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Alabama Loses Race For Volkswagen

By WKRG Staff/The Associated Press

Gov. Bob Riley says he's disappointed the German Automaker chose to build cars in Chattanooga, Tennessee rather than Huntsville. Alabama Loses Race For Volkswagen

Published: Tue, July 15, 2008 - 9:00 am

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Volkswagen AG is headed to Tennessee
to build cars in the U.S. after picking the southern state as the
site for its new plant.

Lower Saxony Minister President Christian Wulff, who sits on the
supervisory board of Europe's largest automaker, said the company
picked the city after board, the German equivalent of a U.S. board
of directors, debated the merits of the location and its benefits.

Chattanooga, Tennessee beat out bids by Alabama and Michigan for
the plant, which is part of the Wolfsburg-based company's strategy
to increase its presence in America.

Gov. Bob Riley says he's disappointed Volkswagen has chosen Tennessee for an assembly plant rather than
Huntsville. But Riley says he is pleased the plant will be located close to Alabama.

“Our congratulations go to Chattanooga and to my friend Governor Bredesen," Riley said. "I want to express my deep appreciation to Volkswagen for considering Alabama and selecting us as a finalist site. My thanks go to the local leaders in Huntsville and Limestone County for their complete support throughout this very thorough selection process. Alabama is obviously disappointed our state was not selected, but we are extremely pleased this Volkswagen plant will be located close to us.”

The proposed plant is part of the company's strategy to increase
its presence in the U.S., where it holds only 2 percent of the
market.

The automaker has said the surging euro - which makes goods
imported from Europe more expensive in the United States - has
pushed along plans for a new production facility.

Volkswagen, which closed its last U.S. production facility near
Pittsburgh in 1988, has said actual production at the facility is
not expected to start until at least 2010.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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rosepetal Says:

Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 4:53 pm

rmseek1234, lol had to chase you down in kansas. now that should tell you something. welcome back.

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rmseek1234 Says:

Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 12:08 pm

AWWW, ya’ll- it’s nice to be missed! Sorry, life has been a whirlwind lately, with hosting our student from France for 3 weeks and now one from Belgium for the semester and trying to get kids-(now 5 of them with our new student)-back to school. I’m here-life is good-will be posting more as time allows!!!!

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sweetnsour Says:

Thu, Aug 07, 2008 at 12:44 am

Carl, i thought about that today. Where is rmseek1234. I liked ragging her heckling her and most importantly I enjoyed her oppinions…where is she. She can’t just ditch us….

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rosepetal Says:

Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 12:44 pm

carl and the wife, state is working on weekend repaving to hillcrest road. putting 5 lanes to snow, putting dawes extension in. never seen that day and night plus weekends. my money on airbus.

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rosepetal Says:

Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 12:07 pm

carl, found her. she is still posting on there. she has been busy hosting exchange student.

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rosepetal Says:

Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 5:48 pm

carl, oh no i will have to go see, i will apologize to her for that. i thought she understood it was the ones in charge fault. no i really hate that. maybe i can find her on there and let oldgoat see me apologize lol.

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carl Says:

Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 5:44 pm

Since the big ragging we were giving the police for the early morning publiic housing raid and such, I’ve only seen her post once and that was on the Kansas site. Her feelings might have been hurt.

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rosepetal Says:

Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 5:11 pm

could be carl, but they are in a hurry to do this, they are working day and night. have you seen rmseek1234 posting anywhere? i like her wonder where she has been.

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carl Says:

Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Well so far they claim it’s just the road from Grelot to the airport and a roundabout on Dawes, all to ease congestion on airport. It could be they’re expecting some increased traffic, going along your line of thought.

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rosepetal Says:

Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 10:49 am

i hate it for the jobs for people in north alabama that vw would have created. but after seeing all those highway trucks lined up on airport blvd last night and the night before getting ready to work on that dawes rd extension
to right in front of the airport, i still think something fixing to happen with airbus. i have lived here for over 20 years and never seen this before, they are working on 5 laneing, repaving, and putting in that extension all at one time. i could be wrong, but i just believe something is fixing to happen.

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