I think I'm getting one as a rental for my trip to Florida next month. I'll be very, very curious how it drives. The Cobalt drives like a bigger car and is no better than the Cavalier was IMO. Maybe the Snuze will be different...
I recently read that VW is talking with the UAW. Unless the Asian transplants do the same (and I wouldn't bet on it), that new Tenn plant may end up like the one in PA did if it goes UAW.
Actually the UAW approached VW employees. Legally VW can't stand in the way - all they can do is appeal to their employees. Thus far none of the transplants that (Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes) has had a union voted in by the workers.
All those noted have been able to maintain a non-union plant because they offer competitive wages, benefits and working conditions. Hopefully this will be the case with VW as well. IMHO, I believe that will happen as the VW jobs are some of the best available in Chattanooga.
Toyota had union employees at NUMMI when they had their joint venture with GM.
As does Mazda at Flat Rick and Mitsubishi in Normal currently. But all of those were/are joint ventures with unionized companies (Ford and Chrysler respectively). GM, Ford nor Chrysler could have gone into those without being union. All the current independent transplants are non-union. Even BMW and MB, both union companies back in Germany, are not in the US.
VW had union employees when they were in PA. They had lots of labor problems there too.
That was in the 70's when one couldn't open an auto plant in North America without a union. Today, it's much different.
Yeah, but VW is a heavily unionized company and I remember a link not too many weeks ago that indicated VW wouldn't fight organizing efforts tooth and nail, in spite of Corker's rhetoric down in 'Nooga. Maybe they figure it's a lost cause for the UAW in TN anyway.
I don't see where in that article it says VW won't fight it. All it says is that VW recognizes it's the workers right to organize. Further the article doesn't say the UAW will target VW. It only says the UAW may look at the new plant as an opportunity. I'm sure the UAW will make an attempt just like it has at every transplant.
VW does has a history of working with unions around the world - as does MB and BMW. That doesn't make this a slam dunk. It's up to the workforce to decide and if VW does things right, they won't vote it in.
New sedan... pretty sharp for a Civic-sized car.. One thing I don't like about it.. they try to hide the exhaust pipe. It just points down from behind the bumper cover..
Also, second-hand, my son sent me a cell-phone picture of a new BMW 1M coupe.. really nice!
Most unique sighting was a Spyker C8, schweeeeet! Sounded great, too. We had 14 kids in our large group so they went absolutely bananas.
The kids saw 2 Lambos in the parking lot and didn't want to leave the parking lot. Hilarious.
On the road, we saw another Lambo, a Gallardo, the kids gave a thumbs up and got one back. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the driver responded.
3 Ferraris as well, one of them nice enough to give us a little engine rev before driving past. Nice to hear a high revving V8 staccato in the evening!
Awesome that the driver responded to the kids. It irks me when I give a nod like that and get nothing back. Just Sunday I was driving on I-5 and came up on a CLK55 the same age as my E55. Older driver, moved over as I came up behind him (as it is western WA, he was dawdling - I was going maybe 62 in a 60), and when I got alongside him I gave him a thumbs up - as someone driving a car like that must be an enthusiast, right? He just looked at me blankly. When I am out in the fintail I get waves and thumbs up all the time - and I always try to give acknowledgement.
On the new car front, not a lot the past day or so, but I have seen a couple new Charger rentals - huge improvement over the old one in my eyes,
That became the 2008 Tribeca, basically. Note the taillights are identical, the hood is similar. Oddly enough Subaru did not use that interior, instead keeping the original from 2006.
Interesting confirmation of our conspiracy theory.
Very slick triple black Audi A7 and a hawt Orange Lotus Evora. This morning was a sexy 370Z "Track Model" with a killer aftermarket exhaust system. Sounded incredible at WOT :shades:
Spotted a new generation Buick Lacrosse, red with lol, a brown Landau roof and enough chrome to make a 50's sled look drab. Pennsylvania plates on that one...
Also saw (2) Volts over the weekend, one silver on the highway going the other direction another, red, with Hertz tags.
I've seen a new style CTS and a Lucerne with the "full Florida" treatment, and west coasters don't usually go for all that.
Yesterday I saw a new Lexus IS cabrio, kind of rare. Most surprising was that the top was down, first one I have ever seen like that - living on the edge for the typical Lexus-ophile, who freaks out when the window is down.
