Word: nordhoff
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...Detroit's prestigious Economic Club, hardly a limousine's length away from the National Auto Show, the titans of U.S. autodom last week heard some frank talk from one of their most successful foreign rivals. The outspoken visitor: handsome, hearty Heinz Nordhoff, 63. chairman of West Germany's Volkswagenwerk, which sells in the U.S. one out of every six cars it produces...
...Nordhoff, who had come to the U.S. to dedicate the new $2,500,000 Volkswagen headquarters in New Jersey, noted that nary a Volkswagen was to be seen around Cobo Hall. "Well," said he genially, "this is a 'national' auto show, isn't it?" To a luncheon audience that included Henry Ford II, G.M. Chairman Frederic Donner and Chrysler's President Lynn Townsend, he urged U.S. and foreign automakers to make common cause in ending all trade barriers in the free world. "I look with the same great concern as you do on the protectionist thinking...
Neither U.S. industry nor U.S. labor should fear free trade, Nordhoff argued. "Competition has made this country great. American competition will help make Europe great also." And then he gently suggested that maybe U.S. industry was not as alertly competitive as it might be. "This has been demonstrated to us at Volkswagen during the last half year. Out of 500 letters sent to companies in this country producing items we could use, over half were not even answered. Another 40% were answered, but the firms stated they were not interested. Only 10% seemed to want our business enough to respond...
...under German corporate law, a directors' vote is not binding on management, and last week, politely rebuffing his board, Volkswagen's laconic President Heinz Nordhoff coolly announced that the increase would stick...
...million on these cars-about $150 million on the Corvair, $100 million each for Falcon and Valiant, $350 million for the "bigger" compacts. How well this huge gamble pays off will affect not only Detroit, but automakers and buyers round the world. Says West Germany's Heinz Nordhoff, president of Volkswagen, with some understatement: "1960 will be the most interesting year in the history of the U.S. automobile industry...