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Show VW sales slump, plummet in U.S. Volkswagen, Western Europe's largest automaker, reported sales so far this year down nine percent over the same period for 1981, due mainly to reduced demand de-mand in the United States and West Germany. Chairman Carl Hahn told stockholders that 1.13 million sales for the first six months of this year compares com-pares with 2.33 million for the first half of 1981. The only Volkawagen assembly plant in this country has been idled, and a second plant has been delayed from going into operation. Sales in this country are off 37 percent. Profit slipped from $42.3 million to $41 million, said Hahn. Sales of Volkswagen and Audi models slipped eight percent in West Germany, though the company's market share in the depressed German market increased. |