In the meantime, April 2 looms as the more pressing deadline.
"The agenda of the meeting in Germany was to really settle in and prepare this new leadership for NADA," Brown said. "They want to make their mark, and they see it as a great opportunity to make their mark because all of the leadership prior to this has been ineffective in the U.S. market."
Brown says VW's dealers need at least 450,000 to 500,000 U.S. sales annually to have a chance at a healthy network, well more than the 330,000 he says VW executives proposed as a target earlier this year.
A 330,000-vehicle market "does nothing but lose Volkswagen a ton of money and puts the dealer at about half of NADA [guidelines] on return on sales," Brown said. "It's a train wreck for both of us."
Volkswagen sold 349,440 vehicles last year -- down 4.8 percent from 2014 -- but has been barred since September from selling diesel cars, which accounted for just more than 20 percent of the brand's volume.
While no firm target has emerged, a Volks-wagen AG spokesman said last week that a larger portfolio of crossovers will aid VW's U.S. growth, anchored by a new midsize crossover built in Chattanooga and a larger, redesigned Tiguan compact crossover built in Mexico.
"Our U.S. dealers are a significant pillar of our business in the USA," the spokesman said following the dealer meetings with VW executives. "It's clear that we want to gain growth in the USA again."
Brown says some short-term "wins" are needed to jump-start that growth. For example, he says, dealers need more Tiguans, which are finally selling strongly with generous incentive support, and more inexpensive Beetles that sell quickly.
Another opportunity is the Passat, whose sales have tanked 37 percent through February despite significant updates to the 2016 model that arrived in the fourth quarter.
More than anything else, Brown says, the NADA meeting represents an opportunity for VW executives and dealers to restore faith in each other.
Said Brown: "We've got more than $1 billion invested in America. Failure is not an option. It's not an option for [VW] AG, and it's not an option for the dealer network."