# How to find out where Stihl's are made



## Aled Owen (May 11, 2010)

I heard Stihl opened a plant in China and that the MS 170 is made there (not getting it anyway but still). How would I find out where each Stihl chainsaw is made, are Germany, China and the US the only manufacturing places?

If anybody knows where is the MS 211 made?


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## Cedarkerf (May 11, 2010)

If I remmber right they have one in Brazil


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## rob066 (May 11, 2010)

I believe that is where the 038 is made is in Brazil


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## BloodOnTheIce (May 11, 2010)

Only US sold items made in China are HS45 hedge clippers, and I think the HSE electric hedge clippers, MS170 is made in the Virginia Beach plant. Serial numbers starting in 8 are made in China, 1 is Germany, and 2 is US, and Brazil is 3 or 5 don't remember.

Bars are made in the US, or Germany, and the Stihl Chain is still Swiss made.


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## twiztedsix (May 11, 2010)

ms 211 should be made in the US


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## SawTroll (May 11, 2010)

BloodOnTheIce said:


> .... Serial numbers starting in 8 are made in China, 1 is Germany, and 2 is US, and Brazil is 3 or 5 don't remember.
> 
> Bars are made in the US, or Germany, and the Stihl Chain is still Swiss made.



Yes, but all saws can of course contain parts made elsewhere, as with all brands!


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## SawTroll (May 11, 2010)

twiztedsix said:


> ms 211 should be made in the US



Most likely, if it is sold in the US.


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## mikefunaro (May 11, 2010)

my ms 211 is US made. Not sure what they will be in Europe? Maybe they're tooled up to make them in germany? There should be a sticker on the saw...


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## Aled Owen (May 11, 2010)

I agree, or perhaps a list on the website of where each saw is made.

I've pretty much decided on the MS 211, but I've not seen it in real life (seen the MS 200, MS 250 and MS 171 at a dealership) and I'd like to test it out before I buy.


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## Aled Owen (May 11, 2010)

mikefunaro said:


> my ms 211 is US made. Not sure what they will be in Europe? Maybe they're tooled up to make them in germany? There should be a sticker on the saw...



What do you think of the MS 211?


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## mikefunaro (May 11, 2010)

It's a pretty cool, well featured saw, especially for that small of a saw. It is very smartly designed. I like the top cover, and the fact that it's basically like a husky in terms of its airfilter and AV. 

It has pretty good power for a small saw. Certainly depends on what you're using it for. I got it next to new on CL for $150, so I couldn't really go wrong. Here, if I were looking at buying one new for $280 or buying a husky 346xp for $440, I'd get the 346xp in a heartbeat. 70cc saws may be king of versitility, but a 50cc can still do a lot more than a 35cc saw. 

I wanted a light, small saw that I could use with me in the brush if I encounter big materials with the fs 450.


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## splitpost (May 23, 2010)

BloodOnTheIce said:


> Only US sold items made in China are HS45 hedge clippers, and I think the HSE electric hedge clippers, MS170 is made in the Virginia Beach plant. Serial numbers starting in 8 are made in China, 1 is Germany, and 2 is US, and Brazil is 3 or 5 don't remember.
> 
> Bars are made in the US, or Germany, and the Stihl Chain is still Swiss made.



the 026 i have apart has a serial number starting with 4 ,any ideas where this was made


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## Aled Owen (May 23, 2010)

Could be Brazil


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## arborjockey (May 23, 2010)

More important then where its assembled is who engineered it. My opinion of the ms 200 is it has lots of power but the ergonomics is the worst in the business. The handle feels like it came off my sisters banana bike. Every saw in its class has more comfort. Balance is bad and they tend to need more cleaning then the others. They do have more power hands down. Hope the 211 is better. Ill keep my modified husky its faster more reliable and more important comfortable.
To each his own.


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## splitpost (May 24, 2010)

splitpost said:


> the 026 i have apart has a serial number starting with 4 ,any ideas where this was made



ANYONE,just curious because i have had a look over it and no sign of a <made in .......... > country badge or anything


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## Fish (May 24, 2010)

Is the sticker still visible, or are you looking at the one etched in the crankcase?


