Mercedes Benz Group AG is considering shifting the production of another vehicle model to the US in response to Donald Trump’s 25% auto tariffs.
The move may be necessary to deal with the cost of the duties, Mercedes’ production chief Jörg Burzer said Thursday, declining to comment on which model may be moved to its factory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Don’t. Just don’t.
Trump will say: “oh look how desperate they are to sell us their cars”
Have some spine and don’t, Mercedes
Yes. This is exactly what we SHOULD NOT do…buckle down and kiss his ass…but someone, somewhere will give a few million to support Mercedes to build a factory in America, and they will cheer themselves how effective their tariffs are…it’s just a sad world we live in…
They want to restart production of this model
This is how NOT to do it.
Let’s see, what do you need do a modern car factory? Robots! Huh, they’re extra expensive now, since there are tariffs on them. What else? Electronics! Huh, they’re from Asia, with extra high tariffs. Workers! Huh, they’ve been deported by ICE. Building parts for automobiles! Huh, they’re only manufactured in Europe and China, hence super-expensive. Guess we’ll have to build a factory for auto-parts first. Let’s see, what do you need for a modern auto-parts factory…
And this is how Trump could sell his tariffs as a win, because somewhere a few new jobs are generated in the US.
I wonder how the EU could react to this through export tariffs on parts/IP that then would be brought to the US.
They’ve been building them in USA for a long time. Things may have changed, but when they first started building overseas instead of Europe, the reports were that you could totally tell. Creaks, groans, and rattles. Personally, with my tiny sample sizes, this holds true.
The average buyer doesn’t really care as long as their leased Mercedes makes them look like they are successful.
I worked at a Mercedes dealer when the M-Class was coming out of Alabama. They were not great. Kind of on par with Chrysler minivan build quality.
That’s the car I was thinking of specifically. Wasn’t a good time overall for Mercedes though, to be fair.
Boycott Mercedes anyone??
Been doing that my whole life.
People who buy Mercedes don’t care about this
Not buying them and not considering them a desirable luxury item are extremely different. You think luxury brands don’t care about publicity??
What I say is that people who buy luxury items usually do not engage in boycotts.
I mean if you really want a luxury car you probably buy RR or something like that… Mercedes is not what it used to be in build quality etc…
I did not bring up the part about luxury items though
Boycotting German “premium” brands is a good idea if you value quality and reasonable pricing anyway.
