Date:         Wed, 31 May 2000 18:44:12 EDT
Reply-To:     A84Westy@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ed Goodrow <A84Westy@AOL.COM>
Subject:      VW Theme Park?
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FYI Vagaonites.   I can see massive refrigerators shaped like vanagons, maybe
take the kiddies to Bug Land.   Maybe the scary village will be called...Der
Leaking Head land?
VW To Build German Auto Theme Park

By HANS GREIMEL
.c The Associated Press


WOLFSBURG, Germany (AP) - It's not often a theme park with its own five-star
hotel proudly overlooks a steaming industrial complex, where sweaty workers
bend iron into autos and towering smokestacks belch skyward.

But in car-crazed Germany, few cars are as venerated as homegrown Volkswagen.

Europe's biggest automaker is banking on that fierce brand loyalty with its
latest venture - a self-styled car theme park called Autostadt, a cross
between Disney World and the Smithsonian Institute that boldly extolls the
virtues of the company that brought us the Beetle.

Expectations are so upbeat that the combination entertainment park,
automotive museum will attract 1 million tourists a year that the Ritz
Carlton hotel chain picked this gloomy factory town as the unlikely location
of its second German hotel, after Berlin.

``When I first saw this site two years ago, I laughed. No way would somebody
build a hotel here,'' said Ritz spokeswoman Vivian Deuschl. ``But now it's
awesome. It's what you'd call industrial romanticism.''

Literally translated as Auto City, the 62-acre complex is wedged between
train tracks, a dirty canal, Volkswagen AG's sprawling red-bricked auto works
and the company's world headquarters.

In a world of cutthroat competition and high tech marketing among the big
time automakers, it's hardly rare for major manufacturers to hype themselves
with their own museums and visitor centers. But Volkswagen takes it all to
the next level.

World-class architects were commissioned to erect the monumental, super
modern halls sheathed in glass with cantilevered aluminum metal work.
Paintings and sculptures adorn every turn of the corner.

``When I first saw the whole thing, I thought it was some kind of art
gallery. I've never seen anything like it,'' said Li Ye, deputy director of
the Chinese Industrial Regulatory Authority, who attended the opening
ceremony during the return leg of a trip to visit the big three automakers in
the United States.

But don't discount Autostadt's entertainment value.

While there's no roller-coaster or Ferris wheel, it does offer wind tunnel
demonstrations, crash test simulations, a 360-degree cinema and even a
go-cart track.

But the highlights are definitely the auto pavilions nestled between man-made
lakes and gentling rolling pine-dotted hills. They showcase the cars of
Volkswagen and its subsidiaries - from little-know daughter companies like
Spain's Seat and the Czech Republic's Skoda to exotic eye-catchers like
Lamborghini and Rolls Royce.

Even German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was on hand to give Autostadt the
nation's blessing during Wednesday's grand opening ceremony, which was timed
to coincide with Expo 2000 taking place in nearby Hanover.

Volkswagen expects many of the visitors will be families. But others will be
there to pick up the brand new cars they ordered from a local dealer, a
prestige-building exercise long employed by Mercedes-Benz but a new move for
a mass-market manufacturer like VW.

For VW, it's all an attempt to make buying their product not just a purchase,
but a pageant.

``It's probably a stereotype that Germans have a special love affair with
their cars, but I've seen so much interest generated overseas in the theme
part, that I don't think its just a German phenomenon,'' Autostadt spokesman
Stefan Vogel said.

Besides the pure entertainment and marketing value, Autostadt is also a
shrewd political move by Volkswagen. The state of Lower Saxony, where
Volkswagen is headquartered and has a vast network of plants, holds 16
percent of VW's stock and gladly welcomes the 1,200 new jobs that will be
created at the theme park.

On the Net: Autostadt at http://www.autostadt.de/english/index.html