I've just found out that you have a label called AALA in the US with the "parts content information" - I was looking for cars at Ebay with photos of these labels but there were only a few.

So this is my question:

Everybody who owns or has seen a AALA-label on a "german" car can write his parts content information into this thread, maybe we could make a little list.

It is a very interesting information, because Germany is one of the most expensive places to pay wages and therefore every part that is not produced in Germany (or Sitzerland...) but in Poland etc. is not produced there because the technology can be found there (mainly german machines anyway) or because the weather is so nice there ;-) No, it's just to reduce costs (and we all know what that does mean to quality...).

P.S. I'm from the germancarfans-forum and somebody told me this would be the right place to ask questions because more folks hanging and reading around ;-)

Greetings from Berlin!

most german cars in the US are 70% or more from germany
well at least for the premium brands

These days the country of manufacture does not mean much. The number of immigrant workers in Germany's car industry is very high so even if it is made in Germany doesn't mean it was made by a German.... not that it should really matter.

well, from what I know, only 25% percent of the car is made by a manufacturer.
The rest is by supliers, and these have a tendency to build stiff in eastern europe, SE Asia and so on.

The nationality itself makes nearly no difference, in Baden-Württemberg (the state were Stuttgart with Sindelfingen, Zuffenhausen etc. is) over 15% are not-german - but that's not the point.

1. The mentality of the people which is created by society (and not were the
person is born)

but much more important:

2. the working conditions!

It starts with the working time, vacation, safety (also social) and the life quality that can be produced with the wages - line-workers from MB, BMW or Porsche get much more money than US-american workers or especially people from eastern Europe or Asia (except Japan) - therefore the working quality and efficiency (what reduces costs again, because of that much outsourcing is senseless). Because work is so expensive much more money is invested to use this work as effective as possible, many german companys build robots or machines that can do human work faster and more precise. When a supplier builds a plant in Poland, Mexico or China they always show nice pictures but in truth these are no match to the facilities at home.
Trust me, there are many things that cannot be expressed with pure numbers, "Made in Germany" not became famous because of assembling cheap chinese parts... Even the difference between a ML from Tuscaloosa or Graz (where some MLs where build for the european market) is easily noticeable!

I see the quality difference at work, and know that about 80% of a real Mercedes is "Made in Germany" and about 10% is made in other countries with high wages (Switzerland, Luxembourg...) but around 10% are cheap crap (like the cables - handmade in Romanie, Tunesia...) and a real quality issue.
But you don't have a real choice anymore, even japanese manufactures started outsourcing (in Japan it's more difficult because there are nearly no "political neighbours") like Lexus with it's polnish Diesel-engines.
Quality like at home, but 5000km away with 1/5-1/10 of the wages with more handwork under more primitive working conditions? Possible only in the heads of the managers who don't have to deal with quality or people but with the shareholder value!

But I've liked to know whats with other car companys like BMW or Porsche?

Perhaps the most ubiquitous product from the U.S. is the apple i-Pod.
If you look on the back of an i-Pod it clearly says that it is designed in the USA (California) by Apple and assembled in China. The harddrive is made in the U.S.

It seems that manufacturing companies are saying to their customers that the intellectual property and high-tech parts are what sets a product apart from it's rivals-
not where it's assembled or who does the assembly.

Here's the window sticker from my recently purchased S430. No US or Canadian parts so I don't know where the non-German parts come from.

That's a really interesting sticker, Jack. In Australia we don't have that sort of thing, but it did become a little bit of an issue here not so long ago (passingly - I think it's probably going to die a quiet death, unfortunately).

Holden has decided to rebadge two Korean-built GM Daewoo models as Holdens (discontinuing the Spanish Barina/Corsa and the old Polish TS Astra, as well as the Vectra, soon), what Australians consider as the Australian car company. It was thought that if buyers knew where the cars actually came from, they might think differently about the purchase (although they don't seem to have cared or known much that all the above cars weren't from Australia). Of course, Holden's management has said that it isn't about where the cars are built, but the 'brand values' that go into them, etc. Whatever lets you off the hook whilst continuing to peddle your wares as of the 'Australian' car brand.

So I think a sticker like that would be a real eye-opener. I want one.

I really don't know how many people read the entire sticker. I will try and scan the full sticker (about 16x10 inches) and post it here. It shows all the standard features, options, pricing, EPA gas mileage figures, the VIN, Smog ratings, etc. Most people just look at the price and the options.

Jack

Here is the full sticker that is placed on every automobile sold in the USA.