Joanne Benante was in the market for a new car, and she knew she wanted something special. She went to Jim Ellis, a dealer in her hometown of Atlanta, and placed an order for a Volkswagen Passat TDI SEL Premium, complete with six-speed DSG® dual-clutch automatic transmission, Night Blue exterior and Moonrock leather interior. Pretty special, right? We sure thought so. She drove from Atlanta to our state-of-the-art facility in Chattanooga to pick up her new Passat. What made it even more special, though, is that Joanne’s car was the 100,000th Passat produced in Chattanooga. Clearly, that called for a celebration.
Volkswagen employees drove Joanne’s milestone Passat off the production line to the facility’s Conference Center, where an all-employee meeting was being held. Volkswagen Chattanooga CEO and Chair Frank Fischer personally handed the keys over to Joanne, who received a hearty round of applause from hundreds of Volkswagen employees as she drove her new car through the front doors back to its new home in Atlanta.
The Chattanooga team celebrated completion of the first Passat just over a year ago. Since then, the Passat, specially designed for the North American market, has gone on to become the winner of the Motor Trend magazine 2012 Car of the Year award, Kelly Blue Book’s Family Car of the Year and Cars.com Best of 2012 award.
All in all, it was a very special moment for us. More importantly, it was a special moment for Joanne. We look forward to many more moments like this.
Tell us: if you could have any Passat, which one would you buy?