Genuine Mercedes Parts Are Now Made In China

[Squiggle Dog]

You heard it right folks, Genuine Mercedes parts are now made in China! I saw it firsthand with my parts order today. No wonder, with my last brake rotors being made in Egypt, and Mercedes now charging $75 a year for their once free electronic parts catalog. What ever happened to "no compromises, ever"?

[JeffreyNMemphis]

Ouch...

[engatwork]

I hate to see that. Wonder if we will see reduced pricing because of it.

[Tomguy]

Originally Posted by engatwork

I hate to see that. Wonder if we will see reduced pricing because of it.

Jim, you don't come around often but when you do you're still good for a laugh

[Idle]

As long as it is made to Mercedes standards.....

With these cars, and these parts, a lot of what you are paying for is the engineering that went into the design.

I am seeing a lot of higher quality stuff coming out of China. The old adage of quality forcing out the weaker players is starting to take hold in China.

[engatwork]

How many of y'all are old enough to remember the days when we would see Made in Japan and go uh oh.

[Tomguy]

Originally Posted by Idle

I am seeing a lot of higher quality stuff coming out of China. The old adage of quality forcing out the weaker players is starting to take hold in China.

The bigger issue is the amount of fakes coming out is growing dramatically. The fakers are so good they are able to inject themselves into the supply chains rather easily, even for OEMs. It's relatively low-risk and high-reward, as Chinese officials rarely (if ever) enforce foreign copyrights and trademarks. So even when caught, there's little risk of any prosecution and the factory *might* get shut down, and even if it does, it just goes on to make other goods for other brands. Work is contracted out, which is then contracted out again so many times it's often difficult to impossible for an OEM to verify what factory the goods they are getting even came out of.

[Bogfrog]

Originally Posted by engatwork

How many of y'all are old enough to remember the days when we would see Made in Japan and go uh oh.

I have a cowboy hat-shaped, pewter ashtray marked Made in Occupied Japan.

[pj67coll]

I was happy to see my 240D still had a metal oil filler cap on it. Until I replaced the rubber seal and found China stamped under it. Mercedes have flushed their heritage down the toilet as far as I'm concerned.

Theoretically you should be able to get quality stuff made in China, or anywhere for that matter assuming it's made to "Mercedes Standards".

In practice I'm pretty damn sure there's no Mercedes Benz supervisors anywhere along the supply chain/production process in Guandong or wherever the hell the latest low cost production outfit is located.

- Peter.

[Idle]

Originally Posted by Tomguy

The bigger issue is the amount of fakes coming out is growing dramatically. The fakers are so good they are able to inject themselves into the supply chains rather easily, even for OEMs. It's relatively low-risk and high-reward, as Chinese officials rarely (if ever) enforce foreign copyrights and trademarks. So even when caught, there's little risk of any prosecution and the factory *might* get shut down, and even if it does, it just goes on to make other goods for other brands. Work is contracted out, which is then contracted out again so many times it's often difficult to impossible for an OEM to verify what factory the goods they are getting even came out of.

Now that is a very good point and goes right to the heart of the whole 'Made in China' thing.

[Idle]

Originally Posted by engatwork

How many of y'all are old enough to remember the days when we would see Made in Japan and go uh oh.

I can remember looking into a Made in Japan toy car during the fifties and seeing the soup can labels still attached to the metal.

The quality of anything made in Japan during the fifties was a joke. The Occupied Japan stuff was made to standards so much higher that it stood out from the other junk.

Only a few people in Japan understood that the world was their market since no one in Japan had any money. SONY and Honda seemed to pick up on this and during the early 60's almost single handedly turned the impression of Japan's quality levels around.

And don't forget Deming's teachings on quality. Hopefully China will come to understand that high quality is the cheapest thing to produce, for export anyway, in the long run.

Cars from China are coming. Let's hope they don't send rehashed Yugos.

[engatwork]

From what I have read the first Made in China cars we will see will be Buicks.

[JeffreyNMemphis]

Actually, Volvo S60 is made in China and imported into the USA. A friend told me he saw it on the window sticker. Someone buying a Volvo expect to see made in Sweden....

[BWhitmore]

I believe that Volvo is now owned by a Chinese company.

[engatwork]

That's right.