>I say gimme a sawzall and I'll fix that toyota/Subaru in a jiffy...LOL.
How about a Prius convertible.
Or a Legacy convertible. That would actually turn out nice. I've noticed many Subarus on my drives to and from Columbus on I70. The pleasant styling would look good in convertible mode.
...a grayish violet Acura RL travelling south on Bingham Street near Levick in NE Philly. I guess this color must be called "Sandstone" or something like that.
If the mature gentleman has his eyesight restored, he might next need to visit a cardiologist. He may suffer a heart attack when he's able to see what he's been driving all this time.
It was black, so it didn't look too bad. The hump (what Hump?) was less obvious. Also, 2 Crosstours,1 white, 1 black, plus a ZDX. Pretty close to an 0 for 4 day.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
Checked out the newly remodeled local MB dealer today. They had a few new CLS and SLK hanging around...sat in a CLS...seems a little less claustrophobic than the old one, but at 80K+ was a little dear. Interior was pretty awesome, very high quality, engine looked very cool with the metal air intakes. Salesman claimed C250 diesel should be here in about 2 months.
Just wanted to pop in and say hi, haven't been here in ages because I've been busy with work.
I made another move and jumped from my quick one year stint as Nissan assistant manager to take on a marketing manager position at a local exotic car dealership. All I see every single day is Lambos, Ferraris, Rolls Royces and everything else in between.
Fintail, next time you're in my area give me a shout and I'll give you a tour of our facilities. You'd like it and everything we have in stock. Also there's a supercar luxury car show coming up on Sept 11 here in Vancouver with lots of very high end vehicles that will be there. Email me and I'll tell you more about it.
Sounds fun, probably more interesting working with exotics sold to sometimes shady people than dealing with Versas and Cubes all day. And having to look at the Quest can't be fun either.
I'll have to make it up there sometime. Unfortunately, Sept 11 is also The big local concours, which is an unmissable event here.
Send me an email whenever, I lost some address book material and I don't think I have yours anymore.
Spent 5 days on Cape Cod and you cannot drive down a street and not see a house with a new Sonata in the driveway. Wow.
Other popular sightings were the new JGC and a couple of new Explorers. Saw 3 Acura ZDX's, a few "new faced" TL's and a slew of new and older MDX's. Guess I was paying more attention to and counting Acuras since the wife and I are talking about pulling the trigger on one soon... What an amazing time tho, the Cape is just beautiful this time of year. :shades:
I like the 5 door models. Tiny sedans have awkward proportions, not just the Accent but nearly all of them.
138hp, DI, 30/40 mpg. It's not just competitive - it's the new benchmark for its class.
Wifey had her car in for a recall and we got a Kia Rio loaner. I gotta say, econoboxes have come a long way. It's not even among the latest batch of models, but it had a driver's arm rests and the engine must have had 3 times the power of the beaters I drove as a poor college student.
Lemme look...110hp from that one. My 86 Chevy Sprint had 48 furious horses on a good day. I think my Datsun had 70 horses.
Even with an autotragic it could actually get out of its own way.
The new Accent, at 138hp, has 288% of the power I had in my Sprint.
Comments
All those noted have been able to maintain a non-union plant because they offer competitive wages, benefits and working conditions. Hopefully this will be the case with VW as well. IMHO, I believe that will happen as the VW jobs are some of the best available in Chattanooga.
VW had union employees when they were in PA. They had lots of labor problems there too.
As does Mazda at Flat Rick and Mitsubishi in Normal currently. But all of those were/are joint ventures with unionized companies (Ford and Chrysler respectively). GM, Ford nor Chrysler could have gone into those without being union. All the current independent transplants are non-union. Even BMW and MB, both union companies back in Germany, are not in the US.
VW had union employees when they were in PA. They had lots of labor problems there too.
That was in the 70's when one couldn't open an auto plant in North America without a union. Today, it's much different.
And here it is:
anythngbutgm, "Can VW Overtake Toyota and GM To Become #1?" #202, 7 Jul 2011 6:23 pm
VW does has a history of working with unions around the world - as does MB and BMW. That doesn't make this a slam dunk. It's up to the workforce to decide and if VW does things right, they won't vote it in.
I'm still waiting to spot a Chattanooga Passat. It was three years ago today that VW picked Chattanooga for the new US factory. :shades:
That applies to all German companies - not just VW. IMHO, it's not guaranteed that VW will become unionized.
