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Old 07-17-2012, 10:58 PM
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JohnK JohnK is offline
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I know it's not quite the same thing here, but let us remember that Fiat, the parent of Ferrari, manufactures it's other models in different parts of the world for a variety of reasons. I've seen a car (in China!) labeled "Polski Fiat", and I believe the 500 on offer here in the US in assembled in Mexico. BMW builds some models in the US, I believe Mercedes has a plant in the South for at least one of its models. The new VW Passat is built in a new plant in Tennessee (but I think that's only for the US market). I'd say most of those brands still trade on "Italian" or "German" across the board.

I think the point raised in the article is an interesting: it's one thing to leverage lower cost labor to build entry to mid level products and offer them at reasonable (whatever that means) prices; something else to move the higher end products to these same locations and keep the prices where they were.

Of course one could argue if the manufacture of those higher end products does NOT get moved, their prices would go even higher.
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