Meanwhile, in the region, the resistance machine was starting up. IG-Metall distributed 50,000 stickers and 40,000 buttons. The mayor at that time of Neckarsulm, Dr. Erhard Klotz, wrote letters and telegrams. The Heilbronner Stimme analysed the company figures and reported that Audi NSU, unlike VW, had not been in the red in the 1974 financial year. The struggle also met with a lively media response outside the region: „Solang mer no schnauft, is mer ned tot” (As long as we breathe we are not dead) the Spiegel quoted Karl Walz, chairman of the Neckarsulm works council. The Stuttgarter Zeitung also put the fight on the front page.

Just one week into his job, Toni Schmücker made the press reports a topic of discussion in the board of directors and, parallel to the closure plan, had a concept drawn up that was

supposed to avoid the closure of Neckarsulm - initially probably only intended as a tranquilliser. At a meeting with Mayor Klotz and the then Minister President of Baden-Württemberg, Hans Filbinger, in Stuttgart at the beginning of March, Schmücker still signalled that Neckarsulm was "in the greatest danger".

But the protests had an effect. According to the minutes of 5 March, Schmücker reported to his colleagues on the board "that the closure of the Neckarsulm plant would be met with very strong resistance, which would make the implementation of the measures very difficult, if not impossible".