new prediction

Posted by mr bad example on July 5, 2008 at 5:52pm in Support/Questions & Answers

the usa will become "smarter" (here's a prediction folks, you heard it first here...) a "smartville" will be constructed in the USA very soon. the US appetite will grow for these little cars, and our waits will become shorter (but it'll take a few years) "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" will convert to "Build Here, Build Now, Drive Now" for Mercedes. Mercedes already builds it's ML's here, it's only logical to make a second "smartville". they have the "knowhow". i wouldn't be surprised if Benz stops ML production altogether and re-tools that plant for smart production!

watch for it! you've heard/seen it here first!

this new "smartville" would service Canada, the USA and South America, lightening the load on the plant in France. we got a crap-load of trained machinists and assemblers layed off from GM, Ford and Chrysler just now, it's a perfect time!

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Permalink Reply by Mr Ed on July 6, 2008 at 12:01am: Nice call...

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said Friday that he plans to launch the Fiat 500 compact car in the United States and is looking for an industrial partner and wants to manufacture in the North America area. The 500's launch could be simultaneous with Alfa Romeo introduction back into the US, but that the production would likely be in different places. He would like to launch Alfa by 2011, and that at least one model must be produced locally, but he hasn't said which one.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mr bad example on July 6, 2008 at 12:47am: there are now many idle plants with thousands of idle workers. the machinery is there (it's bigger, but can be programmed to smaller parts). all these machines will go into mothballs. parts is parts. there are many forge industries that are losing business as well, i worked for one a year ago. forge dies will shrink and pound out smaller parts!

this is a prime opportunity for fiat to come in and buy out some fine machinery. the US uses some of the finest japanese robotics (fuji or mori seiki). you can bet your sweet bippy we'll see some buy-outs of closed plants and re-tooling to micro-cars. think of it as evolution in action.

we'll just have lots of rusting hulk pick-ups and SUVs. they just took down a "work of art" in Berwyn, IL the "spire" with a bunch of cars skewered on it. we'll have more to skewer in the near future.

the future is coming fast, and "big detroit" isn't part of it. GM, Ford and Chrysler just got their first name changed to "Sue"! they gotta get tough or die!

Wake up little Susies!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant on July 6, 2008 at 6:12am: I wondered about this a while back.

MB built a plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama to build their SUV's for the USA market in the mid 90's.. Seemed only a slightly odd idea to me at the time when I was living in northern Alabama. Times have changed.

Is that plant being retooled for smart? Gotta wonder.... move the robots closer and build twice as many per foot of line?

Browsing the web and a site reported that smart production since March last year has had an 80% growth rate with a 100,000 since. Smartville must be busy!

See: http://www.zercustoms.com/news/100,000th-smart-fortwo.html; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mr bad example on July 6, 2008 at 2:41pm: yes, they build the ML's there. with the current trends, will they kill the ML and just make smarts there? i've already e-mailed Mercedes about this. (i'm sure they're noodling this over already, watching the US demand climb day by day as more americans become aware of the smart (i introduced hundreds of people to the smart at our local car show two days ago) it was one of the most popular cars there.; ▶ Reply to This