km revises G-Wagen
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[FR suffering financial acks and the collapse of licted high-volume Third -Id markets, Dainder-Benz evising its marketing :egy for the G-Series light range, including the posity of bringing a new —up model into Britain. ccording to Dr Siegfried otta, managing director of 's G-Wagen division, 4x4 s will be split into two Met luxury car/workhorse :kets like Range Rover and d Rover.
1 addition to increasing its etration into the civilian market with improved senger models, DB is also llenging Land Rover for itary sales in Switzerland, Netherlands (CM, Feb ruary 22) and now Australia.
A new chassis cab GWager' version has been launched on the Continent, and Mercedes-Benz UK is considering bringing it into Britain with a pick-up body. It currently offers only a softtop pick-up with no enclosed driving compartment.
Despite a rise of 14 per cent in sales last year, MB UK still sold only 432 G-Wagens in Britain compared with Land Rover's combined Land Rover/Range Rover sales of 10,122.
In 1985, Land Rover sold a total of 43,700 414 vehicles worldwide against DaimlerBenz's 8,666 G-Wagens.
In Britain, the relatively high price of the G-Wagen is still a barrier to increased market penetration, although Sohotta says that DaimlerBenz will not reduce its prices to compete against cheaper competitors — particularly from the Japanese. The latest range of Mercedes' saloon car engines, will not be fitted in the G-series until 1988.
Following the restructuring of the G-Wagen Division in 1981 (previously it was jointly owned by 1)13 and SteyrDainder-Puch — the Austrian manufacturer which builds the G-Wagen range) DB is now responsible for sales in all European countries except Austria, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Communist bloc countries, which are handled by Steyr.