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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mercedes Has A Lot Riding On New U.S. Plant German Automaker Gambles $300 Million On Risky Venture

Associated Press

Visitors in the lobby of Mercedes-Benz’s first U.S. assembly plant will see the company’s new all-activity vehicles as they glide on a conveyor from the paint shop to final assembly.

The view may be more than a little symbolic.

Many in the auto industry already are watching the German automaker as it tries to do the seemingly impossible: build a new product and a new company using new methods, all in a new country.

The $300 million plant complex will be finished this year, and production begins in early 1997. Already there are painting booths, the beginnings of a test track and a concrete trough where the main production line will be.

The factory is about 80 percent done, and some 1,200 contract construction workers are moving steadily toward the goal of having all the factory equipment installed by the end of May.

Mercedes executives seem to know they are under a microscope at their rural outpost 30 miles west of Birmingham, Ala. The manager of facilities engineering doesn’t hesitate when asked about the construction timetable.

“We are absolutely on schedule. Some areas are a little ahead,” said Klaus Schnakenberg.

It’s probably a good thing. A lot is riding on their work.

“For Mercedes, that plant in Alabama is a major leg of their strategy to bring out products that offer a good value at an affordable price,” said automotive consultant Susan Jacobs.

“It’s critical to the future as they are laying it out for themselves, to become a larger volume player in the global market, and certainly in the U.S.,” said Jacobs, of Jacobs & Associates in Rutherford, N.J.