Comments on: Audi Considers Stateside Factory

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:18:27 +0000

That Audi, Ya’ll thing is particularly funny to me.

My french teacher was from Kenya. He told a story about how he learned very formal english as a child, but when he got to our school, everyone said, “Audi”. He just couldn’t get the “H”.

By: jthorner

jthorner — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:49:11 +0000

One bizarre side effect of the UAW’s grip on Detroit is that it makes lots of sense for foreign companies to build state of the art factories in the US, and it makes no sense for the indigenous auto makers to do so. Weird, isn’t it?

Now if they really want to make hay then VW Group should buy Volvo off Ford and then build a bigger US factory to produce both Audis and Volvos.

Volvo is getting killed financially by having the US as it’s largest single market while it’s manufacturing expenses are in Kronas and Euros.

By: mykeliam

mykeliam — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:43:21 +0000

“Not to mention there are loads of dead car plants scattered around the United States due to Ford and GM shutting down, which also means there are experienced workforces, which will save time (and money) training.”
-If you owned a car company, would you want the cast offs from GM and Ford? That’s just askin fer union trouble right from the start!
-I certainly would not make the Q7 ! Maybe the A3, Q5, or A4 all of which would sell here, but not the Q7.

By: Gardiner Westbound

Gardiner Westbound — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:09:39 +0000

Tax and other incentives are more plentiful for new greenfield auto plants and there are no CAW or UAW successor rights issues.

By: Cammy Corrigan

Cammy Corrigan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:39:32 +0000

This is good news for the United States and even better news for Audi. Audi could be making a very shrewd move here. Thw weak dollar will mean it’ll be cheap to set up and run, they could also export from the United States to increase profit margins, plus it would leave them immune to fluctuations in the dollar when selling in the United States (which is where they WANT to sell most of their cars!).

Not to mention there are loads of dead car plants scattered around the United States due to Ford and GM shutting down, which also means there are experienced workforces, which will save time (and money) training. This is on top of the tax breaks and help they’ll get from the state of choice!

Audi cannot lose! In fact, the only problem I can see is why Audi didn’t do this sooner……?