Originally Posted by: Minok 
Originally Posted by: Goofy Then in case...nothing at all is made of Germany anymore time.
All Märklins locomotive is there fore not quality of Germany.
I would say same thing about ESU...my V200 is also made in China.
I think something in what you are trying to express, is getting lost in the translation from your native language to English.
Its not clear, at least to me, what point you are trying to make.
What Anders is trying to express is from previous remarks, nothing is made in Germany anymore and therefore one can't say it is German quality anymore and he is comparing (Made in China) his ESU V 200 is also made in China which I assume he is hinting is made of quality and I can't say whether ESU is also claiming or suggesting "German Quality" and to some extend may has nothing to do with the topic itself.
I think the whole point with his post is: "German Quality" and the direct link with Märklin, whereas in the past Märklin was always referred to and claimed to be "German Quality" and it was based on a selling and buying point.
there are 2 issues I can see: Germans have always bought German made goods before buying foreign produced products and there is a kind of proudeness behind the manufacturing history, China has come a long way and in the past has copied ideas from other countries and still does but have now similar technology in place to match German manufacturing skills and the main aspect of this is they can produce it at a minimal cost.
What we've got to day is a dwindling model train industry, manufacturing costs and materials going up and a company can no longer be compatible to an ever increasing fine detail manufacturing process., who knows whether or not molding machines are made in Germany or not, the may be manufactured in China and this would ease the implementation of such tools and machinery and put less stress on capital expenditure.
from a company's point of view this makes sense and this allows them to keep their profits where they are but as other technology comes into the quotation such as CS 3 and the sound decoder development and other initiatives prices are going up and up.
by increasing prices, a company can establish a motto: buy it or leave it and if we go by past history when the beer price goes up, the ones that drink this stuff not many if any have stopped drinking or stopped buying beer cans or bottles to satisfy their passion for alcohol and in our case model trains. the ones who can't afford it anymore will be replaced by the ones who can afford, may be at a smaller number but they have to pay the extra for the enthusiasts who opted or dropped out of the market.
I'm sure the time will come when India comes into the market and we most probably see another shift in the manufacturing market and the more players are in the competition market, companies who use these manufacturing companies will benefit from it when prices could come down even further and profits margins go higher to compensate for a smaller model train enthusiast market.
I can understand someone raises the point: "German Quality" and queries the actual meaning of it but comparing it with >Made in China< and >Chinese Quality< or making reference to it, for somewhat obscure reasons, to indicate or suggest, the fact its no longer Germany Quality as per say but being made in China, the quality issue has been denigrated to a lesser standard and the question of prejudice arises, we are better, better qualified, better manufacturers, better than anybody else, we've got the best model train in the world, we may have got the best forum in the world, it is made from many different parts around the world and we have never queried the quality these members bring to the table. I wonder why ?
this topic and many others are becoming like a TV host panel show, talking about a lot of nothing, lots of allegations, rumours, assumptions and lots of opinion orientated references
John
