General Motors says that it will invest $21 million into its Flint Assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, beginning later this year as it begins producing its light-duty 1500-series crew cab pickups at the facility. Currently, GM uses the Flint plant to build heavy-duty variants of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
The plant’s increased capacity comes at the expense of the automaker’s Oshawa, Ontario, truck plant, which closed in May.
“This investment in light-duty crew cab capability enhances Flint Assembly’s manufacturing flexibility and future competitiveness,” said Larry Zahner, GM Manufacturing manager, in a prepared statement released by the automaker. “The plant will now be able to produce both heavy-duty and light-duty trucks for General Motors Company on the same assembly line.”
The plant, which employs 1,767 hourly and salaried workers, currently operates on two shifts. It is unclear how employment levels will differ when the plant adds the extra vehicles.
09/21, 10:56 AM
posted by:
A4
Well this sounds like a certain improvement in efficiency considering it is essentially just an exercise in plant consolidation.
09/21, 11:28 AM
posted by:
NavinRJohnson
It’s nice to see Flint retaining and possibly increasing jobs for a change…..they can certainly use it.
09/21, 11:50 AM
posted by:
DenverGuy217
Great news for Flint let’s hope the market for GM pickups starts to pick up and the union workers learned something from the past and don’t start making unreasonable demands
09/21, 1:19 PM
posted by:
armstealer
Remember when American labor was expensive? Good for Flint, MI certainly needs it. But sorry for Oshawa, I’m sure they need it too.
IF they made $1100 on each truck, this would only take 19,000 trucks to pay for. It’s more like losing $1100 on each, but it’s hard to divide a negative into a positive and get a positive.
“We lose a little bit on every vehicle we sell, so we’re trying to make it up in volume.”
09/21, 1:50 PM
posted by:
The Stig
Great, now put the 4500 Duramax in it so more people will buy it.
09/21, 4:20 PM
posted by:
RaineMan
Amen Stig!
The first manufacturer to market with a diesel 150/1500 pickup will win big.
I just wonder if they are holding off on doing it because they are afraid of losing sales of 250/2500 trucks. I know quite a few guys who stepped up to the “Super/Heavy Duty” trucks simply to get the diesel.
09/21, 10:34 PM
posted by:
Need more oil for GM jackass
GM= Peice of crap. They should have killed it all just like Pontiac. Trucks look stupid. I will always buy foreign. That’s what Consumer Reports says. I will drink the foreign kool-aid if COnsumer Reports says to. Go Lexus and Honda. Go Daihatsu and Yugo. No go GM or Buick. Pieces of crap.
09/22, 9:27 AM
posted by:
fan
like it or not… trucks that size are a dying species… or at least a severely diminuishing one. apart from some blow hard rednecks and some contractors, hardly any one will be buying those in, lets say, 2 years time. good for GM if they extract some money out of the people who are still willing to opt for those vehicles, good for GM if they consolidate their inefficient plants… but be aware that if this their plan for the future, they’re as doomed as ever…
09/22, 6:23 PM
posted by:
ajm11
Need more oil for GM, get a life. Try reading CR for the full size truck segment. The top 3 trucks in that segment are GM, Ford and Dodge. Nissan and Toyota are the worst ranked. GM does make very good vehicles depending on which ones you are looking at. The Cadillac CTS is very well made. The SRX looks like it will do well. JD Power ranked Buick as number tied with Jaguar for best 3 year customer satisfication as well as Buick tops the charts in initial quaility. To be entirely honest, the first car I would look at if I was going to buy a car these days would probably be a Buick Allure (LaCrosse in the U.S.). That is an incredible looking vehicle with the quality to back it up. But I am not in the market for a car and my next turn will most likely be a Duramax Sierra.
09/22, 9:59 PM
posted by:
alsvw
cool, atleast it will not be made in mexico, canada, or japan. gmc makes some of the best trucks out of the big3 and toyota junk and nissan trucks.