Since 1981, the Chevrolet Corvette has called Bowling Green home. But a news report by a Michigan television station suggests that America’s Sports Car may be moving its production to Lansing.
GM said recently that a $190 million project is on the books that could bring 600 jobs to one of its current cities that manufacture or assemble GM cars. Some are starting to speculate that production of the Corvette may be in play so Lansing television station WLNS-TV contacted Mike Green, local UAW president for comment and his response:
“Anything’s possible.”
Hardly reassuring to his union colleagues in Bowling Green. Green said Bowling Green could lose the iconic Corvette because it’s the only car built in that plant. On the other hand, Green says, the Grand River plant in Lansing can manufacture or assemble a variety of cars. “Corvette or Camaro or Buick, ya know, there’s a lot of different product lines you can run.”
But what the Corvette and the Cadillac, currently produced at the Grand River plant, have in common is rear wheel drive. That’s something Economist Jim Luke says could play a major role. “It’s fairly expensive to keep a plant alive just for 1 car or 1 platform”, Luke stated.
Mike Green added more fuel to the fire by saying “With ours you’re looking at one of the newer plants that’s been built in North America, so it would make sense.”
GM has built the Corvette in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the past 20 years and currently the plant employs around 600. Across the street from the GM Assembly Plant that builds the Corvette is the unaffiliated multi-million dollar National Corvette Museum.
GM’s final decision isn’t expected for another couple of months.
Mark Leevan, writer for the Corvette Examiner contributed this story.
Update:
Autoblog asked General Motors’ Corvette rep David Caldwell about this rumor and Caldwell said that there had been a roundtable about what the Lansing Grand River plant might produce, and various cars were mentioned, including the Corvette. Caldwell ended the speculation (for now) with “Corvettes are born in Bowling Green,” and “nothing going on in the foreseeable future changes that long-time fact.”
Source:
WLNS-TV
Related:
June 2010 Corvette Sales
Governor Signs Bill Naming Corvette the Official Sports Car of the State of Kentucky
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it does make sense to move a 1 car/platform factory to a multicar one. however im afraid if corvette is shared wtih the other gm offerings , quality would suffer. here is the deal. corvette is an american icon. it deserves to be in there own factory. i hate the fact that robots build our cars. yea yea i understand mass production blah blah blah but you know what a computer engineer CANT ever program in the robots?? PRIDE!!!! those 600 workers at bowling green are proud of being exclusive. im afraid corvette in michigan would get lost in the shuffle and suffer disasterous conciquences. again. my opinion.
Yeah, what STIG said…
Thanks Mike Green from all the UAW 2164 members.
“But as the numbers continue to decrease and we’re on one shift of
production, you might worry about whether or not they move it to a plant
to make another more efficient.”
… Eldon Renaud, UAW Local 2164 Bowling Green President, Feb. 19, 2009
Before you criticize Mike Green in the Lansing Local, you had better
check the home front first.
http://www.kentucky.com/2009/02/19/698760/gm-axes-plans-for-bowling-green.html#ixzz0tffrlot1
@Tim: Good catch! I am trying to chase down comment from GM/Corvette PR.
corvette sales had better pick up soon because GM can not keep a factory open for 12,000 corvettes when it is geared to do almost 3 times as many.
That would be stupid since the NCM and soon to be a huge test track will be right there next to the Bowling Green Assembly. Bowling Green is more then capable of continuing building Corvettes. Not to mention that it would be a huge hit on the NCM is the factory was moved. It would probably be the dumbest thing GM has ever done, and GM has done some dumb things in the past.
GM does not give a rat’s ass about NCM, other than they are giving them free marketing and act as a delivery point for Museum Deliveries. They have no obligation to NCM. Period. In the long line of stupid moves GM has made, let me offer a few: Building the Spring Hill Plant for Saturn, then eliminating Saturn, and it’s dealer network, starting Hummer, eliminating Hummer, killing Pontiac and it’s dealer network and brand loyalty base, and my personal favorite dumbest thing GM has ever done, killing Oldsmobile AND IT’S DEALER NETWORK, and loyal customer base, while it was the oldest American name plate in American Automobile Manfacturing and handed that honor to Ford. Moving the plant from BG and all that free marketing from NCM would be stupid, but when you have available capacity within the company, GM may have no choice. Plant leadership, BG UAW Local, Kentucky officals, should be looking at ADDING a line with the new Cadillac out there waiting to be picked off. FYI, GM Lansing Grand River, and Lansing Delta are the newest GM plants in the world, with available production lines open, set up for modern equipment and quick change over. They just built Delta about 8 years ago. ONE BILLION dollars, the next newest plant is Grand River-Lansing. They will not let available capacity sit there long. They will not let an aging plant with one product producing 55 units a day last long. Drive around the BG plant and let me know what you see that they are maintaining on the property or building which would lead you to believe that GM is commited to staying at GM Bowling Green. I didn’t see anything that told me “long term commitment”.
@Chris Draper: It is not a “test track” it’s a Motorsports facility that has nothing to do with GM testing.
Hard to argue with Tim H. As he points out GM and NCM are unrelated. Would a move kill the NCM? Probably not – it’s very well established among Corvetters. Having the plant tours was nice, but not essential to its existence. GM has supported Corvette fans no matter where they gather. BUT: Tim H. makes a very convincing case.
I have a genius idea, how about moving the assembly of some of the vehicles currently built in MEXICO to Lancing! OMG, brilliant idea…bring the jobs back to Americans. To bad it will never happen because GM is stupid in this respect.
Oldsmobile and saturn were not global brands, you can not just sell you car’s in the united states and survive. If old’s and saturn would have become global brand’s they would have survive. Same as Ford killing off mercury.
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