Am looking at buying a Honda in India. Was looking at getting leather seats so I went to a specialist who would get the interior seats, doors, gear shift gaiter + steering wheel for around 350 pounds. A mercedes would cost around 400 pounds and they have done quite a few. The finish is excellent and you can choose from 40 shades. I really wonder how Mercedes can charge over 1500 pounds for optional leather.
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Good question Ajit ...
It's called 'greed'... and when you consider that 1500 quid converts into a lot of Rupees, Rands, Gumbo beads etc, it becomes even better.
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>>..I really wonder how Mercedes can charge over 1500 pounds for optional leather. >>
This is what business and commerce are all about - you try to make money on extras mainly from customers who have more money than sense. In any case, MB have large overheads compared to your "specialist". Have a look at www.daimlerchrysler.com/index_e.htm
and dril down to the key figures, five year summary. There you will see that even after charging these margins, the Company's best overall margin has been +7.3% and was -0.9% last year.
Five-Year-Summary
-Amounts in millions of ? 97 98 99 00 01
Operating profit 6,230 8,593 11,012 9,752 (1,318)
Operating margin 5.3% 6.5% 7.3% 6.0% (0.9%)
Net income (loss) 6,547 4,820 5,746 7,894 (662)
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Even after Enron and the rest you believe published accounts?
Wow
;-)
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>>Even after Enron and the rest you believe published accounts?
>>
Yes, how else do you think I make my money ?(I am one of the fortunate few who is classed "a person of independent means" under insurance "employment" categories.)
The serious answer to this question is of course that
1) Enron + others are the exceptions that prove the rule
2) Daimler Chrysler is a German company, subject to German accountants and their German accounting rules. (I have worked with German accountants who are so inflexible that they would make UK's Inland Revenue rules appear like a Ken Dodd joke - geddit??).
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Hmmm,
Given that the cow is sacred l find this post a bit odd. Anyway after the hide (which is 5sq meters of cow for £150 in the UK!) you have labour which is quite low priced in that neck of the woods l am led to believe...Mr Chumley-Warner..
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Cheap Labour?
1500 quid is the equivalent of 5-6 months salary for a poor benighted heathen working for DaimlerChrysler South Africa. (where a lot of the RHD's are made)
And we have some pretty good cows here ...
But then we live in a third-world country, where exploiting the workers happens...
Of course, when I look at Britain, with its massive and expanding aeronautical (Supermarine, Hawker, Short, Avro, Bristol, Handley Page, English Electric, Gloster), motor manufacturing (Humber, Riley, Wolseley, Alvis etc) and shipbuilding industries, not to mention the great mining tradition, I realise that we must be doing something really wrong here...
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Yes your cows are luvverly (yum).
Even the happy rancher style places have steaks that would shame any british restaurant at tenth the price!
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Yes your cows are luvverly (yum). Even the happy rancher style places have steaks that would shame any british restaurant at tenth the price! ... and NO BSE!
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I remember 3 yank it consultants who were terrified of beef. Somehow the idea of BSE and foot and mouth had got confused by CNN and they'd all ended up with this impression that just about every cow had this vicious disease and we were having to burn them all as quickly as possible before we caught it!
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dan.........what's a 'yank it' consultant?
I'm easily confused.....................
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I would guess an American Information Technology(IT) consultant.
Don't worry about being confused, I work in IT and it took a minute to figure out. I wonder what a 'yank it' consultant would actually do!
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