspective and start viewing NEVs as cool vehicles the same way Americans view Teslas? More importantly, can Chinese firms make NEVs that are cool?How will NEV-based ridesharing fare in China. Baidou’s running an Apollo project in China with a bunch of companies where they have cars going around collecting data. Most of Baidou’s data collection takes place in Northern California, Pittsburgh and Arizona though because licenses are easier to get there to do this kind of data collection. The benefit of having NEVs in the ridesharing business is that it vastly increases the market and scope for NEV application, thereby increasing the chances of successful adoption.There are competing technologies to NEVs. Fuel Cells, Biocells, improved combustion engines and hybrids. Actually with Hybrids, the threat to NEVs is bigger in terms of business competition because Hybrids don’t really require extra investments in infrastructure the way NEVs do. How will NEVs fare against these competing techs?Will the central government change the way they evaluate the local governments or give them incentives so they invest in NEVs over a long period of time and change the way they get electricity from neighboring provinces?What’s the plan to handle the glut of depleted batteries in 9–10 years?To be honest, there’s an extra layer of difficulty in answering these questions because our relationship to cars themselves is changing. And this conversation is also important because otherwise we might just be thinking oh the Chinese are just planning their electric vehicle market around the ideas of national security and vulnerability of oil import SLOCs from the middle east etc. But the Chinese have their own ideas about public planning and business potentials of NEVs just like the US does.So lets take a look at how the market itself is evolving to NEVs without regards to the national security question.Over the past 100 years, the auto industry in Japan, Germany, Detroit-USA has had to deal with fairly predictable consumer behaviors revolving around the central tenet that as people get richer, they will buy more cars. And while the automobile industry has boom and bust cycles, they were still able to plan 2–3 cycles ahead due to the consistent formula.But all of that is changing now and traditional automobile makers are struggling to adapt (Detroit has already fallen behind). Most of the value in automobile industries are getting generated by outsiders to the industry like Tesla or the Foxconn-Tencent partnership. They are redefining the idea of mobility itself.In the US, a personal vehicle is used 3.8% of the time. So it sits for 23 for 24 hours a day. But to deal with these cars that sit for 23 of 24 hours a day, we have built massive parking in public spaces, garages in homes, streets you can park on and so on. 30% of all public spaces in NYC and DC are parking spaces.Digitization of mobility can change this issue, especially for urban planning purposes, in 3 different ways:Ridesharing: If you bought a 50,000 dollar car for 5 years, you could have potentially replaced that investment with 4000 dollars over 5 years via ridesharing. You use your car 3.8% of the time anyway, why not pay 4000 dollars for your mobility and not deal with car insurance, go to a dealer, get parts, pay the cost for ownership and so on. People have adapted before to the new norm. We moved away from stables for horses. There have been migrations from the suburbs to urban areas and families have downsized to allow for it. Now ridesharing isn’t making money (neither are NEVs) but it has demonstrated that people would rather push a button and pay for mobility as a service rather than own a car.Cars as wasted public space: Urban planners are increasingly thinking of ways that they could re-use or better utilize urban areas by reducing the focus around private cars. So basically reclaiming the 30% parking space and building parks on it, reduce congestion and air pollution.AI and Cars: If you ever drove out to meet your friends and someone back home called you and said, hey we need the car to go to the market, what would you do? In China and India, you can have your driver take the car back since those are cheap there. Not so in the West. The evolution of AI and self driving cars unlocks a big market here and opens up more efficient use of cars. And this is a $10 trillion dollar market for cars that sit around most of the time, possibly the greatest mass market use of AI at the moment.I have heard experts in the field talk about AI driven cars and NEVs (or even better, AI driven NEVs) as the space race of the 21st century because they will fundamentally redefine how developed countries think about transportation and mobility in their cities. And it’s a win win for all involved, it solves major national security issues in all countries involved. It gives city dwellers cleaner and more publicly accessible cities. It gives consumers better transport with less congestion. It opens up options for low income housing. Companies and countries have shown that consumers are willing to change, it’s the traditional automobile manufacturers that are lagging.And China is making big strides here with all their talk of AI and NEV adoption, because they are competition with their near abroad like Japan which has stated it will have robo-taxis ready for the 2020 Olympics (no idea what’s going on there right now because of COVID). South Korea is making major shifts here as well.So we’ve