Word: kuenheim
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...next marketplace ripe for Japan's "luxmobiles" is Europe. The Lexus went on sale in Switzerland and Britain earlier this year, and in 1991 will hit Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. In an interview early this year, BMW chairman Eberhard von Kuenheim accused Toyota of "dumping" Lexus in the U.S. market at below-market prices, and declared, "Europe is not willing to destroy its own industry" by giving Japan free access. Toyota calls that charge "groundless and meaningless," but spokesman Yoshiharu Tateishi says, "We are fully aware of the trade friction, and our approach will be modest...
...Kuenheim's concern stems at least in part from a fact that U.S. car manufacturers learned painfully in previous decades: Japanese automakers, according to a recent M.I.T. study, assemble their luxury cars in a mere 25% of the man-hours -- 16.9 for each auto -- that their European competitors need. Japan has gained a huge advantage by applying flexible automation to the task of building well-crafted cars, while Europeans do a greater portion of the work by hand...
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