VW Blowing Off Motown?
CNNMoney reports that Volkswagen is considering moving their North American headquarters from Auburn Hills (MI) to an as-yet-undetermined location on the east coast. A "high-level manager in U.S. operations" says the company's considering the move because VeeDub's suits have trouble getting direct flights in and out of Detroit, and potential recruits are not exactly clamoring to move to Motown. Also in the mix: VW's thinking about building a second North American plant. Taking a lead out of Nissan's Nashville songbook, the German automaker might be looking to get management, marketing and manufacturing within eyesight of each other. Fearing another exodus like Comerica or Pfizer, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's office said Tuesday the state is "in touch" with Volkswagen, but declined to "comment on rumors." If that changes, we'd welcome Jenny's shout out below.
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You also forgot to mention the highest foreclosure rate in the country. Heck, at this point we could provide all of their employees with free housing and discount coupons to the Varsity. How can we lose??? What's that? Our educational system is ranked lower than Alabama AND Mississippi? Never mind.
Considering how ineffective VWOA has been in it's current location there can't be any downside to a move. I can't think of any really good reason for VWOA to stay in the Detroit area. Detroit is yesterday's news in the automobile business. If the goal is easy transportation to and from Europe then the greater NYC area is the way to go. Volvo had a real nice headquarters in New Jersey they left recently because Ford made them do so, perhaps those facilities are still available!
The most logical place to relocate would be Southern California. If you want to have your finger on the trendy pulse of the US car market, that's where you'd want to be. That, and VW desperately needs to improve its quality and ability to compete with the transplants. Perhaps if these guys spent more time on the San Diego Freeway witnessing all the "ricers" in their tricked-out Civics and Accords, they would figure out how to use the Jetta and (can you believe that they renamed the Golf a) Rabbit (?) to accomplish the same result.
Washington DC's a closer flight than SoCal, and the school system is pretty good north and west of the city. Lots of VW fans here, too.