SParkyMerc

.

AMGTTV8

Yeah, and? They produce C-Classes there - not new news..

Azn_C300

From what I understand, there are three plants. One in SA, one in Germany, and one in China.

joshg1001

CHINA? I might be able to accept south africa, but china is pushing it, this coming from a chinese

chokaay

From what I was told, U.S. W204's come from Germany and South Africa (in the beginning there was more from Germany, but as time goes on more will be from South Africa). China will make W204's for mostly Asia (just like how E-Classes made in China are for Asia).

Of course things COULD change in the future and if costs become too high for the U.S. market (since automobile price competition is much more fierce here than other countries), and maybe eventually only MB's made in South Africa and China are imported here, and German-made vehicles are shipped to countries where MB sells for significantly higher prices... but who knows!

justthinking

So what if some MBs are made in South Africa..FYI..SA plant actually received a gold standard award for initial quality from JD Power & associates..
IMO, build quality is way way way more important than where it's been build..

Glyn M Ruck

W204 is also built in Vietnam.

QQQ

So you won't mind taking a MB made in say, China?

Diesel Benz

But you must agree that one made in SA is "safe" but one made in China or Vietnam might not be the same?

Aren't all cars that are made in China intended for the local market, likely the same in Vietnam etc.

mat2hu

mines from SA and dude my car is the BEST!! ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVERR!!!!

chokaay

Just to add a tangent to this discussion, while I was test driving the C350 a couple months ago, I was talking with salesmen at FJNB, and one of them mentioned that recently they received a shipment of Black W204's from South Africa, where the paint was Black, but the door handles were Obsidian Black. No one at the dealership noticed until a customer brought her car back and asked whether or not the handles were supposed to "sparkle" like that. Then after FJNB looked at the other black W204's in their inventory, they discovered the massive error that affected the C-Classes made in South Africa, but not Germany. Pretty interesting, eh?

chokaay

Oops... duplicate post...

Glyn M Ruck

You should check your facts - All black C classes come with Obsidian black handles. It was not an error.

SA quality easily matches Germany - If I had my choice I would want a car built in Vietnam. They take the most trouble of all plants. Their attention to detail is utterly mind boggling & they use better (less environmentally friendly) paint. They run around all the body gaps with dial gauges during assembly.

Write off the Asians at you peril. They take great pride in their workmanship. Some of the best built Toyotas in the world come out of the Thai plant & a Buick built by Shanghai GM is better scewed together than anything out of America. They have even fixed up all the dreadful American plastic mouldings. And Shanghai GM makes money.

If you want cheap crap out of Asia you get cheap crap. If you are prepared to pay they will build things as well as anybody - albeit using imported technology. (Japan & sometimes Korea excepted). A Konica Minolta camera built in the Tianjin FTZ plant is world class & as good as the Japanese built equivalent.

chokaay

Wow, that's interesting! Why do they do that? Are the other colors the same thing (ie: pearl white handles on arctic white cars)?

And I wonder why FJNB didn't know about this "feature" of the car... you'd think they would be better informed...

dmatre

It's been that way at least since '03, when I posted a similar question after I discovered this 'feature'.

It's not noticable outside about 5 feet, so it's not an issue for me, but it does stand out every time I'm wiping the car down after a wash (working up close).

AMGTTV8

My car (09 c300 4m) was built in germany and is black and has the obsidian handles...it is not factory specific.

furthermore, I don't think we need to worry about build quality differences between the different assembly plants.

justthinking

Well..it's fletcher jones..I wouldn't expect them to know anything better..IMO..FJ is one of the worst dealers around..

joshg1001

and in case you are wondering, they use obsidian for the handles because the metallic hides scratches from finger nails better

C300S 6MT

No, I won't mind...

IMHO and as far as I'm concerned, MB quality control is "MB quality control"... irregardless of the location. If they build one in Mars or Pluto and it's MB quality control, I'm fine with it... BTW mine is from SA.

chokaay

Hmmmmmmmm... that's an interesting reason. Do all colors have metallic door handles? Or just black cars?

And I've never noticed any fingernail scratches on the door handle itself... usually the fingernail scratches are in the concave part of the door underneath the door handle (made when people go to grab the door handle). Is that part also metallic? Or does the paint on that part match the rest of the door? I ask because that's the part that shows fingernail marks the MOST... not the door handle itself...

pmb600

I think you are being generous here, they use one color handle because it's cheaper to make only one variation and black is the only color in the paint chart that has two versions (flat black and obsidian black) so they probably calculated they could save X by making only one black door handle instead of two. My E-Class (regular flat black) has the same Obsidian Black door handles.

joshg1001

we had an entire thread on the obsidian door handles. I could have sworn that a mercedes benz technician said that was the reason. No idea. My car is obsidian so i cant check on the concave parts (but its probably just the flat black)

vic viper

That is just ridiculous, its not the handle that gets scratched by nails, it is the door behind the handle, so why should the handle itself be stronger?

This is mainly done for saving money nothing else.

Glyn M Ruck

I think the OB handles give the car's appearance a subtle lift

C300PO

concur...I like the look...