There are multiple ways of looking at this, but the bottom line is that Mercedes-AMG poked fun at the Porsche 911 when the GT was launched. After the first six months of its life, it’s the Porker that’s having a laugh.
The Mercedes-AMG GT S launch commercial in the US showed a kid with an impressive Porsche scale models collection having some bad dreams. His dream car, a Porsche 911, was being chased on a track by a yellow Mercedes-AMG GT S. The two cars duel a little, but eventually the AMG gets in front, which prompts the boy to wake up from his nightmare. The tagline read, “The car you dreamed of as a child has just been overtaken,” and everyone agreed this was a pretty clever - if a bit cheesy - commercial.
Six months later, though, the US sales numbers came in, and they speak for themselves. The brand new Mercedes-AMG GT and GT S found less than 900 customers, while the 911 sold to over 5,000 people during the same time frame. Overtaking a car in a commercial is one thing, overtaking it commercially is completely different.
Everybody - even the Porsche US spokesman - agrees the Mercedes-AMG GT is a great car, so then what’s the explanation? According to users of the mbworld.org forum, the problem is there’s a huge discrepancy between supply and demand, with the latter being a few times greater than the former.
This might be down to a large number of preorders that need to be satisfied, and Mercedes-AMG could crank up the number of GTs heading over to the States once those are taken care of, but right now, all the cars coming into dealerships are pre-ordered, there are no cars for test driving and the waiting time is probably putting a lot of people off.
Still, the lucky ones who already own one say they enjoy the exclusivity, with the chances of seeing a LaFerrari - not to mention Porsche 911s - on the streets in some areas being greater than spotting an AMG GT. That’s double the exclusivity at half the price.
Six months later, though, the US sales numbers came in, and they speak for themselves. The brand new Mercedes-AMG GT and GT S found less than 900 customers, while the 911 sold to over 5,000 people during the same time frame. Overtaking a car in a commercial is one thing, overtaking it commercially is completely different.
Everybody - even the Porsche US spokesman - agrees the Mercedes-AMG GT is a great car, so then what’s the explanation? According to users of the mbworld.org forum, the problem is there’s a huge discrepancy between supply and demand, with the latter being a few times greater than the former.
This might be down to a large number of preorders that need to be satisfied, and Mercedes-AMG could crank up the number of GTs heading over to the States once those are taken care of, but right now, all the cars coming into dealerships are pre-ordered, there are no cars for test driving and the waiting time is probably putting a lot of people off.
Still, the lucky ones who already own one say they enjoy the exclusivity, with the chances of seeing a LaFerrari - not to mention Porsche 911s - on the streets in some areas being greater than spotting an AMG GT. That’s double the exclusivity at half the price.