Volkswagon New Beetle Convertible. 2004. Turbo. Excellent Condition. Garage Kept on 2040-cars

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Volkswagen lays off 500 Chattanooga workers

The redesigned Volkswagen Passat has been a decent seller since its debut in 2011, but sales have apparently dropped off enough that the automaker is trimming some of the employees from its Chattanooga, TN assembly plant. According to Automotive News, Volkswagen will be cutting shifts and laying off 500 contracted workers in response to slowing sales.
Currently, the plant has three teams running 10-hour shifts Monday through Saturday, but starting May 13, this will be reduced down to two teams running 10-hour shifts Monday through Thursday. This will be done to reduce dealer inventory (the article says that VW dealers, on average, have a 97-day supply of Passats) and production capacity (currently running at an annual pace of 170,000 units, which is more than the 150,000 annual units the plant was planned to produce).
This, of course, isn't saying that the Passat has been a failure since VW added 200 full-time employees to the plant in February 2012 to keep up with increased demand. The AN article says that automakers frequently overstaff plants during the launch of a new product - or in this case, a new product and a new plant - but eventually reduce the workers as things run smoother and more efficiently.

Volkswagen says goodbye to Eos, Routan in 2015 updates

Usually automakers announce changes to their lineup individually on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis, but sometimes it all comes at once - especially when the changes are ones we either expected or might not otherwise notice. That's the path Volkswagen has gone with changes to its US lineup for 2015.
The biggest change is what we already knew: that the new Golf arrives for the 2015 model year, bringing with it the new GTI, Golf R, e-Golf and Golf SportWagen (to replace the previous Jetta wagon). But there are some new details as well.
For starters, Volkswagen has finally confirmed that both the Eos and the Routan - both long rumored to be on their way out - will be exiting this year. The Eos hardtop convertible, pictured above, will linger for one last year, its Sport trim replaced by a new Final Edition with 18-inch wheels, two-tone leather interior and enhanced equipment.

Volkswagen rules out Eos successor

When Volkswagen introduced the Eos back in 2006, hard-top convertibles were all the rage – in North America, in Europe and around the world. But the trend, billed at the time as the best of both worlds, has long since subsided, leading to VW axing the Eos several months ago. And don't count on it getting a successor at some point down the line, either. At the Detroit Auto Show earlier this week, VW R&D chief Heinz-Jakob Neusser told Autocar that the Eos is down for the count. In fact it is "maybe the first model we take out of the market" in a reversal of the momentum that has seen the German automaker expand its lineup incrementally over the past several years – although the Chrysler-built Routan minivan was also canceled around the same time. The place the Eos occupied in VW's North American lineup is largely being taken by the more charismatic Beetle Convertible, and in Europe and other markets by the Golf Cabriolet that's still based on the previous-generation hatchback. The Eos, however, isn't the only hard-top convertible withdrawn from the market in recent years. Tin-top cabrios like the Lexus IS and SC, Cadillac XLR, Chrysler 200, Pontiac G6 and Volvo C70 have all gone the way of the dodo – as have Euro-market coupe-convertibles versions of models like the Ford Focus, Opel Astra, and Peugeot 207. The arrival of the Buick Cascada just goes to show that soft-roofed convertibles have won out, particularly as far as four-seat cabrios are concerned. The one notable exception where folding hard-tops are still gaining traction is among mid-engined exotic supercars like the Ferrari 458 and McLaren 650S, both of which opted for solid folding roofs instead of fabric ones. We've yet to see, however, which approach Lamborghini will take with the Huracan Spyder or Audi will with the next-generation R8, the predecessors of both of which featured fabric roofs.