# BMW is considering production of its 3 and 5 series at the U.S. plant in Spartanburg



## dpritchett (Sep 6, 2006)

Adi said:


> But it could be that 3 and 5 series models for the US market will only be assembled in the US and no longer in Europe. Mainstream models for sale in the European market would still be assembled in Europe, along with models with lower sales figures for example. The whole point of BMW (and other manufacturers) doing this is for effective currency hedging.


It's possible that cars on the dealer lot might be mixed, some made here, some still imported. That used to be (maybe it still is?) the case with Toyota.


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## need4speed (May 26, 2006)

Adi said:


> Maybe BMW could offer 'Dixie Delivery' to their US buyers? There could even be a 'General Lee' package, with Dixie Horn. :thumbup: Lots of culture in the South.... but *70mph speed limits *and 'pick any lane' highway driving may not be the best experience for a new BMW owner.


:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Only if you obey to the signs, if you look hard you may find someone who does, but not likely. N4S


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## dalekressin (Sep 3, 2008)

2010 was a banner year for BMW. Second largest year on record.
I could see some 3s & 5s built in Spartanberg


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## yycF30MPerf (Nov 21, 2003)

If I recall correctly, about 15 years ago, we used to get 3 series sedans built in SC. The E36 SULEV sedans were built in South Africa. The South African plant has one of the best quality control reputations in the BMW group.

I personally would not be worried about where my BMW was built. I think that the engineering going into the car is of far greater importance than what nationality the workers assembling the vehicle are.


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## b-y (Sep 14, 2004)

JSpira said:


> I´m in Vermont driving Land Rovers through snowy woods and forests. :angel:
> 
> Can I go next week?


OT: I"m here in Hawaii -- can I claim I'm testing the Sebring convertible? (It was built in the US . )


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## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

mason said:


> Millions of MegaCity car and FWD BMW?? I think it might actually make more sense for BMW to produce those small cars (albeit low margin) in SC since the cost is lower there to offset the low margin.


The Megacity will be assembled in Leipzig. BMW has a new plant in Moses Lake, WA to make carbon fibre parts for the Megacity.

BMW press release:
https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/pres...lId=6&id=T0088273EN&left_menu_item=node__2367



> "We made a conscious decision to produce the car in Germany, at our plant in Leipzig ***8211; our newest and most cutting-edge facility with the most flexible structures," he added.
> Including production of components, the BMW Group and the joint venture set up with the SGL Group for the manufacture of carbon fibres are investing a total of ***8364;530 million in the project. The beneficiaries of this investment are the BMW plants in Leipzig and Landshut and the joint venture facilities in Wackersdorf and Moses Lake (Washington state, USA). A total of over 1,000 jobs will be created as a result of the investment. The BMW plant in Dingolfing will produce important components for the drive system and chassis of the MCV.


We toured Spartenburg while the plant expansion was underway. I haven't seen the new body shop, but we've seen the rest of the plant. The assembly lines at SC are flexible and can build just about any BMW currently in production. The body shops are perhaps more specialised but BMW could retool or ship in stampings.

Plant Oxford is less flexible. The original body shop line is very compact. BMW built a second slightly larger body shop line for the Clubman. Paint and final assembly are more flexible but again it struck me how much more compact the lines were compared to South Carolina. I doubt Oxford can build anything bigger than a Clubman. The larger Countryman is built in Austria. When we toured, the Clubman body shop line was running well under capacity. Actually it wasn't running at all. They started it up so our tour group could watch the robots work.

Rumours are the new FWD BMW will share a platform with MINI. If its a smaller car, I'd say its more likely to be built at Oxford. A larger FWD BMW might be built in Austria alongside the Countryman.


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## ProRail (May 31, 2006)

the J-Man said:


> I agree with you - just how much can they produce in a single factory? It seems like overkill to produce the 3,5,X5,X3 all at the same location, *but what do I know.*


Good point, (Need more humility on this board.)


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## ProRail (May 31, 2006)

rmorin49 said:


> When gas hits $6/gallon in the US, SUV sales will tank and BMW will be forced to convert the SC plant back to fuel efficient vehicles. I can see this happening in less than 10 years because it is inevitable that petroleum will get more expensive as the Chinese continue to ramp up their thirst for oil.


My 528 gets 35 mpg on the Interstate. How much efficiency do you want?


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## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

JSpira said:


> 1.) The 3er Series used to be manufactured [in Spartanburg] and this didn´t impact European Delivery....


Other than you couldn't take ED of a 318i that year, the model they were building.


