Canada.com
By Grace Macaluso, The Windsor Star July 6, 2010
A Volkswagen Routan minivan is shown in this file photo. Photograph by: DAN JANISSE, The Windsor Star
The Volkswagen Routan isn’t headed for the scrapyard despite growing speculation that the German automaker will likely discontinue the vehicle, which is assembled at Chrysler’s Windsor Assembly Plant, a company spokesman said Monday.
“That’s news to me,” said Peter Viney, spokesman for Volkswagen Canada. “We are finalizing the next model year with Chrysler right now. We have a five-year contract with Chrysler so we are going to work within the terms and conditions of that contract so anything with respect to production ending in October is not what we understand.”
In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Jill Bratina, spokeswoman for Volkswagen Group of America, said the automaker was gearing up for a overhaul of its U.S. product lineup in an effort to turn around its North American operations and boost its presence there.
But the future of the Routan minivan was uncertain, she added. “No decisions have been made regarding the Routan,” Bratina, said, noting that the minivan segment was “significantly impacted by the economic downturn and has not fully recovered.”
Rick Laporte, president of CAW Local 444, said the plant is producing 40 Routans a day from a peak of 500 a week in 2008, when it was first launched.
“We were producing those numbers to fill their showrooms, to get them out there, but then the big economic crunch took place and it dwindled and dwindled and things only got worse,” LaPorte said.
In the U.S. the Routan makes up about four per cent of sales in the minivan segment, while in Canada it constitutes 1.4 per cent of sales. …
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