Chattanooga

Shared dinner with Ralph Jakobs, head of research and development for Volkswagen. He is located here in Chattanooga home to the first U.S. Volkswagen plant, which we will tour tomorrow.

The new Passat, which we also drive from Chattanooga to Nashville tomorrow, is being built here. There's been a lot of anticipation around the car and my colleague journalists and I are looking forward to getting into the cars.

Jakobs shared some pretty interesting information tonight. About 85% of the parts in the new Passat are sourced in America. Some also come from Mexico where VW used to build the New Beetle and some from Germany. But 85% American parts? That's amazing when you think how difficult it is to buy anything made here anymore.

I asked how many parts were sourced in China. "One," said Jakobs, "the sunvisor." Really? Only one part sourced in China? Wow.

More later on the plant and the vehicle.