I was curious if anyone in North America actually has a Brazilian made C-sedan. MB only made 7000 C-classes in Brazil in 2001 (although perhaps they've ramped up production at the plant in 2002). My impression is that this rather low figure would preclude seeing too many Brazilian Cs in the USA - that level of production should cover most of the Central and South American market. but leave few cars for the US and Canada. Considering the "luxury" status of MB in the US it seems that they would only sell German made Cs here to keep customers from complaining that they didn't receive a true "German" car - especially if it had any problems.

Cheers, BT

Wasn't even aware they made C-Class sedans in Brazil. I can imagine the would PO a lot of buyers in the USA.

I think the place where the cars were being built was mexico and not brazil... i'm pretty sure of this. There was some discussion going around about a year back saying that C's were being assembled there...but no one that I know has ever gotten one... which leads me to believe that those C's may have been for other markets...

this is just an educated guess

or we may be all riding around in C"s that was just designed in germany and built in mexico...who knows

No, No, No, Fuzzo. It's Brazil. Mexico makes overpriced New Beetles! Some months ago, someone posted they had a Brazilian-made C-Sedan. They weren't happy. I wouldn't be, either... I have nothing against Brazilians. Just want my German-designed car made in Germany. Wouldn't buy a US-made ML for the same reason... assuming I had a use for an SUV.

I understand the right-hand steering C's are made in South Africa.

dang.. i better go brush up on my geography....

so someone actually had a car that was made in brazil.. i would be curious to know what the country code on the VIN was ....

I've seen then at the dealer. About 1 in 10 were made in Brazil. It said it on a sticker on the window. They can't be any worse than the German built ones. Actually the VIN started with the same letters.

Thought vin numbers reflected the country of production?

I was told emphatically by my salesman at Three Point Motors in Victoria B.C. that Mercedes-Benz Canada Ltd. does not import ANY Brazilian-made C Classes to Canada.

He is a good, well informed guy, so I believe him. Anyway, our car is a C 230 K hatchback, all of which apparently are made in Deutschland.

That is correct, Bob. I think the right-hand Coupes are still built in Germany, though.

I thought that the VINs reflected the country of production as well - but apparently they reflect the country the manufacurer is based in.

Cheers, BT

actually if you guys want to know where your car is built just look on your "window sticker" and it'll have info like the final assembly point, etc.

The first three digits are the code for the manufacurer. The next six digits are used by the manufacturer to describe the car, model, engine, tranny, etc. The last eight digits contain the year of manufacture, plant of manufacture, and four to six numbers representing serial production of that model at that plant.

For example the last eight digits of a 2002 car built at Sindelfingen would be 2AXXXXXX.

http://www.autobaza.pl/autobaza/page...&lang=1&p=coto

Cool, thanks Lynn.

I think part of our confusion might be that the country of the manufacurer is usually part of the manufacturer code portion of the VIN. I think all of the German manufacturers have the W as the first letter, then the DB probably stands for DaimlerBenz.

Cheers, BT

Edit: After checking Lynn's site this is indeed the case. W=Germany. The 2 in Lynn's example is for 2002, the A indicates the Sindelfingen plant (and the ML plant in Alabama as well according to the site).

So, this is a little off topic, but when I checked where my car was made (some website someone listed a while back), I found my car was made in Germany and Alabama? What was made in this country?

ML's are made in Alabama. C coupes are made in Sindelfingen. I think it is strange that MB uses the same code for two factories.

On another note I think Frank's Panda must die now

I think this is strange as well. I guess that they know from the "RN47" portion of the VIN that the car is a Coupe which means the A stands for Sindelfingen. Still seems a little odd.

Cheers, BT

haha...i think of that too....can't find any good one to replace it though

<---------how is this

what's with all your avatars having to do with mooning people...

didn't notice till you said something...hehe...i have no idea what the panda was doing...

the new one i'm using right now the character on there is from some japanese comic book...one of those really funny ones.

maybe you can say that the avatars i use represent how i felt when i blew pass mod Hondas and Toyotas... which they all can KMA**

Think I prefer the panda, IMHO.

How's my new avatar?

is it commin on to me??? hehe

Wink wink... nudge nudge ... know what i mean.. eh eh????
(Yes its another monty bleedin pythin ref.. :p)

i founda cool one for tommy

HA!

Very cool!