German machine-guns his way into mediation talk at Mercedes Benz in Hamburg

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German machine-guns his way into mediation talk at Mercedes Benz in Hamburg

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Germany - A 64 year old German client machinegunned his way into a Mercedes Benz workshop in Hamburg (Germany) after mediation over repair costs failed.

The incident was reported by AP Germany on Saturday. Apparently the marksman had come to negotiate repair costs for his vehicle at a Mercedes Benz workshop. After mediation talks had failed, the man opened fire on the owner of the workshop and his son. Nobody was killed or hurt in the incident.

The Hamburg-shootout is only the latest and most dramatic example of customer-dissatisfaction over staggering quality problems and an apparent lack of service orientation connected to German auto makers. In an attempt to cut back production costs and increase margin, German auto makers have constantly increased pricing pressure on spare part makers, sometimes resorting to production locations with apparently unsure quality standards. Also, companies like Volkswagen and Audi produce premium vehicles such as the Audi TT and the Touareg SUV in countries like Hungary and Slovakia, apparently at a fraction of the production and labor cost in Germany. In the meantime, cost cutting does not reach cosumer prices, as the vehicles are still sold at a premium on the West Eruopean market.

Porsche-CEO Wiedeking has long criticized the German situation where the state gives tax breaks and subsidies to companies like Volkswagen for exporting work to Eastern Europe.

Inversely, the cost cutting argument and Eastern Europe locations are used by the auto makers in a battle against trade unions, with the auto makers successfully rolling back labor rights in favor of longer weekly working schedules for employees without any financial compensation. Apparently, such pressure also leads to quality problems. According to polls conducted in early 2006, only roughly one third of German workers still identify with their employer or their work.

Customers even of premium brands, such as the Volkswagen Passat executive version, have had to battle with numerous recalls of their vehicles to workshops in the past. In an interview with the author of this arcitle, one Volkswagen-customer has reported four recalls within a one-year-period of his EUR 40.000 Passat. The workshop, he reported, flatly denied a free-of-charge rental car during the repair stopovers.