Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

[Roy B.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd5WGLWNllA


A must see video

[Gene M.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

Real neat assembly plant, even more impressive than Harley plant. I wonder how much that VW car costs and how much the plant cost is baked into the selling price.

[Roy V.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

have to admit, one heck of a way to build a car.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

the problem is no one wanted to buy a $80K VW

[William L.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

Didn't see very many workers? I don't think the UAW is going to like it at the new Obama Motors??

[Clem Z.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

years ago a auto plant supervisor was showing the union official all the new robots and said how are you going to get those robots to pay union dues ? the union guy asked how are you going to get them to buy your cars ?? with all these layoffs there will be a lot less car buyers

[Greg L.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

the problem is no one wanted to buy a $80K VW

Very true, in fact they were around the $100k mark here in Canada and I think 05 was the last year they were imported here however I think they are still being made and sold in Europe.

Being part kraut I've always been a pretty big VW fan but even I can see how people would have a hard time paying that kind of money for a VW even if it was built on the Audi A8 platform. People seem to want a "higher end name" before they dish out higher end money. Maybe VW should have "created" a new brand like the asian car makers did.

[Stewart A.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

Wow !! They make a good car for Europe but hot in climates they can get pretty messed up. Good for you Northern States not so good for the southern states. They are one of only a couple making great profit at the moment hence the German factory. A Vw Golf 103 tdi gets 5.3 liters to 100 kilometers. That's around 1.4 gallons to 62 miles. Is that 44.3 mpg ? This conversion kills me !! Stewy

[George C.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

Quote from a guy named Hemming on the youtube site.


"It is all well and good, but the reason the germans and the japanese have such new tech is because we bombed the he.. out of the old. It is all built with our dead and money."

What the Japanese and Axis powers couldn't do in war they suceeded 65 years later.
Shame on us America ! Keep putting those America Flags on your Honda's, and Toyota's.
Should have sold the plans for the A Bomb to Japan back in early 45, maybe the Japanese would have rebuilt America.

[Bill M.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

So right. We spent 5 years blowing them up and the rest of our lives paying for it. When all of the unions are gone management will start feeding off of itself and then there will be nothing left of in the USA. i hope that i do not live to see it but i fear for my children.

[Greg L.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

Not to get too political and no disrespect but if you really look into it the Germans had lots on "new tech" long before and all the while EVERYONE was bombing the he.. out of them! I highly doubt that that the first man on the moon would have been American had it not been for the "liberated" knowledge from Von Braun's rocket programs.

[Mike G.]

Now that we've digressed....

About Von Braun, I've always been amazed at how he is revered in the US, particularly in Huntsville Alabama where the civic arena is named after him.

The facts are that Von Braun was a member of the SS, he led the development of ballistic missiles designed to kill civilians, and the V1/V2's were produced by slave labor who were worked to death in the factories -factories that he toured regularly. A real mensch!

Why wasn't he sitting next to Hermann Goering at Nuremburg? Too bad for Hermann that he wasn't a missile engineer. He could have been a pillar of the community in northern Alabama too!

[Michael L.]

Re: Germany's answer to auto worker unions.

While we are lauding the Germans for such an amazing facility, let's remember they have nationalized health care and autoworkers unions...The fact that the parts trains run on municipal tracks to the factory with commuter trains also implies a government connection / relationship. By the way, German autobuilders are also crying poor and are in negotiations with the unions to cuts wages...