Mercruiser, Cummins & VW marine alliance
 

Cummins MerCruiser signs deal with Volkswagen

( As Posted on August 12, 2010 In Trade Only )

Cummins MerCruiser Diesel and Volkswagen announced a partnership to develop and supply marine engines.
The agreement includes the joint development of marine engines that comply with future Tier 3 emissions standards. Also, all Volkswagen marine engines, starting in 2011, will be exclusively supplied to Cummins MerCruiser Diesel and marketed under its name.
Volkswagen will set up production of the new engine generation at its plant in Salzgitter, Germany.
"This strategic marine business offers significant potential for both partners. We bring to the alliance our technological know-how in engine production and the high quality standard of Volkswagen products," said Werner Neubaurer, a member of Volkswagen's board of management, in a statement. "CMD has expert knowledge of marine applications and is well known for its success in marine engine distribution and service."
"We are delighted with this union," Cummins MerCruiser Diesel president Alex Savelli added in a statement. "It brings together the best minds and capacities in the field of marine propulsion systems."

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Could be a good thing, I wonder how far they will go with this? I guess time will tell.. J

why cant we build stuff like that here ....this is the problem ....

we can, but not cost effectivly

UMM PUBLIC SCHOOLS ?

well ....its gona catch up ....all our asset's flowing out of the USA .....I feel like my old man ....but damm.....I have been lucky ....my job is stable and I am well paid ...and STILL things are starting to squeeze ... m

We need to export more & Import less.. ;) For too long it has been far easier to get stuff here from other countries. It is however rather aggravating & expensive to get our stuff to other countries.

Foreign governments seem to heavily tax imports, our government seems to not care what come in here..

This is part of the problem.. J

Three letters- UAW!

Companies outsource engineering also, no UAW in engineering.

My last company had a goal to reduce US and Germany engineering by 50% before 2012, and send it to China and India. It just keeps moving up the ladder.:bsflag:

I can tell you this... My brother works for a large enginering company that makes axles, frames etc for the big 3... THe company sold my brothers division/project (making frames for an suv on of the big 3 sold to the chinese) to a company in Mexico. This new mexican company saw they had an engineer in detroit (my bro) and several engineers working in an office in Pa., the company wanted to consolidate operations and offered the Pa. engineers nice relocation packages to move to michigan. In typical American fashion these engineers said no to the intial offer. The Mexican company's reply was "your fired" and gave my brother a nice raise and promotion. This is not your grandfathers American industrial powerhouse anymore. There are enough auto engineers looking for work these days in Mich. that the company didnt need to offer nice relocation packages, but they did... And got flipped off by greedy engineers who thought they had power in numbers....

Yea there are a lot looking in MI, but at least that company hired in the US.

I can't tell you how many times I was on a plane to china with a VP of engineering from an American company sitting next to me (Not auto related) saying he was headed over to see his staff.

The only point I am trying to make is that large companies see they can outsource just about anything, it is a constant downward pressure on our wages and therefore our standard of living.

But back on topic, I hope these new motors work out. Wonder what Merc Racing could do with a couple?

VW is a German company so they wanted to locate it there. I would guess Cummins put in their bid for America as well...

The only "Progressive" politicians I know of are Feingold, Grayson and Kucinich. We need more like them.

I was referring to the work force in the NON right to work states! there are only 22 of them union free BTW.

The only point I am trying to make is that large companies see they can outsource just about anything, it is a constant downward pressure on our wages and therefore our standard of living. Wildman


It's called "Race To The Bottom" for wages. Plus the unions are getting killed and there's no tariffs on imports. The other countries put tariffs on our goods but we don't tariff their goods. This is what "Free Trade" means; high exports to the US for other countries, low exports for America. Money for them, unemployment and poverty for America.

Bingo.


We can design, build, and execute better than anyone in the world. We just cant do it cheaper than anyone.


UD

Cat..it is a race, a race for many other nations to enjoy the prosperity America saw for many years.

If you think of it like a foot race...

America trained for years, worked hard and with great purpose... We were wining marathons, crossing the finishline and relaxing in the shade before second place showed up. We got so confident in our ability we got lazy, stopped training and started eating double cheeseburgers, we got fat, lazy and demanded to be treated like champions.

Now other nations are routinely beating us across the finish line and enjpoying the spoils of victory as we sit here fat, bloated and out of shape, trying to catch our breath and your suggesting we put pebbles (tarrifs) in the shoes of our competitors so we can win again.

