Tennessee Valley Folks Excited About Volkswagen

Volkswagen excitement is contagious these days...

It seems everywhere you go people are thrilled VW is coming to Chattanooga.

From news paper headlines to grocery shopping, everyone is talking about Volkswagen.

Nancy Packard grins and talks animatedly while putting her groceries in the trunk, "Having a company like Volkswagen...it's fabulous."

Less than a week after Tuesday's announcement... it seems the buzz keeps growing.

Packard says, "Everybody's talking about it from Nashville to Atlanta to Knoxville, everybody's excited."

Charles Denney says, "You know it's gonna be a bunch of jobs."

Heather Silvious says, "I just think it's fabulous and its gonna create great growth and great opportunity for the city."

Everyone that is....except maybe this guy who didn't want to be identified, "It's gonna jam up highway 58 and make it bad for me."

Although the good natured chap did finally admit he likes the prospect of new jobs, "It's not going to affect me. I'm old."

The excitement is about more than the expected 16,000 jobs the company will generate.

People say Volkswagen will create a better quality of life.

Packard says wages will increase and Silvious thinks it means better schools.

Former mechanic Charles Denney has another opinion, "You gonna have less of the super rich and the super poor, you're gonna have something in between. And I'm looking forward to that."

For Betty Denham, the German Automakers $1 Billion initial investment will revitalize what she called a 'Dying City.'

She says, "Because nothing has come in here for so long, everything's going out. I think its great."

For Nancy Packard, Volkswagen is a chance for her college age son to find a terrific opportunity close to home, "It's fabulous that hopefully we can keep some of our teens in town."

Whatever the reason, it's safe to say the Tennessee Valley is excited about VW.