Hi Scotty,

From 1993 to 2018 I worked at Mercedes here in Stuttgart, Germany. From 1998 to 2007 I worked in a department on the Germany side of Daimler Chrysler and would often go to the US to check quality control issues. I have to agree with you 100% on Mercedes quality or lack of quality. So many times I was shocked at what i would see at the Alabama plant in the US. it was just shocking.

From time to time i would also check other Mercedes production plants like the one in China. The one in China was much better managed than the one in the US. Since I'm now retired from Mercedes I can be totally honest and say the ones in the US were as you would say "rolling piles of crap". I remember being at a meeting in 1999 with the US managers of the plant and going into a rage at the laziness. When we started to produce better quality cars, many of the management team in the US thought we were being too tough. But, towards the end of venture with Chrysler the writing was on the wall. the work cultures are so far apart that the venture was going to fall apart. 

When I heard that Fiat starting getting involved with Chrysler i remember thinking. This is going to be like a movie that should star Leslie Nielson. One of my managers who returned to Germany after 2007 said he would rather buy a Lada over a Chrysler. 

One of the bad effects of being involved with Chrysler was some of the Mercedes managers found ways to cut corners. 

After I retired Mercedes in 2018 I opened my own restoration business in Stuttgart specializing in old Mercedes, BMW and VW.

PS: Yes, they use to much technology today.

Regs,

Pieter Scheckmann