We won before by making products with a 'made in america' lable that ment you were getting something top notch, better than anybody elses, affordable and worth every penny. but your suggestingt we cheat because we got fat and lazy.

NOT! The UAW workforce has consistantly Stepped up to help the Big 3 When ever they have cried about profits! it's always the workforce that gets cut! And the Braintrust running the place continue to grow in #'s. P.s. The Ability and technology exist here it just continues to move south of the border to expand that profit margin! (Fo Mo Co) Brookpark,Oh Foundry Closing early Fall 2010 Rich

No they can't compete in the free market, look at Toyota closed it's only union plant here in California, it is the union inefficiency with crazy job banks and benefits I do not blame them ,Boeing is leaving Seattle,Mercury was going to leave fond du lac..

I wonder what VW diesel that they will be using for marine use. I drive one of the new technology TDI's in a jetta, and it is a pretty amazing engine. No smoke, no rattle, and very smooth. They must make a bigger one, though.

I can't believe CMD is still open. My brother worked for them until last May. He was the main Zeus guy. MErc was pumping in millions at a time b/c the company, to my knowledge, has never turned a profit. I mean a relationship with VW???? get real. It may be genuis when it comes to the right product but between boat sales being nearly non-existant and the american perception of foreign diesels for marine appications (rotflmao) it will go no place. more wasted money

From this: http://www.vw-m.de/index.php?L=1 it seems the VW marine engines are manufactured in Germany.

Do you really think it is more expensive to have such engines manufactured in the USA compared to Germany ?

I don't think so, but I am no expert in this.

WE HAVE HIGHER TAXES

In our company we had plants and engineering in both the US and Germany.

It is cheaper here on both ends. The biggest reason we built up Germany was the Germans in upper management, they try to take care of there own.

But it still is MUCH cheaper in Countries like China, India, or Turkey, so they started moving what they could to those Countries, engineering and production went to Turkey, China and Mexico, engineering China and India.

You know another reason so much production moves to third world countries has a lot to do with Environmental and safety laws, when you don't have to comply it makes it cheaper and easier.

CMD has alienated every company it's joined in bed so far.... not a trustworthy track record.... especially from a consumer viewpoint... they hung out to dry everyone that bought their derivatives so far.. no support what_so_ever

We could solve a lot of this countries money and workforce problems with one simple step- tell all of the countries in the world we will charge their products the same tariffs as they charge ours! If i remember correctly, the Japanese charge our auto imports a tariff of like 45%, yet pay a 3% tariff or something like that to bring their products here. This would spur local production, who would buy a Camry if it was an extra $15,000 because it was made overseas? Let them build more factories here if they want to be competative in this market. (yes I know they have some factories here, but most of the cars are brought over) Or a t-shirt made in China if it was $28 if the American made version was $20? Maybe then we can start putting American workers back to work- we still have some of the greatest minds, lets put them back to work here instead of around the world.

A high revving lightweight marine diesel like the v12 in the r8 would be sweet with a multispeed tranny!
I've been waiting for something like this for years!

Absolutely.. This is what I was talking about in my earlier post.. This would solve much of the issue rather quickly.. J ;)

Isnt the real problem Americans are buying Camrys because they are what they want rather then the locally produced cars?
Pretty embarrasing in a country that makes cars and the best seller is a foreign one!!
You think BMW VW and Mercedes would stand around doing nothing if a Citroen was the best selling car in Germany?

Gale Banks should call Pat Weismann and see if his twin turbo supercharged Dmax can be mated to Pat's transmissions and drives. I think Pat would be open to such a marriage...

No, they are buying them because for a number of years they were a superior vehicle to the crap domestic manufacturers were putting out, for the same price. There are a fair number of domestics out there now that rival the quality of the imports, imagine if you could get a comparable quality domestic for $10k-$15k less than the import, which one would we buy?? I have no problem with import vehicles, and actually work for one, but believe our country is taking it up the rear by trying to compete in other countries paying massive tariffs while we let them get away without much of an import penalty. This country needs to look at the future, where if it continues going the way it is now we will have no manufacturing left due to EVERYTHING being outsourced.

Back on track here: As I understand it, CMD was formed to market the Cummins deisel/ZF pod package as the "Mercury" Zeus drive in order to compete with Volvo Penta's IPS system. Volvo Penta has now sold over 12,000 IPS units in three size ranges. I have never seen a Zeus-powered boat other than at boat shows. Is CMD even a financially viable company at this point?