NationStates Jolt Archive

Apparently BMW is cutting jobs in Europe because it is not profitable enough. They are going to ramp up operations in the US to boost profits. Who would have thought. Is this a sign of more to come?

http://www.leftlanenews.com/bmw-to-cut-european-workforce-increase-us-production.html

Pfft, another evil corporation outsources to a third world country.

To some extent, this driving down of the US dollar is working in terms of making the US competitive but I just wonder as to whether BMW would take such a long term bet purely on this.

What I think is that the sales of BMW are holding steady in Europe so, as labour and material costs go up, profit per car steadily goes down.

I'd say BMW sales are rising in the US and they see further expansion in the future, there's a lot more room for growth, and that this is a greater reason than the dollar.

I have no figures to back this up but for a company to take such a bet on the dollar staying low, well either it isn't so much of a bet or there's other, as important factors at work.


They did say moving jobs to the US would go on until 2012. Of course the world ends that year which they clearly understand. ;)

It wouldn't surprise me if BMW and other German carmakers look to the American market in future - the EU's CO2 emissions targets make it hard for them to compete with the French and Italian car makers who already have low emissions. American car tastes are more in line with the style of car that BMW, Audi and Mercedes make.

Pfft, another evil corporation outsources to a third world country.

To some extent, this driving down of the US dollar is working in terms of making the US competitive but I just wonder as to whether BMW would take such a long term bet purely on this.

What I think is that the sales of BMW are holding steady in Europe so, as labour and material costs go up, profit per car steadily goes down.

I'd say BMW sales are rising in the US and they see further expansion in the future, there's a lot more room for growth, and that this is a greater reason than the dollar.

I have no figures to back this up but for a company to take such a bet on the dollar staying low, well either it isn't so much of a bet or there's other, as important factors at work.

It wouldn't surprise me if BMW and other German carmakers look to the American market in future - the EU's CO2 emissions targets make it hard for them to compete with the French and Italian car makers who already have low emissions. American car tastes are more in line with the style of car that BMW, Audi and Mercedes make.

No they're not.

Sure, in size "American tastes" are in line with what BMW, Audi, and Mercedes build.

In terms of the actual car, these marques are decades ahead of "American tastes". The quality of European and Japanese bands is in a different league.

European targetted cars have a build quality that is far superior to American targetted cars. There's no reason for that. Even Ford has been screwing you guys over for many years. Ask Cannot Think of a Name. He'll agree with me. The quality of cars targetted for Europe is in a diferent league from the quality of car targetted for the US.

There's no reason why you should accept substandard cars.

I wonder if this will evolve into a trend? With the falling US Dollar, has it become profitible to export manufactured goods from the US again?

I'm not sure if it has become profitable or not, though it has potential to increase U.S.A exports.

Pfft, another evil corporation outsources to a third world country.

To some extent, this driving down of the US dollar is working in terms of making the US competitive but I just wonder as to whether BMW would take such a long term bet purely on this.

What I think is that the sales of BMW are holding steady in Europe so, as labour and material costs go up, profit per car steadily goes down.

I'd say BMW sales are rising in the US and they see further expansion in the future, there's a lot more room for growth, and that this is a greater reason than the dollar.

I have no figures to back this up but for a company to take such a bet on the dollar staying low, well either it isn't so much of a bet or there's other, as important factors at work.

Perhaps the US could bill itself as "the English speaking China." We'd probably get a lot of business.

No they're not.

Sure, in size "American tastes" are in line with what BMW, Audi, and Mercedes build.

In terms of the actual car, these marques are decades ahead of "American tastes". The quality of European and Japanese bands is in a different league.

European targetted cars have a build quality that is far superior to American targetted cars. There's no reason for that. Even Ford has been screwing you guys over for many years. Ask Cannot Think of a Name. He'll agree with me. The quality of cars targetted for Europe is in a diferent league from the quality of car targetted for the US.

There's no reason why you should accept substandard cars.

I'm not American.

I am aware of the differences in quality, but I still think that in future the German car makers will struggle in Europe and will have to seek out sales in America and certain emerging markets like Russia - I'm sure the build quality of their cars will be a great advantage when competing with American domestic vehicles.

They did say moving jobs to the US would go on until 2012. Of course the world ends that year which they clearly understand. ;)

It's a little known fact that, originally, BMW stood for Big Mayan Wipeout, then they changed it for branding purposes. I think you're on to something...

Perhaps the US could bill itself as "the English speaking China." We'd probably get a lot of business.

They'll need to compete with India then.

They'll need to compete with India then.

"The United States of America: Like India, but, eh, whiter."

"The United States of America: Like India, but, eh, whiter."

Not bad - I wonder if we should have a competition on best slogan for America going forward.

Well, the US is a fast-growing market for European cars; Western Europe is probably growing slowly at best, and when combined with rising costs it makes sense to relocate to a healthier market (and for all of our current economic difficulties, the upper end is doing quite well).

But hey, manufacturing jobs in the US are manufacturing jobs in the US. As China and India develop and labor costs rise, the inherent advantages of the US manufacturing sector will attract a lot more jobs and investment.

Not bad - I wonder if we should have a competition on best slogan for America going forward.

We should! In fact, I think I will start a thread on that right now.