Outsourcing Auto Parts

Mercedes, for example has been very expensive, only affordable to those with fat wallets,

aahhhh, you'd be surprised what make of vehicles are made in the states.

https://www.mbusi.com/

What - like John DeLorean did?

DeLorean...imported from IRELAND (wink,wink)!

A good buddy of mine has a brother who worked at one of those high end auto dealerships for a while down in the Phoenix area and he had some real horror stories about the outrageous junk they sold to the fools who owned those over priced vehicles.

A lot of their parts were in fact made in china for next to nothing and then marked up 10's to even a hundred plus times their cost and then a outrageous by the hour bill was put on top of that.

A lot of their wiper blades came from walmart or any local auto parts store who had them on sale for $12 - $15 a set or less but billed for $50+ a piece plus a hour labor at $200 an hour as well.

It was just crazy what they stuck people for who then would brag about how great their car is because it costs so much to maintain. The more they got billed for some common generic part they could replace themselves the happier they were.

I guess it was suposed to mean they were better than everyone else apparently.

He got out of it because he couldn't stand working on junk vehicles and ripping people off that bad and seeing their customers were nothing but total self absorbed idiot fools and total scum of human beings who thought getting treated like that was some sort of status symbol to brag about.

One thing, at least the older German models like Mercedes and Porsche. They actually used interchangeable parts if you knew the model number. At least the electrical.

Cars.com's annual American-Made Index has Toyota and Honda take the top 5 spots in their 2016 issue.

1. Toyota Camry

2. Honda Accord

3. Toyota Sienna

4. Honda Odyssey

5. Honda Pilot

6. Chevrolet Traverse

7. GMC Acadia

8. Buick Enclave

The 2016 Cars.com American-Made Index

All the parts for those German cars are carefully and lovingly crafted by watchmakers in the Bavarian fores, all wearing lederhosen and living on Lager sauerkraut and bratwurst.
But seriously they buy mass produced generic parts the same as every other car manufacturer.
Del

The bottom line is the top priority for everything these days.

All companies out source to some degree, could you imagine the size of the factory if they made every nut, bolt, screw, clamp or gasket ?

I understand that, but; are the nuts and bolts, clamps gaskets, etc used in a German Mercedes made in Germany, or outsourced?

Rephrasing my original question; Does a Mercedes made in Germany use 100% German made parts? Same question of Japanese made cars, English, Italian and French made cars.

I often wondered about the 100% idea myself.

During WWII, did Germany build all of the the parts that went into the manufacturer of the Tiger or the BF 109E ,

Or England with the Lancaster,,

Or the US with the B 29 ?

It would be interesting to see the competition of world wide manufacturing if each company offered a vehicle for sale built entirely from domestically sourced parts.

During WWII, Shell Oil supplied Germany with petrol,... so what not.

Is this a metric worth worrying about? Does the fact a screw was made in Germany make it necessarily better than one made in Poland?

If the final manufacturer is reputable and insuring quality from suppliers, does the physical location of the suppliers matter to the quality of the final product?

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of worthless craps tha comes out of China (some think our fiat currency and notes are a fair exchange), and I would expect on average that machines manufactured in Germany (even with outsourced parts) would be of higher quality than those that come out of China.

I also tend to think that in general the food from a restaurant in Italy serving Italian cuisine will likely be better than a restaurant in England serving spotted dick. .....but I have been to a bad restaurant in Rome.

To me the question 'is something made 100% in country X' introduces an arbitrary variable outside quality and price and brand that attempts to affect desire. Perhaps there is a place for the question if attempting to adhere to some law that quirks exactly that, but otherwise, what is the benefit?

If you are concerned about employing citizens of said country, you probably need some data on work visas and illegal immigration. How far out does the process of manufacture spread anyway? Do the workers who drive the trucks that haul the metal ore count? What about the driver's who transport workers to the work site? What about drivers who drive the food trucks to feed the workers? ...and the tractors to grow the food? What about the power plant workers that supply the electricity?

.

It seems quite arbitrary. Also nationalism hasn't had the most exemplary past. It isn't so clear exactly where 'rooting the home town team on' stops and 'designs on taking over the world' begins.

WTF does nationality matter in this interconnected, digital world (rhetorical question - NNTR)?

_{<having a bad day>}

I think it COO pride.

Go back 75+ years; everything made in America used 100% American made parts; not the case today. COO does make a difference when comparing nuts and bolts made in Germany and China, unless they are made to a strict standard. It's the adherence to standard that costs money. Inspection standards makes the difference between a bolt sold at Home Depot and one sold to the government. Certainly China can adhere to such standards, but then they would lose competitiveness.