How do you feel about the W204 being assembled in South Africa?
03-16-2011, 11:10 AM
#1
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How do you feel about the W204 being assembled in South Africa?
Do you feel it is still truly a Mercedes-Benz, or do you feel a bit of that has been taken away and lost some of its "German" roots? The build quality of this car is great and definitely several steps above my Infiniti, but I wish it was more official and made in the fatherland. What are your thoughts? Discuss.
03-16-2011, 11:31 AM
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Do you feel it is still truly a Mercedes-Benz, or do you feel a bit of that has been taken away and lost some of its "German" roots? The build quality of this car is great and definitely several steps above my Infiniti, but I wish it was more official and made in the fatherland. What are your thoughts? Discuss.
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03-16-2011, 11:42 AM
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South Africa has been building (SKD) Mercedes Benz products for more than 40 years now.
The W116 early stages of the S-Class were built here. (SKD) Semi Knocked Down.
We still have our 1973 W116 S-Slass, 280S, white with dark brown leather interior, straight walnut hand polished and man does she have chrome everywhere.
Still runs like new, everything works and best of all has done only 115880kms.
Workmanship is all done under strict German inspection, ''Just Like Die Vader Land'' would want it to be done.
AMG models and some other models are all only built in Germany.
The W116 early stages of the S-Class were built here. (SKD) Semi Knocked Down.
We still have our 1973 W116 S-Slass, 280S, white with dark brown leather interior, straight walnut hand polished and man does she have chrome everywhere.
Still runs like new, everything works and best of all has done only 115880kms.
Workmanship is all done under strict German inspection, ''Just Like Die Vader Land'' would want it to be done.
AMG models and some other models are all only built in Germany.
03-17-2011, 07:11 AM
#4
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03-17-2011, 10:29 AM
#6
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lol, there is clearly nothing wrong with it have been built there, i just wish.....it was made i germany to make it more "official" :P
03-17-2011, 10:50 AM
#7
I think the notion that it's any less "true MB" is absurd.
Foremost the issue is, sure, we probably all believe in the superiority of German engineering. That's why we own German cars. But engineering doesn't happen on the plant floor. Assembly happens. A person, aided by robots, performs a specific assembly action over and over.
Do you think that there's any difference between a German line workers ability to do this vs an American or S. African?
And about your "makes it even worse" comment re the 205 being assembled in America... By many standards american assembled cars have the lowest defect rates in the industry. And, for that matter, German cars notoriously some of the highest.
Foremost the issue is, sure, we probably all believe in the superiority of German engineering. That's why we own German cars. But engineering doesn't happen on the plant floor. Assembly happens. A person, aided by robots, performs a specific assembly action over and over.
Do you think that there's any difference between a German line workers ability to do this vs an American or S. African?
And about your "makes it even worse" comment re the 205 being assembled in America... By many standards american assembled cars have the lowest defect rates in the industry. And, for that matter, German cars notoriously some of the highest.
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03-17-2011, 11:11 AM
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I think the notion that it's any less "true MB" is absurd.
Foremost the issue is, sure, we probably all believe in the superiority of German engineering. That's why we own German cars. But engineering doesn't happen on the plant floor. Assembly happens. A person, aided by robots, performs a specific assembly action over and over.
Do you think that there's any difference between a German line workers ability to do this vs an American or S. African?
And about your "makes it even worse" comment re the 205 being assembled in America... By many standards american assembled cars have the lowest defect rates in the industry. And, for that matter, German cars notoriously some of the highest.
Foremost the issue is, sure, we probably all believe in the superiority of German engineering. That's why we own German cars. But engineering doesn't happen on the plant floor. Assembly happens. A person, aided by robots, performs a specific assembly action over and over.
Do you think that there's any difference between a German line workers ability to do this vs an American or S. African?
And about your "makes it even worse" comment re the 205 being assembled in America... By many standards american assembled cars have the lowest defect rates in the industry. And, for that matter, German cars notoriously some of the highest.
03-17-2011, 03:52 PM
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Built where?
Do you feel it is still truly a Mercedes-Benz, or do you feel a bit of that has been taken away and lost some of its "German" roots? The build quality of this car is great and definitely several steps above my Infiniti, but I wish it was more official and made in the fatherland. What are your thoughts? Discuss.
Even VW built Rabbits in Pennsylvania long ago.
Plus all the Asian label cars built here for years.
Did you know that when Porsche Boxster orders exceeded what could be built in Germany, thousands of them were built in Finland? And they turned out to have better paint.
I would hope that building the W205 in Alabama will help keep the costs down for a while and I'm not worried about quality since that's engineered in.
03-17-2011, 09:56 PM
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03-17-2011, 10:05 PM
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Just pretend your car is German built! I have a SA w204 and the fit and finish is perfect (although my car is less than a month old).
MBZ has very strict quality standards across all their plants from what I've read.
MBZ has very strict quality standards across all their plants from what I've read.
03-18-2011, 07:22 AM
#12
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I guess. But like i said, there is NOTHING wrong with them being built else where, it just makes it "more" official to me i guess, but in theory it isnt that big of a deal. Thanks for the responses guys!
03-18-2011, 08:37 AM
#13
SA is one of the best plants in the world, look it up.
Fit and finish on my car is near perfect, built in SA.
03-18-2011, 09:21 AM
#14
^^ Posts so I don't have to. I was skeptical about using a South Africa plant as well, but apparently it's a very competent country in terms of auto manufacturing, with very high-tech plants, high standards, a proficient workforce, and numerous awards. Mine was made in Germany, but I wouldn't fault anyone for having a SA assembled Benz.
03-18-2011, 09:56 AM
#15
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Regarding CKD/SKD comments above - That was true many, many years back. Local content is approx 47% by weight now.
Everything is built to "Deutsche Normen"
Regarding CKD/SKD comments above - That was true many, many years back. Local content is approx 47% by weight now.
Everything is built to "Deutsche Normen"
03-18-2011, 11:59 AM
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I actually think its stupid to have them built in another country and ship them here... I wouldn't mind if they were built in the U.S. at all... Put some needing americans to work, less pollutions being put into the atmosphere with less transportation needs, and you can get the cars MUCH quicker. PLUS, when you need a part for repair you don't have to wait for weeks for it to come from Germany...