The new Passats are starting to hit the dealers now.
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Also, second-hand, my son sent me a cell-phone picture of a new BMW 1M coupe.. really nice!
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Also some nice cars. LOL
Most unique sighting was a Spyker C8, schweeeeet! Sounded great, too. We had 14 kids in our large group so they went absolutely bananas.
The kids saw 2 Lambos in the parking lot and didn't want to leave the parking lot. Hilarious.
On the road, we saw another Lambo, a Gallardo, the kids gave a thumbs up and got one back. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the driver responded.
3 Ferraris as well, one of them nice enough to give us a little engine rev before driving past. Nice to hear a high revving V8 staccato in the evening!
On the new car front, not a lot the past day or so, but I have seen a couple new Charger rentals - huge improvement over the old one in my eyes,
http://inside.saab.com/the-saab-9-6-in-pictures/
That became the 2008 Tribeca, basically. Note the taillights are identical, the hood is similar. Oddly enough Subaru did not use that interior, instead keeping the original from 2006.
Interesting confirmation of our conspiracy theory.
Also saw (2) Volts over the weekend, one silver on the highway going the other direction another, red, with Hertz tags.
Funny how I live in a big city and have yet to see all these new GM cars trashed up with roadster tops, aftermarket chrome and other junk.
Yesterday I saw a new Lexus IS cabrio, kind of rare. Most surprising was that the top was down, first one I have ever seen like that - living on the edge for the typical Lexus-ophile, who freaks out when the window is down.
I've seen a couple of CTS and STS's with similar roofs so seeing one on a Buick shouldn't be surprising.
I've seen them marketed as "Simulated Convertibles", which is funny because convertibles only really look good with their tops down!
I say gimme a sawzall and I'll fix that Buick in a jiffy...LOL.
How about a Prius convertible.
Or a Legacy convertible. That would actually turn out nice. I've noticed many Subarus on my drives to and from Columbus on I70. The pleasant styling would look good in convertible mode.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Just what the world needs, another 6000 lb hatchback!
From that rear view, the A4 looked sharper. Enough LEDs combined to blind you.
They're hard to tell apart from some angles. Same sausage, different length.
Also, 2 Crosstours,1 white, 1 black, plus a ZDX.
Pretty close to an 0 for 4 day.
I made another move and jumped from my quick one year stint as Nissan assistant manager to take on a marketing manager position at a local exotic car dealership. All I see every single day is Lambos, Ferraris, Rolls Royces and everything else in between.
Fintail, next time you're in my area give me a shout and I'll give you a tour of our facilities. You'd like it and everything we have in stock. Also there's a supercar luxury car show coming up on Sept 11 here in Vancouver with lots of very high end vehicles that will be there. Email me and I'll tell you more about it.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
I'll have to make it up there sometime. Unfortunately, Sept 11 is also The big local concours, which is an unmissable event here.
Send me an email whenever, I lost some address book material and I don't think I have yours anymore.
Other popular sightings were the new JGC and a couple of new Explorers. Saw 3 Acura ZDX's, a few "new faced" TL's and a slew of new and older MDX's. Guess I was paying more attention to and counting Acuras since the wife and I are talking about pulling the trigger on one soon... What an amazing time tho, the Cape is just beautiful this time of year. :shades:
If one it given as a gift, all you'd need is a bow, because it already comes as a box. :shades:
138hp, DI, 30/40 mpg. It's not just competitive - it's the new benchmark for its class.
Wifey had her car in for a recall and we got a Kia Rio loaner. I gotta say, econoboxes have come a long way. It's not even among the latest batch of models, but it had a driver's arm rests and the engine must have had 3 times the power of the beaters I drove as a poor college student.
Lemme look...110hp from that one. My 86 Chevy Sprint had 48 furious horses on a good day. I think my Datsun had 70 horses.
Even with an autotragic it could actually get out of its own way.
The new Accent, at 138hp, has 288% of the power I had in my Sprint.
Kids these days ... spoiled, I tell ya!
Then again, I got my butt handed to me in a race with a Vulcan powered 92' Ford Taurus...
Still very impressive numbers for the littlest Hyundai.
Loads of Elantras in my area, a couple rental fleets bought them.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0 / 03 Montero Ltd