Bad start for Mercedes E-Class in Egypt: Daimler employees probed for potential fraud - One million Mercedes cars recalled for fire risk

In Germany one would say 'the launch of the new Mercedes E-Class in Egypt stands under no good star'. 'Standing under no good star' is the translation of 'Steht unter keinem guten Stern', which is a well-known German saying and which means that the start or launch of something is quite unlucky or has lots of negative things related to it.

Same could be said about the recent launch of the much-anticipated new Mercedes E-Class in Egypt. Not only was the E-Class launched with a huge delay in the Egyptian market, but in addition to that many of the interested and potential Mercedes E-Class owners were extremely angry and infuriated when they went to the official Mercedes showrooms to have a look at the E-Class and pay a down-payment.

The reason was that they were told by the Mercedes salesmen that the price of the E-Class has not been decided yet, despite the fact the fact that the car's custom duties and taxes were already paid and the car was already in the showroom.

Many readers contacted Auto Arabia and complained that this is price-setting strategy they would expect from a second-hand dealer in Herafeyeen, where the car dealer waits to see how many potential buyers and down-payments he would get in order to set the highest possible price-tag for the car. But they would have never expected such a cheap sales strategy from a renowned luxury car manufacturer like Mercedes.

Now comes another blow and extremely negative news for the reputation of the German luxury brand, as prosecutors have opened an investigation against employees at Daimler regarding diesel-manipulation allegations, possible fraud and false advertising. This comes only a few weeks after Daimler announced the recall of one million Mercedes cars for possible.

A spokesperson for the Stuttgart prosecutors, said Daimler employees are being probed for possible fraud and false advertising but refused to give more details.

Stuttgart-based Daimler said that the Germany transport ministry and vehicle type approval authority had conducted emissions tests on its cars but had found no violations. Nevertheless Mercedes-Benz agreed in April agreed to conduct a voluntary recall in Europe to fix temperature-control setups on the emission systems of the Mercedes vehicles in question.

In 2016 the U.S. Department of Justice asked Daimler to conduct internal investigations into how its vehicles’ emissions are measured.

Putting an even more negative taste to the E-Class launch in Egypt is the recall of one million Mercedes cars due to fire risk. After 51 fires were reported, Daimler AG announced it will recall one million newer-model Mercedes-Benz vehicles worldwide due to this risk of fire, caused by a potentially faulty fuse.

The recall affects newer Mercedes models, including those from the 2017 model year.

Mercedes Benz Egypt has not announced yet how many Mercedes vehicles or 2017 E-Class models are affected in Egypt by this recall.

And the fact that there were no E-Class test-cars available for independent media reviews prior to the official launch in Egypt, is also something we did not expect from Mercedes Benz Egypt under the new leadership of Thomas Zorn.

Stay tuned for more updates and new developments in the above-mentioned cases.

MS
23.03.2017
Cairo – Dubai – Stuttgart