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## zoltrix (Mar 14, 2007)

JSpira said:


> Please keep in mind that most of the justification for building the BMW Welt was to support German and pan-European factory delivery (*which had been discontinued)*.


Really??

Why/when did this happen??


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

zoltrix said:


> Really??
> 
> Why/when did this happen??


When did BMW stop doing local factory delivery? I cannot say exactly but it was well before the Welt opened. You sound surprised that Germans were not able to do factory delivery but it was a capacity question at the delivery center.


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## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

As long as some 3 series are still produced in Europe, there should be nothing preventing BMW from offering ED even if the rest of the cars it sells in the US are produced locally. It would simply mean assigning a production slot for a US car on a EU factory line.


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## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

ProRail said:


> My 528 gets 35 mpg on the Interstate. How much efficiency do you want?


For her car, my wife would dearly want 35mpg in the city, and over 50 on the highway please. If BMW offered a 120d/320d or similar in the US, she would form a disorderly line to buy one *today*.

And if gas were $7/8 per gallon as in Europe, I think I might switch to a different car template too (fun & efficient daily driver + devastating weekend/track car).


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## The Other Tom (Sep 28, 2002)

adc said:


> As long as some 3 series are still produced in Europe, there should be nothing preventing BMW from offering ED even if the rest of the cars it sells in the US are produced locally. It would simply mean assigning a production slot for a US car on a EU factory line.


I guess the key is "some". If the "some" doesn't include US spec cars, then they would have to make a special change on the production line to build one. And, they would have to pay for shipping it across the pond, which at that point, would be an additional cost.


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## mujjuman (Feb 2, 2009)

Might make the prices cheaper


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## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

The Other Tom said:


> I guess the key is "some". If the "some" doesn't include US spec cars, then they would have to make a special change on the production line to build one. And, they would have to pay for shipping it across the pond, which at that point, would be an additional cost.


US spec and EU spec cars are already built on the same production line without any changes. Sure the equipment and some parts may be different but with JIT production methods the overhead should be extremely small.

As to the shipping costs, you'd think that way - but look at the destination charge on US built cars vs. EU built cars - they are identical. So it doesn't matter to BMW whether they are shipping the car over the ocean, or just across a state line. :dunno:

Anyway, since ED is a BMW promotional effort, I'm sure they'd accommodate it - especially as long as rivals Mercedes and Audi did.


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## X3 Skier (Aug 21, 2005)

Al I want is an X-1 with a manual transmission for ED which seems to recede farther and farther into the distance. 

In any event, this is not high on my worry list since I have no control over what happens. 

Cheers


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## mrbelk (Dec 5, 2003)

X3 Skier said:


> Al I want is an X-1 with a manual transmission for ED which seems to recede farther and farther into the distance.
> 
> In any event, this is not high on my worry list since I have no control over what happens.
> 
> Cheers


So do we. My wife's X3 lease is up in May and we have to come up with a plan to hold her over until the X1 is available and we're ready to go next spring. The new turbo-4 they just announced for the X1 28i looks like an amazing motor.

-MrB


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## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

mrbelk said:


> So do we. My wife's X3 lease is up in May and we have to come up with a plan to hold her over until the X1 is available and we're ready to go next spring. The new turbo-4 they just announced for the X1 28i looks like an amazing motor.
> 
> -MrB


2012 summer ED for one of these babies? Definitely possible...


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## mrbelk (Dec 5, 2003)

adc said:


> 2012 summer ED for one of these babies? Definitely possible...


That's the plan; assuming we can come up with a good strategy for holding her over for a year. Swap-a-lease is an option I think. Not sure that BMWFS will extend her current lease a year. Can't hurt to ask, though, I suppose.

-MrB


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## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

mrbelk said:


> That's the plan; assuming we can come up with a good strategy for holding her over for a year. Swap-a-lease is an option I think.  Not sure that BMWFS will extend her current lease a year. Can't hurt to ask, though, I suppose.
> 
> -MrB


May be the right time to get her a slightly used convertible to hold her over?


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## mrbelk (Dec 5, 2003)

adc said:


> May be the right time to get her a slightly used convertible to hold her over?


Quite possibly. We have a couple months to see what's out there. Our ridiculous snow/ice storm last week here in ATL convinced us that at least one of us needs an AWD vehicle; even if we only need it once a year or once eveery two years. We'd have been trapped in our house for 3 days without her X3.

-MrB


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## cha777 (Sep 19, 2006)

So then, would it make sense to produce 3er and 5er's in SC that sport the X-drive option since the SC plant is a center of excellence? Just curious.


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

cha777 said:


> So then, would it make sense to produce 3er and 5er's in SC that sport the X-drive option since the SC plant is a center of excellence? Just curious.


