Autoworkers cheered ten years ago, when the first Volkswagen Rabbit hopped off the assembly line in Westmoreland County, Pa. It was the start of a new breed: a foreign brand built on U.S. soil by American workers. The plant's initial success helped inspire Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda to open U.S. plants of their own. But last week the pioneering VW plant came to grief, a victim of growing competition in the American market. Volkswagen, whose U.S. sales have plunged from 162,005 autos in 1981 to 73,920 last year, said it would halt production at the Westmoreland site, its only American...
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