Posted on 01/16/2017 6:46:30 PM PST by bobk3
Thank you so much for the info I had no idea..I just know that the C class models that we have seen at our local Mercedes Benz Dealerships were made in Mexico so knowing they have a C class plant here in the US is good to know
I love my F250, it is the Perfect Vehicle.
I’ll never sell it.
Mercedes having a plant in the USA is irrelevant to the discussion on them building of another plant in Mexico.
I was responding to another user who didn’t know that they had a plant here.
Also, not irrelevant - Mercedes could expand the Vance plant again and build those cars *here* instead of Mexico, even if they were just assembling CKD kits.
If the last time you went and shopped there was 2012-2013, you wouldn’t have seen US made C-classes - US C-class production started in 2014.
When you buy German cars, you are putting money in Merkel’s coffers and subsidizing the Islamization of Germany.
Big Pharma.... is, imho, a bit complicated....
we guarantee a monopoly for X years to a pharma company that comes up with a (hopefully useful) new medicine
this is to encourage them to invest the (sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars required) to develop, test, and then manufacture and market the new meds
now then, SOME but not nearly all of these costs are also imposed by us (FDA), in the testing and approval process
and of course our tax regs (partially written by the industry, natch) is horribly complex, as it is for us all and then some, and this both constitutes an additional cost for the firms AND provides them with some tax benefits.subsidies too
so... there are at least 3 key areas where our public policy directly impact, help determine pharma firms’ drug prices
now then,
IMHO...... we probably do not want to lighten up TOO MUCH the testing and permitting regs, except to make it easier for untested drugs to be obtained by patients whose lives, etc may be at risk (like, maybe they won’t last long enough for the testing to get done!)
IMHO.... the first area we might look at is the length of time we grant the drug patent (monopoly market) for....
maybe its too long? in that it might be shortened and still provide sufficient incentive for the development of new medicines?
but that’s a very very very difficult balance, line to draw.
Clearly, the shorter the patent period, the less incentive is afforded for the development of new medicines
(also, often drug firms get their patents before the testing process begins, to protect their product from being copied by competitive firms during the testing process....
and since the testing can take maybe 5 or 6 years and sometimes even longer, the effective market proection we’re giving these new meds is reduced to maybe 13 or 15 years, not 20)
the moment anyone proposes to reduce the patent period, the drug companies and economists rise up and object...that we won’t be seeing as many new medicines and thus the proposal will cost patient lives, perhaps our own
the moment anyone proposes to reduce the testing requirements, (other than some sort of special early-you=can-have it rule) for patients who won’t last long enough as above, the drug companies, and many doctors too... start objecting that we’re risking lives with ‘untested or inadquately tested drugs”
and of course we could lower the firms’ cost of business by reducing their tax burdens, but the minute that’s proposed a whole bunch of “consumer advocates” and leftists object that we’re “rewarding piggy Big Pharma”
so... its very complicated, imho anyway. I do not see an easy solution
well that makes sense no wonder
After Merkel’s shrill response, the tariff just got higher. Let’s make it 40%. Every shrill response leads to a 5% increase.
The only C-classes sold in the US that aren’t made here are the coupes, which don’t sell well at all. The C-class sedans are assembled here.
Think of import tariffs as virtual walls against freight trains and container ships coming into the USA.
Pre or post Mullally?
From a strict design philosophy perspective, I’m soured on Ford’s “turbo everything after detuning it” approach. Never mind that they also eviscerated nearly every US platform for bland global platforms.
But then I actually remember when RWD V8’s walked the Earth in mass-market cars, V6’s were a mainstream option,and I4’s were in low end econoboxes. And hippies were not welcome in car design.
Ach du Lieber!!
What ever cars and parts they make in Mexico should be sold to and in Mexico...Problem is most Mexicans can’t afford them since they don’t pay the Mexicans enough wages to even afford the cars they build...
How has the build quality been between the models built in the US vs. Germany?
They can hardly afford to defy him, given the number of Volkswagens, BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes Benz's exported into the United States.
They stopped making the C-Class in Germany - it’s made in Slovakia now. Merc learned from the problems they had getting the Alabama workforce to good quality levels with the GL and applied the lessons learned with the C. The prior C-classes out of Europe had their own issues, as Mercedes had a bad period from the late 90s through the 2000s. Reportedly the new C-classes made here are doing well, but whether that’s the US assembly or the redesign that came out about then is up for debate.
Ford doesn’t have a whole lot of choice with the Obama administration’s CAFE chains placed upon them.
There is a Mercedes plant in the US........
They make the GLE SUV, GLS SUV, and the small C-Class cars, which all basically the same.
They also build the “R-Class” in Mishawauka, in under contract with AM General. Those “XUV’s” are not sold in the US, they are all exported to China.
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