VW heading for the hills...er, out of the hills of Michigan

The current exchange rate is €1 = US$1.36. That means €3.4B losses, would amount to US$4.61B and not the US$2.4B that the article suggests. LOTS of beans. And VW thinks moving their head office can solve that problem? They are even more clueless than they seem. That's like moving a bad kid to a "different" environment, hoping he will change. Doesn't happen. VW needs to work on their attitude to customers and the quality of their products. THAT is the only solution to their woes.

its a great car but its very irrelevent to what is going on here.

VW has been a disaster in the U.S. for a long time. The current crop of vehicles are too expensive relative to the competition, and the reliability of some have been terrible. It is time they set up a North American plant, prefereably in
Canada, which would help. They have to duplicate what Toyota has done to be successful. There would be no shame in that.

But that is apparently part of VW's plans. The automaker hopes to use the move to sharply reduce what it sees as a bloated workforce, including many employees with the wrong sort of mindset needed to shift directions.

"I can't really see this working," contends a long-time VW executive who left the company two years ago to pursue "other options." The big problem, he asserted "is not the Detroit mindset, but the German way of thinking. We spent years trying to get (corporate headquarters in) Wolfsburg to understand the very different needs of the American market and they just wouldn't go along."

Unless that changes, the one-time executive argued, nothing will change, no matter where VW relocates.

Their sales are not just going to suddenly improve from nothing. Their ads are a great start- very creative. Some of their products are fantastic, like the GTI, EOS and Touareg2. They just need to make the rest of them that good-- and that reliable. The GTI, built in Germany, is apparently very reliable.

They need to relocate their PLANT, not their headquarters. How about a Canadian or American plant, like david999 said?

the GTI is the only VW worth considering, maybe the touareg too.

relocating rite nxt to an airport AND where living costs are beyond detroits living costs is out of hand for a company dealing with a lot of setbacks.

Actually makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. Allows them to get rid of workers while moving to a more tax-friendly environment. With Granholm and the Dems in Michigan trying to find every which way under the sun to raise taxes, I'd get out too. No wonder they are losing businesses left and right with this mindset. Hint to gov't: You don't tax your way out of a bad situation, especially while continuing to spend like drunken sailors. Also, this will give VW some leverage in Virginia if they want to build a plant in the US...for more tax incentives.
As for VW itself, I've always liked their products, as well as their marketing, but unfortunately have no faith in their reliabilty/quality. Too bad, the GTI especially, is hot.

The Phaeton was a noble exercise in pointlessness.