That's one possibility but there are myriad issues on the economics of what to produce where so it's hard to say.


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## 3ismagic# (Mar 17, 2011)

As long as it either reduces prices or doesn't impact ED substantially I could care less what they build in SC. It's not like BMWs can get much less reliable.


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

I don't think this is the death knell for ED, just a good move by BMW. 

Couple of things to keep in mind:
- 3 Series used to be made there and it didn't prevent EDs
- 3 series represents more than half of BMW sales (article in TTAC last month, can't find it now). As big as that plant is, I don't see how they could build all US E90s, and the X line, and some F10s. 

I think what we will see in the mid term is that cars on a BMW lot are a mix of european and American made. I can even see it as Spartanburg producing US standard car configurations and custom requests come from Europe. Seriously, why procure manual transmissions for America if only 15% of cars have them (15% is my WAG not statistically based)?


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## chrischeung (Sep 1, 2002)

Good for BMW, good for America, good for customers. I think 60% of Spartanburg production is exported. That means a lot of jobs (in manufacturing for goodness sakes) and related business, plus more competitive pricing (the USD is dropping faster than a stone). Perhaps we'll see a new "mini-Welt" PCD facility in the not too distant future.

Not so good for the German workforce and unions - but the German economy isn't exactly suffering.


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## bfv (Sep 30, 2010)

But that means my next car will be a 7er (just in order to get to ED!)


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## Meiac09 (Jan 2, 2006)

The Other Tom said:


> Take a look at the picture of the plant. The plant is HUGE, and I mean HUGE. I don't think they would add yet another building, or buildings, to make 3er's or 5er's at that site. Maybe somewhere else but not at that site. In my opinion, the only way they would make other models at that site is if X3 or X5 sales lagged, ie, they had excess capacity. That's not the case today.


So is the amount of money SC is giving them. The media frontman of BMW MC is now on Team Nikki. Get rid of tariffs, more cheap leases for the masses. I don't think they'll ever shift all production to the US, but they _did_ start with 318i's and 318is's over there in Greer.

My nickel says BMW NA will move down here. NJ sucks and is expensive, and Greenville is nice. They are slowly taking over ICAR, which is mostly vacant and cheap.


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## The Other Tom (Sep 28, 2002)

Meiac09 said:


> My nickel says BMW NA will move down here. NJ sucks and is expensive, and Greenville is nice.


I hope you're right, but the last several governors have tried to make that happen, to no avail. For some reason, NA wants to stay in NJ.


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## Meiac09 (Jan 2, 2006)

The Other Tom said:


> I hope you're right, but the last several governors have tried to make that happen, to no avail. For some reason, NA wants to stay in NJ.


Two things will change that
1) all importation in Savannah/Charleston
2) tax hikes
3) executives' unwillingness to relocate to that sh!t hole

Granted, they'd break even with the lack of potholes here on replacing the demos rims.


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## rmorin49 (Jan 7, 2007)

BMW has pumped billions into the economy of the Greenville-Spartanburg area. Labor is much cheaper and readily available, the area is relatively low cost and the weather is fantastic. The current plant has been expanded twice since it opened and there is plenty of room for further expansion. If BMW sales remain good, I see no reason why BMW won't expand the lines that are manufactured in SC and I hope they do. If ED goes away, so be it. OK, now flame away. The USA needs to expand our manufacturing base even if it is a German owned company. We need good paying jobs with good benefits for our citizens.


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## ThoreauHD (Feb 27, 2006)

Spartanburg factory tour, delivery at the performance testing track, and a 70 mile ride in your new car down scenic roads to the Biltmore Estates. Would be pretty damned close to ecstasy- German or not. And the people are just as nice and speak English.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd be damned contented having a US made BMW pickup. If it was in some cesspool like NJ or NY then yea- sucks. But it's not. Hell, I'd want to go there if I wasn't buying a BMW.

Sent from my Nexus One using Bimmer App


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## Meiac09 (Jan 2, 2006)

Don't forget, the tail of the dragon, and more roads in western NC that will make you sick are 30 minutes away. And you can get away with 100 in SC for about the same price as you'll pay for the fuel in Germany.


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## Me530 (Feb 17, 2005)

All at 35 mph. And no discount on the car....

:yawn:


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## Meiac09 (Jan 2, 2006)

Me530 said:


> All at 35 mph. And no discount on the car....
> 
> :yawn:


You get the discount already, since there are no import tariffs 

And the limit is 55 on the other rollercoasters, I mean roads and going faster would kill you even in a Porsche.


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