Where is it made?

[marcus]

Would be interested to know if anybody can shed any light on where the 12GS is actually made.......is it made by BMW in Germany?

I heard something on rumour control about outsourced production to Eastern Europs.........?

 

[Cole]

Berlin

Well Berlin is kinda Eastern Europe ...

Ask a German whether he would prefer his machine built by Bavarians in Munich or Berliners ....

It is supposed to be a BAYERISCHE Motoren Werke after all ... not a Berlin M.W.

Kinda explains the difference in quality between the bikes (Berlin) and the cars (Munich).

As for more East than Berlin ... I am unaware of anything

 

[DrKen]

What is the evidence that a BMW factory in Berlin should be somehow less effective than one in Munchen? Until 1989 East Germany was the home of possibly the best optical instruments factory in the world, Carl Zeiss at Jena, which does suggest that there's precision engineering expertise in the region.

 

[marcus]

What is the evidence that a BMW factory in Berlin should be somehow less effective than one in Munchen? Until 1989 East Germany was the home of possibly the best optical instruments factory in the world, Carl Zeiss at Jena, which does suggest that there's precision engineering expertise in the region.

I suspect however that it was workers from the old Trabant factory that might have taken over on the line!

 

[Cole]

What is the evidence that a BMW factory in Berlin should be somehow less effective than one in Munchen? Until 1989 East Germany was the home of possibly the best optical instruments factory in the world, Carl Zeiss at Jena, which does suggest that there's precision engineering expertise in the region.

Precision engineering is one thing ... Russia still makes the worlds best rocketry ... doesnt mean they makes the best motorcycles.

As for what evidednce is there Berlin is less effective than Munich? Loads.
Munich GDP per capita is EUR 47,660
Berlin GDP per Capita is EUR 20,454
That means a Munich worker is over twice as effective as one in Berlin.

 

[Andino]

Hi,
here's the answer @:
http://www.bmw-werk-berlin.de/berlin/index.html
Choose your language and enjoy the tour…
Dat's it!
Cheers,
Andino

 

[steve16]

Nice...

to see the fond cuddle each bike gets by the Bike Assembly guy..

 

[gazza]

Visited the Spandau factory in Berlin last year with the tossers on tour. Watched them producing the bikes on the production line. All bikes are made on the same single production line. Excellent to watch, hard to nick owt though.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

No No

Berlin - Spandau was never in East Germany

It was in the West German controlled sector and BMW bikes have been produced there for years, so as it's all W Germany then everything was same as Munich, I'd have thought

 

[Cole]

No No

Berlin - Spandau was never in East Germany

It was in the West German controlled sector and BMW bikes have been produced there for years, so as it's all W Germany then everything was same as Munich, I'd have thought

No-one said anything about East Germany.

I just said there is a massive difference in attitude and productivity between Berlin and Bavaria .... its no coincidence that BMW, Porsche, Mercedes et al are all based in the 2 southern Länder (of Bavaria and Baden Württemburg). From 1945 - 1989, West Berlin was so unproductive and such a drain on the rest of West Germany that this one city (well half of one city) was subsidised heavily to the tune of billions of DM each year. The actual attitude towards work is very different in Berlin or in Bayern. Therefore productivity and attention to detail are also very different. Its two very different psychologies.

All of West Germany is definately not all the same, and Berlin, even west Berlin, is one of the most different of all.

 

[North]

I read were all the 1200s were made in the Yugo factory.

 

[DrKen]

As for what evidednce is there Berlin is less effective than Munich? Loads.
Munich GDP per capita is EUR 47,660
Berlin GDP per Capita is EUR 20,454
That means a Munich worker is over twice as effective as one in Berlin.

Well it certainly means that the average person is more economically productive in one place than the other but doesn't take account of any other differences. Berlin probably has a higher proportion of, for example, artists and students, who would count as economically un- or less productive and lower the mean even though they are doing something that many would judge socially useful. Average differences in productivity don't really tell us much that's useful in judging how well or badly a specific economic unit such as a motorcycle factory performs. Surely if Berlin was a bad place to make bikes BMW would have moved production elsewhere?

 

[Cole]

Surely if Berlin was a bad place to make bikes BMW would have moved production elsewhere?

Kinda depends what incentives they were given when they moved the motorbike production there in the first place (it was originally in Munich), and the cost of moving back. Also would need to take into account how much more it would cost them to produce a bike in Bavaria, with Bavarian wages higher and labour much more fully employed.

BMW aren't just about the "best" production ... its always a matter how cheap it is as well, and what political machinations were behind the move ... Siting of factories and assembly plants is massively politicised. It has very little to do with "best production" ... alas.

As a consumer however, I dont give a rats rectum for the domestic German politics, I just want the highest quality control on my machine. In my opinion, thats not best served by an assembly line in Berlin, even if BMW's corporate interests are better served by appeasing politicians all over Germany.