VW may open U.S. plant (Bush's fault)
December 3, 2004: 12:00 PM EST
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Continued depreciation in the dollar is forcing Europe's largest automaker Volkswagen to consider building VW and Audi brand cars in the United States, the company's sales and marketing head said.
"We are thinking about manufacturing those models there that for the most part are also sold in the U.S.," Georg Flandorfer told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published on Friday, adding that the planned Audi Q7 sports utility vehicle could be a candidate.
The weak dollar is a major reason why VW expects to book a 1 billion, or $1.34 billion, operating loss in North American operations this year. The decline in the value of the dollar versus the euro reduces the money that European manufactures can get for their goods from U.S. customers.
At current levels, the automaker has said it will be tough to turn a profit in the United States in 2005 either, despite the relaunch of key new models like the Jetta and Passat.
Unlike German peers Mercedes and BMW, which both build their large offroad models in U.S. plants, neither Volkswagen nor Audi produces a single car there.
VW manufactures the Jetta and New Beetle, which both enjoy relative popularity in the United States, at its Mexico plant in Puebla.
The company has suffered from a serious decline in U.S. car sales, mainly due to an aging line-up and VW's reluctance to compete head-to-head in an incentives war.
On Wednesday, VW reported November U.S. monthly car sales plunged around 40 percent from year-earlier levels.
Which one is the foreign car/which purchase is better for the U.S. economy - the Dodge Colt that is imported fully assembled from Japan or the Toyota Camry that is assembled in Georgetown Kentucky from a mix of foreign and domestic components by American workers?
Hacving trouble fathoming the idea that a plant that will provide hundreds of jobs to American autoworkers is somehow bad?
As Lan said, there are a ton of people right here in cincinnati that work over in kentucky for toyota.
O no, jobs are being created! How dare they, let's continue to ship them oversea's.
Uhm, guys, let's look at the big picture here. VW is thinking of opening a plant here because it's not worth thier time to ship stuff to us anymore. Our money isn't worth enough to make it worthwhile for them.
From Europe's perspective we are becoming the third world cheap labor market useful for outsourcing. Make you feel good that we can be had cheaper than anyone else?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, a little. That means more jobs for people who have had their jobs sent overseas. Now the very same people we have sent American jobs to is staring to ship jobs over here, because like America found out it is more economically viable to send jobs to other countries. So in retrospect, the mere fact that we are cheap, should in theory rebound our economy over time with the job replenishment brought on by these companies, and continue a cycle of ship and replace when it concerns jobs.Originally posted by Pi?a:
Make you feel good that we can be had cheaper than anyone else?
The "mere" fact that we are cheap also means that we can expect to make less, either in real dollars or in actual spending power with a weaker dollar.
It's like when someone says that there are plenty of jobs our there. What they don't say is that they're all subsistence, if that, wages at fast food places or worse.
It seems the argument has changed over the years. Not too long ago, we were all concerned about how much cheaper the Japanese could make cars, and make them more efficiently. Now, foreign auto mkaers come here to set up shop for some of the same reasons.
It creates jobs.
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