Country of manufacture for Mercs?

[johnmc]

Hi,
Mercs are made all over the world now to protect their
profits from exchange rates, and less and less are actually
"true German built cars".

The C, S and E-Class Saloons are all built in India, Germany and
South Africa and shipped all over the world. I know a lot of UK cars come from South Africa these days not Germany, but does anyone know how to check for sure for a particular vehicle? Is there a code in the VIN,
Chassis or Registration document data that will tell what country
it came from?

It seems that this could be part of the reason for the fall in
product quality, and more and more of their cars seem set
to be built outside Germany. There was a strike in the German
plant at Sindelfingen this year as Merc wanted to move the remaining
production of the C-Class to South Africa to save cash. The Workers
are having to work longer hours and the managers all got pay cuts
to keep the work in Germany. That should keep the quality high...not!

I'm having some quality problems with a W210 E-Class, not sure where
it was made.

Cheers!
John

 

[nasher]

First letter of the VIN number gives country of manufacture. That's the vin no, not the chassis code which start W2...

 

[jon_harley]

One letter? There are a lot more than 26 countries in the world...

 

[spanners]

One letter? There are a lot more than 26 countries in the world...

But no where near 26 different countries that Mercedes build cars in. 8)

 

[jon_harley]

Well, that's something!

 

[nasher]

There is a part of the chassis number which give the factory name, ie Stuttgart, but I couldn't find the site which broke all these codes down. The vin numbers are fairly uniform, but the site which gave the country codes (numbers and letters, so 9 more than 26) for the VIN plate was american. There is probably an EU standard.

I would have thought there was too many E classes sold too import them from outside the EU?

 

[johnmc]

Thanks Nasher,
Makes sense. I'll try and find out what code relates to what country.

Any idea?

What cars get made in what markets is a tough decision for
car firms. Some countries like South Africa, India and China
are very protective about their people and are trying to build
up their economies, so where you have to build a car can be
dictated by the import tarrifs and home built content percentage
sourcing rules as much as cost.

So, what a manufacturer will do is built plants in each "difficult" country
if the market is big enough but not build the full range. For Merc it could be that:
- All E240's worldwide are made in India. The engines definitely are.
- All E-Class AMG made in Germany.
- All C-Class estates made in South Africa etc.

Don't know what the actual decision is, but each country will not
make the full range of models, engines etc.

I worked in manufacturing for some years, and local sourcing
rules are a complete pain and make it hard to get the costs right.
BMW do the same and have plants all over the place now. All
of their new X3s are built in Hungary by a contract manufacturer, all
X5s in the USA etc.

The joys of globalisation. At the end of the day we may all be driving
Mercs, but we ain't all driving German cars.

Cheers!
John

 

[nasher]

There is also a difference in manufacturing and assembly. Components are made all over the place and shipped to another factory where the assembled pieces are bolted together. Like the bodies on the new Rolls Royce.

I think Mercedes used the A class as a benchmark of low quality, then applied their new found knowledge of cheapness to the rest of the range.

(sorry to any A class owners out there!)

 

[sheffmax]

steveperry on another thread supplied this site:

http://www.ollihart.de/mercedes/pkw/index.html

Hope it helps.

 

[mjtray]

Just to add my two penneth.

As I understood it, all RHD w203 C class saloons are built in South Africa...estates + coupes in Germany?

European M Class used to be in the US but are now built in Austria at the Steyr Puch factory and have been for some years.

E + S Class...Germany

I know that Mercedes has factories in India and China, but I thought that these were to satisfy local consumption.

Are/were E240's built in India for onward sale in UK?....I know that a batch of W124 E classes came into the Uk some years after manufacture had stopped here in Europe (Trade Sales sold a stack of them....E220's if I recall), but I was not aware that RHD W210's were manufactured and sold my MB Uk.

Cheers

 

[flagstaff]

the "Indian" (and other far-east market) W124s that came back to europe were cancelled export orders. cars that were registered (for example) in UK as 1998 models were in fact W124s that had been sitting in various compounds for up to 4 years. those models were all made in germany.

 

[Arnie]

Interesting, then, the option of being able to collect your new C-Class from the "factory" in Germany. They'll first need to ship it there from S. Africa...

Mind you, if they offered the chance to go to S.Africa to collect the car, then that might be more interesting.

BTW, the stickers on the door pillars, which show the car's weight also usually give the country of manufature too.

 

[johnmc]

Another link for the curious.

Looks like MB India make the lot, except for some
high performance drive trains for the S-Class. They can
and do make any model in the range. Must have cost a
packet to set this up!

http://www.rediff.com/money/2000/aug/04merc.htm

Notice that they also export to Germany....!

Ho hum!

John

 

[johnmc]

Sorry, should've waited.

Here's the link I was looking for. Looks like
all C-Classes for right hand drive markets
have been built in South Africa since 2000.

I guess there been no German UK C-classes
for 4 years now.

http://waw.wardsauto.com/ar/auto_mercedes_build_cclass/

I guess that they do ship via Sindelfingen if you ask for
"factory collection"!

Cheers!
John

 

[jon_harley]

I guess there been no German UK C-classes
for 4 years now.

My 2003 C-class SC says "Made in Germany" on the door pillar sticker

 

[Spike]

Made in Germany..........

Assembled in India?

 

[johnmc]

Yeah,
The sticker probably was...

John