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VW midsize crossover production headed for Chattanooga

Potential labor woes aside, it looks like Volkswagen's Chattanooga, TN factory must have done something that impressed the bosses in Germany, because it sounds like the three-year-old factory is set to score a second model.
The factory currently builds the Passat, and has been in the running alongside VW's Puebla, Mexico factory to build a new crossover vehicle, likely based on the CrossBlue Concept. According to Bloomberg, a pair of unnamed sources have confirmed that Chattanooga is the favorite ahead of an official announcement.
When last we heard about the CrossBlue Concept, word was that a production decision had been delayed over concerns about the three-row CUV's business case. That August 2013 story claimed that a decision regarding the CrossBlue would be pushed back until early in 2014, which means we're ripe for some sort of news, whether good or bad.

VW investigating Golf water leak discovered by car magazine

Volkswagen is in a spat with German magazine Auto Bild over claims that its new, seventh-generation Golf may already need a recall. The German weekly reports that new Golfs can leak water into front-passenger footwells due to a faulty drainage tube in their air conditioning systems.
And while the fix itself doesn't sound too terrible, because Volkswagen bases so many cars off the same platform as the Golf, Auto Bild is claiming that 300,000 models could be affected, including the Audi A3 and Seat Leon. That's a very bold claim. For its part, VW is vehemently denying that number, according to Reuters, saying it's aware of the problem and claiming only 46 Golfs need fixing. In addition, it denies that any Audi or Seat models are affected by the issue.
Either way, regardless of how pervasive this leak issue is, North American buyers should rest easy knowing that the problems ought to get fixed by the time the Mk VII Golf finaly reaches our dealerships.

Porsche again staring down another $1.8B in hedge fund lawsuits

The sequence of events from 2007 that began with Porsche's secret attempt to take over Volkswagen, and instead lead to Porsche being taken over by VW, continues to instigate lawsuits against the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer. A group of hedge funds that suffered over $1 billion in losses sued the car company in New York. Porsche had publicly stated it wasn't trying to buy VW, the hedge funds in question were shorting VW stock, and when Porsche's actual intentions were revealed, the stock shot up and the hedge funds took a beating.
The case was thrown out over the issue of jurisdiction, then appealed, only to see another suit filed on top of that. After that, most of the hedge funds withdrew their claims in New York and Porsche offered a 90-day window to refile in Germany where it is already fighting a number of other suits over the same issue. The hedge funds accepted the offer, refiling in Stuttgart for $1.8 billion in damages. According to Bloomberg, Porsche hasn't commented on the refiling, but as the same plaintiffs are involved, it's safe to assume that the carmaker still feels the case is "unsubstantiated and without merit." It has fared alright so far even in German courts, with two lesser cases against it thrown out last year.