covered how the move to NEVs has both a major national security element but also a major urban planning element as well that’s just about better cities and embracing the 21st century idea of how mobility should be defined.But another reason why the move to NEVs makes sense for China: Leapfrog tech.Combustion engines are something China has struggled with in not just automobiles but also in their aircraft industry. Engines are complex pieces of machinery with a lot of moving parts. The benefit of NEVs is that batteries are much simpler with 14 moving parts at most so are simpler to produce and deploy indigenously without any reliance on foreign partners.On the subject of batteries, the Chinese might soon be producing 65% of the worlds Lithium Ion batteries soon to the extent that nearly most battery related businesses in the world will be starting to orbit around the huge Chinese push for electric vehicles. Potentially crowding out other forms of battery applications and locking the world into Lithium Ion battery tech but this isn’t a bad thing necessarily for this primary reason: No one else is consistently investing in NEVs and adopting NEVs the way China is.The Germans and their auto industry is ignoring NEVs and their mass adoption, they had plans for 1 million NEVs by 2020 and only adopted….14,000. The US under Obama had a great policy for NEVs but it was reversed under Trump so that market is just too unstable for serious businesses.China is the only country with a large market pushing forward with NEVs which is why even Tesla set up a plant there because the Chinese market is serving as a lifeline for businesses and firms that bet their money on the NEV market.So I think the Chinese market will remain the primary driver for NEV adoption and NEV tech growth due to their consistent push for electric vehicles as opposed to other countries where the interest is low (Germany) or where policies keep changing (US).But I think as NEVs and AI driven vehicles take hold in China, there are going to be noticeable if not seismic shifts in the way the Global economy is structured. I’m curious what’s gonna happen in the middle east once oil imports from China start to fall due to NEV adoption. I’m curious how Chinese cities restructure themselves and how their cities adopt a different urban planning trajectory from other developed countries as electric vehicles and AI driven vehicles and ridesharing take hold. I’m curious how the AI market itself develops as it sees its first major adoption in the auto industry.But overall, I’m quite glad that the Chinese government is pushing ahead with NEVs and AI driven vehicles because they are the only large market doing so in a consistent manner and it’s keeping this industry alive (remember, ridesharing and NEV businesses are in the losses at the moment without government support). And as climate change, urbanization and pollution become more and more important topics in the future, I would hope that the Chinese would offer a template of success that other countries can adopt. So I truly wish them the best of luck for the good of the entire planet.Sources I used: Zachary S Khan (BYD Heavy Engines North America presence), Anand Shah (Albright Stonebridge Group), Jonas Nahm (AP at John Hopkins)

Thanks for the A2A. I think the loyalty to the brand in the modern era is largely mythology. Mercedes used to be a brand focused on flagship luxury products, and for decades they had a great reputation for being the first to come out with major advances in safety, technology, etc.It would be unfair to be completely negative about the brand, so I think some of the highlights are worth mentioning.The good partsThe tech you get for the money, no matter which car you buy, is second to none in terms of value per dollar. Whether you buy an S class or an A Class in 2019, you do get a lot, and a much more premium cabin interior than any car for a competing price.Here’s a 2019 CLS, a £50k car. Undoubtedly expensive, but I think it punches well above its price tag, and definitely so far ahead of BMW, Audi, Tesla, etc it’s not even funny.Sure I’m accounting for taste, but the level of refinement and thought put into the design, the leather, the overall look, the simplicity, Mercedes is basically the new Apple of the car world in terms of obsessive compulsive interior detail orientation.There are companies who do better, like Tesla’s autopilot etc, but even then Tesla doesn’t have blind spot assist, 360 parking, head up displays, and a whole lot of of extremely nice features to have.Leaving aside premium features, Mercedes gives you a lot of things that help you drive, and things that quickly become embedded and indispensable.I owned both a Mercedes and a Tesla for instance, and I can say without a doubt the Tesla was an absolutely massive step back in any way except for Autopilot, which is better and more accurate than Distronic.And while not everything is perfect with them, Mercedes bailed me out of danger on many many occasions, correcting skids in the rain, car back in line after hydroplaning, emergency stopping because of a traffic accident ahead, etc, so in that sense I do have a great respect for the brand and the car.The quality of basic things, like paint, seats, steering wheel and so on, is definitely far above the level in other brands. Bear in mind, we are considering Audi, BMW and the like, not supercars or Bentleys, but I think we’re not far off from the paint quality on a