BIG Dave

Corvette Mike Vietro said the following in his 11/29/18 email blast:

"CORVETTE PLANT IS SAFE

You may have heard the news that GM is closing 5 plants, and that the global workforce of salaried and salaried contract workers will be cut by 15 percent, including a 25 percent cut in GM executives; an estimated cut of 14,000 jobs. The good news is that the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky is not among the five plants set to cease production next year. Like Ford announced a few months ago, GM is calling the closing of the five plants a "transformation", and in its corporate announcement, said the company is going to focus on trucks, crossovers, SUVs and electric vehicles. The GM plants to be closed are in Maryland and Ohio, as well as two in Michigan and one in Canada. Those plants produce sedans, as well as the Chevy Cruze compact and the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid."

ShagVette

duh

Zora.Info

Holy crap, can we please STOP with the worthless threads?? Nobody was even concerned about the Corvette plant, and here you are with info nobody cares about. GM is shutting down those plants becuase the cars they produce are in a dying segment with low profits and sales, and GM wants to plan smart for the future. Why would the Corvette plant be in any danger when it is producing cars in very high demand, and will be producing even more cars very soon. Plus they have the new TT V8 engine to build.

PCMIII

BGA operates at 27% of capacity. Lordstown was operating at 31%. Do the math.

BIG Dave

I never said the plant was in danger. I have read several responses in other threads that Bowling Green may be in danger, so I posted to this to stop people from thinking that.

rsvette12

My brother has a friend in high places - in 5 years GM wont be called GM - this is what happens when they start laying off to get it lean to sell - well see

ShagVette

They just put how many millions in the expansion? Do the math.

PCMIII

They put money into BGA to vastly expand production by making many different vehicles at the plant. The idea that BGA will build a single model of Corvette is ludicrous.

NY09C6

They made the Cruze there. Consumers do not want cars anymore, they want crossovers and SUVs. Killing the car kills the plant. The Corvette has survived every downturn for the past 70 years and we are not even in one right now.

ShagVette

Correct. But you're the one that replied with "BGA operates at 27% of capacity. Lordstown was operating at 31%. Do the math." to Why would the Corvette plant be in any danger when it is producing cars in very high demand, and will be producing even more cars very soon.

RonnieC6Z

BG operating at 27% capacity simply means that there is very little demand, at this point in time, for the 2019 C7 Corvette. Come next summer when production of the 2020 ME C8 Corvette begins, BG will be at 100% capacity for quite some time.

Kodiak Bear

In my youth, I was part of a team modernizing, updating spending lots of $s in those days value a plant under the direction of the BoD. For a different corporation. At the end of the what was judged as a very successful program that met all requirements, that same BoD voted to close the plant.

Straight power politics at the BoD level. The millions spent don't mean squat at that level!

IMO, What does mean squat is power and perspective. The question is of what value is the Corvette to the BoD? If the BoD percieves the Corvette
to be of value to them personally and professionally, and it doesn't cost them anything (is profitable), it will stay in production.

I believe the Corvette meets those criteria.

Doesn't hurt that Ford's GT is an ego challenge.

Doen't hurt that the government team that "saved" GM, kept the Corvette in production with lots of paper to defend the case.

Rationalization not rational thinking.

PCMIII

Last time I checked, Corvette is not a CUV or SUV. At the New GM, they have one metric: profits and EPS. Corvette survived under the Old GM where tradition was king.

pickleseimer

Who is Corvette Mike? Is he a GM dealer or executive?

dreamr616

Cadillac CT6 on the other hand was a big loser during this "transformation" even though GM spend millions developing and marketing it. It got great reviews as Cadillac's halo vehicle but didn't sell well so it got the ax. I was really surprised by that move but in the bigger scheme of things it makes perfect sense.

PCMIII

CT6 was way overpriced for the interior. Exterior looked like something out of the '80s.

JoesC5

I believe that the point was that the CT6 is a product of the new GM, and not some 30-40 year old platform carryover from the old GM. 31 months in the marketplace and the NEW CT6 is now history.

JoesC5

Currently the C7 is being produced at the same rate that the 1990 Corvette was being produced, and it's a fact that GM was ready to axe the Corvette in 1992.

PCMIII

Life comes at you fast, especially in the auto biz.

NY09C6

If it were it would be cut. It is not, it will stay.