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## lcso10 (May 24, 2010)

splitpost said:


> ANYONE,just curious because i have had a look over it and no sign of a <made in .......... > country badge or anything



Do you see 7 digits in the serial number? Some of the older saws only showed 8 digits. Most of those were German made.


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## lcso10 (May 24, 2010)

BloodOnTheIce said:


> Only US sold items made in China are HS45 hedge clippers, and I think the HSE electric hedge clippers,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## splitpost (May 24, 2010)

lcso10 said:


> Do you see 7 digits in the serial number? Some of the older saws only showed 8 digits. Most of those were German made.



this one has 9 digits starting 4256-----and thats the etched ones between the muff and b/c,heres a pic of it when i got it


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## Aled Owen (May 25, 2010)

lcso10 said:


> BloodOnTheIce said:
> 
> 
> > Only US sold items made in China are HS45 hedge clippers, and I think the HSE electric hedge clippers,
> ...


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## Racerboy832 (May 25, 2010)

There's some " Stihl" 070 on ebay for buy it now of $535 that will come from china.


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## lcso10 (May 25, 2010)

splitpost said:


> this one has 9 digits starting 4256-----and thats the etched ones between the muff and b/c,heres a pic of it when i got it





I meant to say 9 in the other post. Not 7. Anyway, I can not answer your question with the first digit as a 4.


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## copedirector (Dec 20, 2010)

Hopefully I have this on the right thread but what about 7 digit serial numbers that begin with 8 or 9? Where were they made?


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## flimflam (Dec 20, 2010)

who cares where it's made? a usa hs 45 is the same as a china hs 45.


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## splitpost (Dec 20, 2010)

flimflam said:


> who cares where it's made? a usa hs 45 is the same as a china hs 45.



yeah right..........somehow i think the quality may be better on the US made one


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## flimflam (Dec 21, 2010)

splitpost said:


> yeah right..........somehow i think the quality may be better on the US made one



a factory in usa china brazil or germany is all the same. they use the same components from all over the world and assemble it to stihl's specs. just costs less to employ people in china. now if it was some off brand chinese company producing these units, it'd be different, but it's not. for instance the ms 361 made in germany and usa has no difference in quality... just diff components for epa reasons. all built to the same quality specs.


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## splitpost (Dec 21, 2010)

flimflam said:


> a factory in usa china brazil or germany is all the same. they use the same components from all over the world and assemble it to stihl's specs. just costs less to employ people in china. now if it was some off brand chinese company producing these units, it'd be different, but it's not. for instance the ms 361 made in germany and usa has no difference in quality... just diff components for epa reasons. all built to the same quality specs.



Well from what i've seen there is a quality difference between factories,
Went to the dealers just the other day,
Sat a new ms381(brazil made) along side the ms460(german made)
and tell you what ,that 381 aint nothing special,
plastics ,stickers and casting is alot less in the finnish department than a german made saw ,No offence Brazil/China but i'll take the German /US ones any day:greenchainsaw:


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## bcorradi (Dec 21, 2010)

Are you talking about the outer casting/crankcase? You mean the stickers were of different quality? What was different about the plastics? 

I have a brazillian made MS380 and I can not see any visible deficiencies amongst the plastic, stickers, or castings.


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## splitpost (Dec 21, 2010)

bcorradi said:


> Are you talking about the outer casting/crankcase? You mean the stickers were of different quality? What was different about the plastics?
> 
> I have a brazillian made MS380 and I can not see any visible deficiencies amongst the plastic, stickers, or castings.



yes crank case housing ,rough on the outside daggy edges and then painted over ,the plastic was a different finnish ,kinda dull not the usual shiney stihl finnish rough around the edges sticker lifting on one edge,over all not the same standard,could be forgiven in thinking it was a china knock off....then again it might be a one off,friday arvo special


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## bcorradi (Dec 21, 2010)

Ok gotcha...I guess I have a few buddies that have MS380's and didn't notice any lack of quality, but we have never seen MS381's either.


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