Prices here are incomparable to the US due to tax, but a model S starts at 90k if you accept it being only available in white (nobody does at that price). If you pick any other color, reasonable rims and a "luxury interior" as you would expect on cars in this price range it's 110k to 120k euro. That's more than a full option BMW 5 series or Audi A6 and comparable to a very high-end Audi A8 or BMW 7 series.

Not sure about Mercedes, but I guess they gave you an A or B class without much luxury options as a loaner. I've seen those as rental cars as well, not great compared to their higher end cars. That would be a 30-40k kind of car here, the model 3 starts at 64k if you pick anything but white and want long range (not performance), and that's excluding autopilot.

So in my opinion they're pricing themselves into a market their cars can't really compete in.

Yes. The A and B class Mercedes are like they're made by a different manufacturer compared to the S class or something like the Mercedes-AMG GT.

Exactly. It makes some sense because they're also in a different price range, but Mercedes is risking the quality reputation of their brand of this is your first encounter with their cars.

True, but it’s been like that for a long time with the A/B class. It’s quite surprising - I can’t think of another brand that has such a wide quality differential between the low end models and the mid range (let alone high end).

Standard range is $40k, AWD long range is $50k. Paint is $1000 extra for anything but black, $2000 for red. Where are you getting $64k?

The poster mentions euro, so I would guess the poster is using local prices.

Indeed. The other brands prices are also higher here.

In Europe, and the comparison is even worse in $AUD