mac911

Not right. W is for German manufacturer. South African cars start with a W as well. 11th digit, or just look inside the door sand see "Made in Germany," or "Made in South Africa."

Mine is a C300 RWD, and it is Germany.

Some 350s were from South Africa. I just look at the VINs on dealer websites and look at the 11th digit. Once the South African cars started coming out in January, I'd say about 60-70 percent seemed to be from there.

I'd always want German car, if I could get it.
However, I think SA car is just as good.

maninblack

to me , all mercedes benz should be built in Germany regarding what model

Flame3g

i got a germany build

chilledbenz

Easier way to tell where your car was built is to open the drivers side door and look at the black sticker/nameplate, it will tell you where it was built there along with some other handy info. (At least it does on my R class, the C isn't here at the moment)

Pretty strange to read that some rear wheel drive cars were being built at the Bremen plant after the December deadline. Guess everything is subject to change, but I do recall someone here in a past post on this topic posting the news releases stating their plans for the future and they included moving all rear drive production to South Africa. Could be that you ordered your car and only dealer stock will be built out of the South Africa plant. At any rate I have a feeling it doesn't matter which plant your car came from, if theres going to be a problem theres going to be a problem, build location isn't going to help you.

Azn_C300

Ok, it says made in Germany inside the door, but also says Stuttgart. If I remember right there's a plant there (the first plant actually). Not sure if that means it was made it that plant or if that's just the MB home office (which I believe is also there).

micropower99

The car cannot be built in South Africa and start the VIN with a W. Can anyone confirm on their SA car that their vin starts with a W? Because I know for a fact that BMW's are built in Germany and have a W but the Z4 and X5 is built in USA and their vin starts with a 1.

keith100

BMW's are built in SA too!

mb_horseshoe

My car's VIN starts with a W and it's built in SA. Just checked.

This doesn't mean my car is more likely to break down or anything does it? I plan on having this thing for more than a few years...

mac911

Well considering thousands of C-Class has been built in South Africa and and VIN starts with W, you should tell Mercedes-Benz cause they've made a mistake then.

The W thing used to confuse me too, honestly it really did, but I then learned you can't tell by the first number always.

iolithblue

i know for a fact? WTF? bmw 3 series are built in SA, amongst other places. grow up. accept. deal.

rs1985

323 and some 325 (now 328) is from SA
my 325 is from Germany
i will go check for the VIN number tomorrow, are you guys talking about the first or 11th digit?

cvx5832

I have an SA car and VIN begins with a W. If I understand it correctly from when I first read about VIN's, the first character is Manufacturer origin, at least as far as MB's go.

11th character indicates the Manufacturer facility, or something like that.

Paolo

micropower99

shut the **** up

jorantes

what u originally said was funny as hell...

micropower99

Haha, I didn't know if it was appropriate

jorantes

After reading all the responses I called my dealer yesterday and decided to go with the German build, I felt it was worth the wait. They called me this morning and said it will be built soon, on Aug 10. Should have it delivered first of September... WooHoo!

mac911

Nice! Again, I think quality is makes no difference, but I love knowing my car came from Bremen.

Plus now the wait isn't bad. Enjoy it!

chilledbenz

I'm with you on that one, I was a bit concerned my C might come from SA but was a bit relieved when it didn't. Something about driving a German nameplate and it being actually built in Germany gives you a peace of mind. But on that note my R class built in Alabama has had less problems than my German built C class ha ha..hows that for salt in our eyes.

joshg1001

so its randomized so that any C class (whether 300 or 350) can be built at either place? weird.

im glad the dealers will know, so people can order the car be built in Breman

RLE

<<The 2009 plan for builds may be different, but for 2008 all C300 4matic cars and all C350's were built in the Bremen Germany plant and all rear drive C300's were built in the South London Africa plant>>

My '08 C300 Luxury must be a collector's item since it was built in Bremen.

etim_bang

this was posted on benzworld.com on 02/20/08

Somebody posted the plant codes on this or another forum....I'll see if I can track it down. Anyway, as noted, it's the 11th digit.

Found it:

A-E Sindelfingen
F-H Bremen
J Rastatt
X Graz
T Karmann
M Woking, England (SLR only)
R South Africa

Look for one of these as the 11th digit of your VIN.
hope this helps
btw mine has an F- bremen

myinternetsucks

mines R for SA, I don't mind owning a blood diamond!

tategoi

Good for you. I just ordered mine last week. Germany allocated a September production for my C350. Afterwhich it will take a slow boat to Singapore. I can only take delivery in December if the shipment is smooth sailing.

xntrek

I think the reality is that whichever plant it is put together in, MB would ensure that a certain level of build quality is maintained - they honestly could not afford to frack that up - their entire brand is built on the "mercedes quality".

The only thing that would concern me is whether they would use different sub-components at each of the sites. At the end of the day, it's those components (and where they're made!) that will be the real killers (I see a few people complaining about door pins lately as one such example!).

That's my $0.02 worth, and it's Australian currency, so it's more like $0.0189 really ... :P

Petje

mine was build in 2001, my 10th character is a 1 ........

So this isnt correct.....