Adam -

Would you mind supplying some references to backup your assertions? I believe you are completely wrong.

Let's look at the relative size of Daimler-Chrysler vs. BMW group. We'll use 2003 year end figures for comparison.

Daimler-Chrysler had revenue of over 136Billion Euros in year 2003. At year end DC employed 362,063 people. Refer to http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/dccom/0,,0-5-7193-1-169896-1-0-0-0-0-0-36-7164-0-0-0-0-0-0-0,00.html for the aforementioned information.

In contrast, BMW group had revenues of over 41Billion Euros in year 2003. At year end BMW employed 104,342 people. See http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cfm/newsid/2040414.014/bmw/1.html

DC had higher operating income than BMW, but lower net income. Given the available information I cannot discern why.

BMW unit sales in 2003 were 928,151 vehicles. This is the figure for BMW branded vehicles. The Mini brand included 176,465 vehicles. I'm having difficulty finding the number of Mercedes branded cars delivered in 2003. Based on what I see on the web it's anything but obvious that BMW is delivering more cars. Overall DC is delivering many, many more vehicles than BMW simply because they are in so many more market segments.

Where's your proof?

- JimY