[swamp2]

A quick check into the annual sales volume of Mercedes AMG indicates a mere 20,000 vehicles in all of 2011. AMG is gunning for about 30k this year. That means the engines are being cranked out at only (very roughly) 100 engines/day. This volume is significantly lower than my initial gut feeling which was driven by the understanding that there is a great deal of engine commonality among many different AMG vehicles. Heck the E46 M3 sold at about 15,000 vehicles per year. This volume is certainly quite small compared to the 380,000 or so 3ers BMW sold in 2011. There certainly are cars that sell in much higher volumes than the BMW 3er, that was just another reference point.

Based on this relatively low volume I do expect a significant amount of engine (and other) hand assembly. That being said I'll stick firmly to my primary point that any such hand operations are done purely from a cost perspective. That is of course assuming I understand the AMG engine situation correctly in that they are entirely specific to the AMG cars and are not used in the non AMG Mercedes line.