Audi looking to build plant in USA!!!!

["Rusty A. Schlacke" <oxide@worldnet.att.net>]

For your reading enjoyment and discussion.

Rusty A. Schlacke
Cedar Rapids, IA
'95 A6 quattro 5 speed

March 13, 1997

By The Associated Press

          NEW YORK (AP) -- Audi may join the car caravan to the South,
preparing to spend
          $780 million on a new production plant, The Wall Street
Journal reported today. 

          The luxury unit of Volkswagen will create 2,500 jobs with the
project and has narrowed
          its search to Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
and Virginia, the
          Journal reported, citing sources close to the situation. 

          An Audi spokesman said the company is studying the United
States and other
          countries for sites, but no factory would be built before the
year 2000. 

          If one is built in the Southeast, Audi would join a growing
group of automakers creating
          a new network of plants there. 

          The region is appealing because it offers cheap labor, a
mostly union-free work force
          and big tax incentives for those setting up shop. General
Motors and Ford have long
          had a presence in the region. Toyota and Nissan built plants
there in the 1980s. 

          Volkswagen will follow fellow German companies BMW and
Mercedes-Benz, which
          recently established operations in South Carolina and Alabama.