Automotive Program Accepts Volkswagen Atlas Donation

September 15, 2020

Hudson Valley Community College’s Automotive programs, which have been training Capital Region automotive and auto body technicians for more than five decades, recently accepted the donation of a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas, the German carmaker’s sport utility vehicle.

Volkswagen is joining with its local dealers to donate vehicles to universities, colleges, technical and trade schools with automotive programs and will assist with developing future Volkswagen-trained technicians throughout the country.

“Today’s cars and trucks have more and more diagnostic and performance software systems, so it’s critical that we have access to newer vehicle models to train our automotive students,” said Applied Technologies Department Chair George Raneri. “We really appreciate the generosity of Volkswagen and the support of our local dealers in offering to donate these vehicles for the benefit of our students.”

Hudson Valley is one of nine institutions from Massachusetts to Michigan that will receive a donated vehicle from Volkswagen of America’s Northeast region this fall. The selected schools will collaborate with local dealerships to provide supplemental assistance and instruction on the donated equipment.

“At Volkswagen we strongly believe in investing in the next generation and with our growing model lineup, it’s critical we give these young technicians the opportunity to be hands on with our vehicles to help ensure we continue to deliver a high level of customer satisfaction in the future,” said John Peterson, Director of Fixed Operations.

Peterson said donation also includes connection to its ODIS (off board diagnostic information system) that runs proprietary diagnostics specific to the Volkswagen brand.

Representatives from Volkswagen as well as sales and service managers from Cooley, Fucillo and Nemer auto groups were on hand for the donation, which took place in Cogan Hall’s Senior Automotive Lab.