Last Friday, production of the Volkswagen Passat was stopped in Emden, Germany. Not because there aren’t enough customers for the car. There are too many.
Lines were stopped, and both shifts were sent home. 1,000 Passats remained unmade that day. The reason: Missing parts. The surging demand for automobiles worldwide leads to capacity constraints at suppliers. Many had closed their doors during carmageddon, the surviving ones had cut down on capacities. Now they are swamped.
The local paper Emder Zeitung says a supplier had problems with cockpit parts. Not an isolated occurrence. A week ago, Dr. Jürgen Geissinger, VP of the German industry organization Verband der Autoindustrie (VDA) reported “shortages from raw materials all the way to electronic components.”
Over in the UK, GM’s Vauxhall grouches that they can’t find enough British parts. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders sees shortages everywhere: The industry is running out of “alloy wheels, alternators and starter motors, brake components, castings and forgings, fasteners, nuts and bolts, plastic mouldings in general, large stampings, sheet steel and aluminium, transmission components and wiring harnesses.” Sounds like the only item that is available in quantity are wiper blades.
Back in Emden, VW spokesman Georg Göricke promised to Das Autohaus that normal Passat production will resume Monday, and that the missing 1,000 units will be built before the year is over.
Just-in-time is great. As long as the parts arrive just-in-time. Stock levels are depleted. The only stocks that are up: Those of the formerly down and out parts suppliers. Morningstar says that “auto-parts stocks have been one of the best-performing industries in 2010, with such prominent names as Magna International, BorgWarner, and TRW all up more than 75 percent for the year to date.”
Good for VW. When demand outstripped supply for GM, they just shipped cars with missing parts. This promotes VW to being the car I’m second least likely to buy.
The South Dakota winds must be getting to your head, or I might be reading your post wrong. Your saying you would rather buy a car from gm that has missing parts over a company that is willing to stop their assembly line to avoid missing parts?
2nd least likely…. sorta like finishing next to last in a 2 man sprint, in same sprint Great Russian ruler finished 2nd.
GM would be the carmaker I would least likely buy a car from. VW is the automaker I would be 2nd least likely to buy a car from. 3rd-10th least likely would be a bunch of other cars I probably wouldn’t be consider. 11th-15th would be companies I might consider if they had an attractive product. 16th least likely and better would be brands whose model lines I would look at to see if they had anything to meet my current needs.
Anybody got that blond chick’s phone number? I’d like to date a girl that can fix my car for a change.
might want to get a more recent photo before committing to a date
that photo is at least 5 years old
Looks can be deceiving.
NO WAY!! That ‘blond chick‘ is in fact, 50 year old engineer (Herr) Jens Hermann?!! :-o
…. or are you saying that the pic is in fact, not 5 years old? Some clarity needed ;-)
That picture looks older to me. The cars appear to be B5 or B5.5 Passat variants.