Ferrari, bar the stupidly expensive triple layer custom paints.The fuel economy is generally category leading in the bigger saloons Mercedes makes. An S Class can get up to 50 miles a gallon or even more than 100 in the plug in charge version, depending on your driving style. For a car of its size, that’s extremely impressive, and better than 99% of all cars regardless of size, which is insane, so kudos to them.The bad partsMercedes is no longer a luxury brandModern day Mercedes is no longer a luxury car company. They have shifted to a mass market manufacturer, which is a brilliant business move, but it’s changed the profile of the company completely as far as the end consumer is concerned.Everything looks the same across the range, and they have about 3 interior templates that they regurgitate throughout the range, so within those 3 templates you can fit every single Mercedes money can buy. That’s volume manufacturing for you.This is the interior of a 2018 S Class Coupe, a car with a minimum price tag of at least 6 figures, and even more in the spec in this picture(Exclusive Package, expensive dash trims etc).This is a modern day A Class, with a price tag many times less than the S class.There are many many similarities, the display, the seat functions, the steering wheel is identical etc. So if you’re a long time owner of premium Mercedes, in 2019 you’re being robbed blind, because it’s next to impossible to justify £100k extra in a price tag for a different chassis and in effect a bit nicer leather. There’s no way their manufacturing cost is that much higher, it’s probably at most 2x, if that.All cars look the sameI had an S63 Coupe for a few years before I got rid of it, and I remember often looking into traffic and being impressed with just how many of them there are around, until I realised most of the “identical’ cars were C Class coupes or E class coupes. My point is you really can’t tell the difference from a lot of angles, so again it’s reinforcing the idea that you’re being robbed blind for a badge that says “S”.S Class coupe 2018This is the most expensive Coupe in the line-up, the flagship battlecruiser, a 6 figure plus base price, that goes up to 200k+ for a V12 version, so we’re talking massive amounts of money. On a car.E Class Coupe 2018It’s a tiny bit different sure, but nowhere near enough. Through traffic you won’t be able to tell them apart.C Class Coupe 2019Sport the difference. You could put these in a spot the difference book for children.Customisation and personalisation have disappearedWhether you want to spend £20k or £200k with Mercedes, you don’t really get much more. The paint palette and so on is identical all across the range, regardless of the model of car. Very few cars bring unique colours and anything you want to personalise if just offensively expensive.Just as an example, let’s compare paint jobs you can get on a £22k car vs an £80k car. 1 - 2 extras for sure, but there’s a solid 95% overlap on all models.S Class Colour RangeA Class RangeCompare this to BentleyI counted some 54 colours, possibly more to choose from, all for the same price or cheaper than a Designo paint. We’re talking more money than an S class or sure, but it goes to prove what luxury really means in 2019, and how little of it Mercedes provides, for the better and worse of it. Bentley has more palettes per colour family than Mercedes does in total.Customisation costI asked them how much it would be to change the upper trim of the car to a different colour, in the factory, as part of a new order, to another trim they already buy in volume, so nothing unique. I think it was in the range of £30,000 the quoted me, for next to nothing, 2 square metres of leather they already have in stock and is already pre-cut for the exact place where I wanted them to put it.Of course, business wise it makes perfect sense to streamline and optimise your production line, manufacturing, cost and so on, but it further destroys the mythology that Mercedes ownership is a dream for those rich beyond the dreams of avarice, an image Mercedes did once portrayed and executed on.Service is appallingI know this is only my personal experience. I’ve been fortunate enough to own many car brands, and I never had it anywhere near as bad as with Mercedes. I won’t go into detail here, read this: Flavian Alexander's answer to How come no one is driving Mercedes S-AMG? I always see AMGs.Depreciation is downright scaryAlmost nothing will depreciate at the same rate as a high end Mercedes, and of course that’s a given with all cars, but they manage to take it one step further. It’s because brand identity has become extremely confused, and the models are simply not unique enough between them, just like I described above.Have a look for yourself, this is a finance quote on a brand new full option S63 Coupe 2018, worth around £170k, and a £31k discount offered by the dealer. According to Mercedes finance, after 3 years it will be worth £51k, or a loss of £119k for 30k miles, as the PCP is capped. That’s £4 per mile in depreciation.Combined with the present longevity, rate of deterioration and service quality, it’s easy to see how it happens. The person buying a car for £20k might be less affected, but the one buying a car for £100k which is not different enough from the £20k car will swallow a massive depreciation pill for that very reason, so they have been definitely dropping high level sales in favour of the volume business.Bentley vs MaybachIn response to a comment, worth taking a peak at the top of the product pyramid. Now it’s not a fair comparison to talk big money Bentleys(although they really have the same starting price as the highest end Mercedes models), so let’s take a peak at Maybach vs Bentley Mulsanne.