Luxury Shopping on Ibiza

A Special MWM Moment of Norbert Stolz

You may find this hard to believe, but the following incident actually happened. In the early 1990s, DEUTZ MWM entered the yacht engine business. That was supposed to be good for the company’s reputation. And it truly was! It did not take long for the celebrities to arrive. The owner of a large construction company in Spain purchased a yacht with two TBD 234 V 12 drive engines. The first long cruise was to take her from Barcelona to Greece. As the yacht approached Ibiza, one of the two drive engines suddenly failed. The yacht entered one of the island’s ports, and the engine was repaired under warranty. Soon, the journey continued. So far, so unspectacular.

But then, just back from her trip, we were summoned to the yacht owner in Barcelona. In the presence of two of her lawyers, the technical manager of a shipyard, and her private secretary, she chewed us out. The engine failure and the resulting layover on Ibiza had unexpected consequences: Out of boredom, the lady had spent about $10,000 on clothes in various boutiques. Her line of reasoning was remarkable: If the engine hadn’t broken down, she wouldn’t have bought the expensive clothes. So, she demanded that we refund the $10,000, because she felt that she had incurred these expenses only because of the unexpected stopover. Well, those were some of the intricacies of the yacht business …