Automotive News is reporting that Mercedes-Benz Baltimore vehicle process center has secured a five-year contract to inspect, process, and repair pre-delivery BMW and Mini vehicles arriving in the United States. According to insiders the deal makes economic sense for both companies since current BMW models currently arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, and are shipped to nearby Spartanburg (home of BMWs assembly plant) for inspection and pre-delivery work. However, that plant is “no longer appropriate” once the X3 starts production next year according to Jim O’Donnell, president of BMW North America. O’Donnell says BMW has been looking for an outside contractor, and it was the company’s own purchasing department who proposed the deal. Mercedes-Benz has both the manpower and space to service the additional BMW vehicles, and this arrangement may create additional opportunities for the two companies down the road. Currently the Baltimore vehicle process center handles Mercedes-Benz and Smart vehicles and will begin processing BMW’s sometime around March 1, 2010.
Call me old fashioned and a skeptic but I wonder if any of these new cars will get a “Pass” or be rejected as being defective and sent back to Bavaria? Mercedes-Benz sure has a great strategy in the works to eliminate the competition. M’whoo-ha-ha-ha-ha. 
Courtesy of Autoblog.com and Automotive News
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