(~£200k vs ~300k).I think in this competition Mercedes actually wins, with a better car for £100k less, in terms of sheer value for money in the buy price. But that’s never the full story, when you buy a car in this price range you want other things to go with it.I think for the first time in their product range, Mercedes has learned something from Bentley and Rolls in terms of addressing their market. Instead of selling horsepower specs and using the word luxury 20 times in a commercial, they are finally selling dreams rather than cars, because at that price range, nobody cares how much horse power you have, they are willing to fork out cash for a living dream, and a painless ownership experience.MaybachMulsanneCompare this with the S Class Coupe videoLook at how much work they are doing to convince you as a buyer you are so special and exclusive, it just sounds like total bullshit to someone who can actually afford the car easily, the type of market they are going after.“Mercedes will only produce a small number of these” - no sh*t, at $150k plus for what’s really a 2 seater thanks for the lesson in fundamental economics, here I was thinking Uber is queuing up for 1 million of them. They may have better insight in their market than I do for sure, but I still feel like I’m gobbling up cheap bullshit every time I watch a Mercedes YouTube video.Marketing approach aside, here’s a comparison video between Maybach and BentleyThe Bentley wins in this video, because I think Volkswagen Corporate is an official sponsor, but in many verticals it is a worse car overall, in this specific Mulsanne vs Maybach contest. Phantom VIIIs are 2x the price and up, so I’ll leave them out of the comparison.Let’s explore the verticals.Bentley service is a world apart. They come get the car from you, leave you with a replacement Bentley and so on. It’s so much easier and nicer to deal with them than with Mercedes, and it makes a lot of sense. Bentley has a couple thousand customers, not a couple million like Mercedes does.In Mercedes, it really makes no difference how much you spend, if you buy a Maybach you’re queuing in the same place, and for the same level of service as the person next to you who spent £20k with them. The staff is overworked and doesn’t really care, their average ratings are abysmal even on Google.Personalisation is again 0. Maybach has a more impressive colour package for sure, but nowhere near enough. At this price point, people really care, and it’s as first world problems as you get, but if you’re claiming to be a luxury brand this is what you have to cater to.The Maybach has every single assistance feature etc as standard, so there’s about 3 boxes you can tick. One for the rear cabin seats option, one for an exterior colour, and another for upholstery. Job done, 1, 2, 3. Want bespoke? Sorry, we mass manufacture. You’ll notice aside from paint and the front grill, this looks a lot like an S Class, inside and out.Upholstery is nicer than the usual range, but it’s again the same extremely limited options available.Now it’s still a brilliant car, but where I think it completely loses the plot is the fact that in any RHD country Mercedes doesn’t sell 4Matic, or All Wheel Drive. Skid in a car like this and you’re toast, not to mention the monthly tire change required to keep it running.Bentley again, wins the customisation battle, and it always comes with 4 wheel drive, because they don’t pretend you want the bottom loose on track in a 3 tone limousine. You’d think it’s obvious..And you have many many combinations of interior colours, splits, and combinations.Would I buy any of the two if money was no object? If the Maybach had 4Matic in the UK, I’d buy it, if I wanted the most bespoke experience, I’d go Bentley or Rolls, but then again Rolls tech is terrible, and it’s slap bang copy paste BMW 7 Series infotainment, which is really poorly designed IMHO, and has 0 premium feel to it, like most of the BMW range.ConclusionAll in, there are still great reasons to own a Mercedes, but not one worth more than 40 - 50k tops, the benefit you get from spending any more is just non existent nowadays. You might turn more heads, maybe, but bang for buck you won’t get much more.I’m sure loyal customers are out there, but they are of a new breed, it’s not the kind that was once a given. The idea that Mercedes is the epitome of luxury, the car you get to celebrate the achivement of a career or anything like that, doesn’t exist anymore, it’s just marketing for the brand. S Classes might be brilliant premium Uber cars in big cities where there’s enough money in the market to warrant it(New York, London, etc etc), but they aren’t what they used to be.Nowadays they are extremely accessible compared to what they used to be, and that comes with both huge upside and massive downside for premium consumers.For me, I don’t think I’ll ever buy one again, after owning a 2014 S350D Saloon and a 2015 S63Coupe. Read my answer and it will be obvious why. I understand this is a high vantage point and may not apply, but the build and service quality of the fundamentals is very far from great. I do feel sad about that, as there are many amazing things about their cars.