2013 Volkswagen Passat TDI Long-Term Road Test


Would you prefer to have your German car built in Germany? Our long-term 2013 Volkswagen Passat TDI wasn't.
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Would you prefer to have your German car built in Germany? Our long-term 2013 Volkswagen Passat TDI wasn't.
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on the other hand, my 13 passat has not had any workmanship issue so far, but there are defective parts which i will have to address soon.
I work in Chattanooga (beautiful downtown) and although I have not been in the VW plant, it is supposed to be absolutely state of the art. Other than the drama relating to UAW (they were turned down by the workers), I think you should feel good about a car assembled in the US. I'm sure the VW employees work very hard and try to make an excellent product.
@diigii: That also managed to upset VW's union head in Germany, so in actuality the politician's comments might have driven investment out of the plant just because of the "meddling". The main difference being that the unions in Germany hold 50% of the seats on the board, and rather than a "us vs. them" mentality, they ARE the company. VW Germany actually wanted a union (doesn't have to be the UAW) to support a work's council, but obviously the workers voted otherwise. It's hard to feel sorry for the UAW when they've established decades of bad reputation.
As for the quality of the product, UAW employees and all Americans can build great vehicles. The quality of the product is primarily determined in the design and engineering stages, not manufacturing. For example, if you have Japanese employees assembling a Lexus LS400 or a Tata Nano, the quality of the final product is largely determined by forces outside of the assembly workers control. The Nano is going to be hard to assemble correctly, and fall apart in a short while anyways.
Some people argue that foreign owned US made is worse than domestic because the R&D is done overseas, but some foreign companies have R&D centers and design cars here as well, so again it's not black and white.
Manufacturing definitely supports a lot of jobs. Not just at the plant where they assemble them, but suppliers, and other businesses in the area like retail and restaurants. I think domestic or foreign owned US made are both good choices if this sort of thing is important to you.