Volkswagen Bulks Up Chattanooga Plant

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

For the second time this year, Volkswagen is increasing headcount at its Chattanooga plant. After hiring 200 new workers in January, Volkswagen now created an additional 800 new jobs.

In the beginning of the year, 2,500 people worked at the Chattanooga factory. With this new wave of hirings, Volkswagen will have created 1,000 new jobs in Chattanooga this year. Volkswagen needs to fill the positions to meet customer demand for the new U.S.-produced Passat. The plant has been working daily overtime to keep up with the sales.

According to Edmunds, February 2012 was the biggest month for the Passat (8,189 sales) since August 2003. The Passat’s average days to turn was 55 percent lower than the industry average in the midsize segment last month. A Passat sits only an average of 24 days on dealers’ lots, the industry average in the class is 54 days.

Edmunds Senior Analyst Michelle Krebs encourages Volkswagen to add more cars to the plant:

”For now, at least, this extra production will absorb the Passat’s jump in demand in the US. But further down the line, Volkswagen will need to produce even more vehicles in the US to expand its product offerings — a small crossover, for instance — and meet its lofty sales goals.”

Volkswagen wants to sell 800,000 units annually in the U.S. by 2018. Edmunds says that VW will need to grow an average of 13.8 percent each year through 2018 to reach that goal.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Beerboy12 Beerboy12 on Mar 22, 2012

    Much of the new VW sales might be because Americans are a little gun shy of domestic brands. VW's cannot, in any universe, be less reliable than some of those older domestic products either. The new ones I think are better. For those Americans that think that they don't care for unreliable cars, remember, VW is the No. 1 seller in Europe and the European's, especially the Germans have even less tolerance for unreliability.

    • See 2 previous
    • Joeaverage Joeaverage on Apr 03, 2012

      @CJinSD I know when I lived in Italy going to a mechanic was not the wildly expensive experience it is here. I could actually afford to rely on a mechanic there for a few cold weather fixes when I would otherwise be working in my driveway. At the time I could take a carb to a mechanic to be rebuilt for $30, an alignment was $35, and parts were affordable at the local autoricambi. The rest of what PCH101 said above is correct - Italians I knew back then (1990s) mostly drove fewer miles. However none leased and none replaced their cars very often. However this was southern Italy (Naples) and Northern Italy or the rest of Europe may have been vastly different.

  • Roadscholar Roadscholar on Mar 23, 2012

    Excellent discussion. The auto line worker is usually the first one to be blamed for poor quality. Management is 100% responsible for setting up processes and suppliers that make the assembly process as idiot-proof as possible but you cannot deny that the assembly line worker also plays a role. The job is very robotic but it is nevertheless a job that still has to be performed well. Everyone who touches that car bears some of the responsibility.

  • Cheezeweggie Cheezeweggie on Mar 23, 2012

    I've never known anyone who drove a German car that didn't have U-boatloads of problems. Side note: The mountains in the background of the photo aren't in Chattanooga.

  • CrapBox CrapBox on Mar 23, 2012

    I've driven a VW Rabbit for the past six years and it's been 100% reliable. Although I drive in terrible weather conditions on some of the worst roads in North America, nothing has gone wrong the car. Maintenance has consisted of oil changes. So what gives? I wish people would be specific regarding their complaints. Does a squeak constitute a reliability issue? I grew up in a car dealership surrounded by every make of vehicle from Gogomobils to Toyotas. My Rabbit has been, by far, the most reliable.

    • See 1 previous
    • DeadWeight DeadWeight on Mar 23, 2012

      @TOTitan You and crapbox bought what is one of VW's most reliable cars, according to Consumer Reports. In fact, based on my recollection, the basic 2008 forward Rabbit with the 2.5 liter has garnered either an above average or at least average rating for 3 or 4 years running now. I believe this includes the versions Hecho En Mexico (and interestingly, I'm not sure that the GTI which was assembled in Germany was ranked as highly). Some do and some don't put stock in the credibility of Consumer Reports reliability ratings. I do, because 1) they use a larger sample size of actual registered owners and vehicles (hundreds of thousands) than any other publication to track complaints, 2) they break the complaints down in terms of what component is either reliable or not in a very logical, easy to sort manner, 3) they adjust the reliability index on a smoothed basis for age of the vehicle and presumed use, and 4) their published data corresponds almost perfectly with my vehicle ownership experiences.

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