If you custom order a car, would you care where it was built ??

[3LOU5]

Dunno why I specifically told my saleman 15 years ago that I wanted my 325i built IN Germany when I custom ordered it. I suppose I wanted an "authentic" German car, lol.

I guess I wanted to think that German autoworkers would have more pride in building their cars, rather than South Africans. :dunno:

[3LOU5]

Well, would you look at that....

http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/best-bmws-arent-built-Germany

DOH !!!!

[bren]

Kia being in the top was unexpected.

I can't say I've ever really considered where the car was built, maybe because I haven't bought something that is split among factories.

[rumatt]

I wouldn't care unless that factory had a bad rep.

[Jeff_DML]

I will admit I was happy to see our 4runner was built in Japan

[Josh (PA)]

Dunno why I specifically told my saleman 15 years ago that I wanted my 325i built IN Germany when I custom ordered it. I suppose I wanted an "authentic" German car, lol.

I guess I wanted to think that German autoworkers would have more pride in building their cars, rather than South Africans. :dunno:

It mattered to me in '01 when i got our first new BMW. I recall concern over the SA plant quality back then. Now I don't think it would matter as much (unless there was a similar issue with a new low cost country plant).

[wdc330i]

Wasn't the concern over the SA plant related to extra emissions equipment on the cars made there?

But, admittedly there is a mystique to a car "made in Germany." Despite the fact that so many of the parts are manufactured elsewhere. I thought it was very cool when my 2002 330i (custom order) came from the Munich plant. Now, I don't even remember which plant made my 2.

[ff]

I will admit I was happy to see our 4runner was built in Japan

I felt the same way about the 4Runner and S2000 that I owned. Both vehicles were assembled flawlessly in Japan, and gave me no trouble whatsoever. While the American-made Accord I own now was delivered with 3 separate issues with visibly broken/defective trim/accessories.

You would hope that modern assembly lines are engineered to minimize the negative effects of differences in assembler skills and attention to detail, but...

[clyde]

I don’t think it matters nearly as much today as it did a couple generations ago.

[equ]

Agree on the reputation of the factory but not necessarily the country.

The 90's and early 00's VW's built in Mexico were not as good as Wolfsburg ones. The South African plant of BMW had a good reputation last I checked (a decade ago). Our '13 Honda CB500F is either Thai or Malaysia build and has been faultless. Our '15 GTI built in Puebla seems fine.

I care but it's not a deal-breaker.

[Terri Kennedy]

I guess I wanted to think that German autoworkers would have more pride in building their cars, rather than South Africans. :dunno:
Parts come from all over. Many problems are with the components, not the assembly (unless you're buying a car made in Longbridge (https://jalopnik.com/the-ten-worst-car-factories-in-history-1595864932) before the 2000s).

OTOH, the wiring harness in my built-in-Regensburg wagon was hand-made in Regensburg and had at least 3 known defects:
1) Car phone "emergency call" button hooked up to auto-dimming mirror sensor, so car called BMW saying my airbags went off anytime a car behind me hit a pothole at night (that was a hard one to figure out). Almost wound up lemon-lawing the car until they finally found / fixed it.
2) Aux input option connector mis-wired so did not detect installation of aux input (to be fair, 1st week of production with this option).
3) Glovebox flashlight charging wire not hooked up to anything.
They seemed to be proud that they didn't test the harnesses before installing them. [Replacement harnesses contain every option and are factory-tested, but individual car build harnesses only had the options that were ordered and were not tested.]