[tomlink]

I just read that GM is shutting down Oshawa production at the end of 2019. Politics aside, I am saddened because these folks built my ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS 2011.

I hope the Camaro can endure wherever it is now produced, but given current reviews Oshawa did a far better job. At least for me I know that is true.

[JLSuperfly]

I read that GM is shutting a few other plants in North America.

[01pewterz28]

Originally Posted by RealG

Is anybody really surprised? The redesign Camaro ugly and not selling ,
the brand new Chevy blazer is just wrong on so many levels and won’t sell. They desperately just put a four cylinder in their full-size Silverado truck which won’t sell. General motors has the same problems it’s always had internal government like bureaucracy they can’t get anything done efficiently and will Ultimately fail, Because nothing was really changed after their collapse. So history will repeat.
Timimg is good news for the media and GM as they will blame President Trump for all GM problems now.

I will say I saw the new Blazer it's nice but needs the V6 and a V8 option.

The Silverado I loved the new look until I sat it on after sitting in a new Dodge Ram 1500 at the auto show this weekend. A 1500 Hi-Country vs a loaded 1500 Ram was less then $2k difference and the Ram had better everything in it from the quality of the materials to the comfort of the seats to the Tech.

If I was in the market for a pickup I would not even look at the Silverado the Ram has both the Silverado and F150 beat.

[Vtor_ZL1]

Thye're just moving out of plants were tax cuts have dried up.


Let dust settle and they'll be looking for next town to suck off of and then tax bills comes. nopes, we're out, keep the building.


Rinse repeat. Corporate welfare at its best.

[TRZ06]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeROC

I've been saying the exact same thing. They have priced new V8 Camaros outside of the core demographics that really want them, younger people who are cash strapped and people with families who want a toy car on the side of all of life's other responsibilities and expenses.

It is a double edge sword.

Enthusiasts want the good stuff. When I got my C5 Z06, it was amazing performance, but the components used were cheap and was just enough (in the case of brake rotors and clutches not quite enough) to withstand its intended purpose.

I applaud GM for making a proper track car with proper components. There is no free lunch though, higher quality components cost more.

But, I am one of the 2% car guy, while most general population are not.

[rburke76]

General Motors said Monday it will cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce in the face of a declining market for traditional gas-powered sedans, shifting more investment to electric and autonomous vehicles.
GM's actions add up to the biggest restructuring for the U.S. No. 1 carmaker since its bankruptcy a decade ago, and mark a turning point for the North American auto industry. U.S. automakers have enjoyed nearly a decade of prosperity since the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the government bailouts of GM and the former Chrysler Corp.
Now, GM and its rivals are facing rising bills for technological transformation, increased risks from trade policy and investors reluctant to fund their traditional product strategies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday highlighted the political risks facing GM by demanding the automaker find a new vehicle to build in Ohio and adding that he had told GM Chief Executive Mary Barra he was unhappy with her decision to cut production at an Ohio factory. Ohio will be a key state in the 2020 presidential campaign.
"We don't like it," Trump said. "I believe they will be opening up something else. I was very tough. I spoke with her when I heard they were closing and I said, ‘You know, this country has done a lot for General Motors. You better get back in there."
Barra on Monday portrayed the decision to put five North American factories on notice for potential closure and cut nearly 15,000 jobs as necessary to keep the company strong as it plows money into new technology and new businesses such as robo-taxi services.
"This industry is changing very rapidly," Barra said during a press briefing. "These are things we are doing to strengthen our core business."
GM shares rose as much as 7.8 percent following the announcement, and were nearly 6 percent higher at $37.97 in afternoon trading. Shares of Detroit rivals Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV also rose, outpacing the broader market.
GM plans to halt production next year at three assembly plants: the Lordstown small car factory near Youngstown, Ohio; the Detroit-Hamtramck complex in Detroit; and the Oshawa, Ontario, assembly complex near Toronto. It will also stop building several models now assembled at those plants, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, the Cadillac CT6 and the Buick LaCrosse. The Cruze compact car will be discontinued in the U.S. market in 2019, although GM may continue building it in Mexico for other markets, Barra said.
Plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and the suburban Detroit community of Warren, Michigan, both of which make powertrain components, have no products assigned to them after 2019 and are at risk of closure, GM said. The company said it will also close two unidentified factories outside North America.
"We are right-sizing capacity for the realities of the marketplace," Barra said.
GM is also moving to cut capital spending overall, even as it says it will double the resources dedicated to electric and self-driving vehicles over the next two years.
GM last year promised to launch a fleet of 20 new battery electric vehicles in North America by 2023, along with at least 10 new electric vehicles in China by 2020. The expenditures to bring those vehicles to production will start to hit with new batteries and body architectures designed to generate profits.
GM also is ramping up hiring at its GM Cruise autonomous vehicle unit, pushing to overcome technical challenges and make good on a plan to launch a robo-taxi service next year.
Even with the higher spending on electric and autonomous vehicles, GM plans to reduce overall annual capital spending to $7 billion by 2020 from an average of $8.5 billion a year during the 2017-2019 period. The automaker has come under pressure from investors to return more cash in the form of share buybacks and dividends.
Cost pressures on GM and other automakers and suppliers have increased as demand has waned for traditional sedans. The company has said tariffs on imported steel, imposed earlier this year by the Trump administration, have cost it $1 billion.
Barra did not link Monday's cuts to tariff pressures, but said trade costs are among the "headwinds" GM faces as it deals with broader technology change and market shifts.
GM's actions provoked anger from political figures on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, and from its main North American unions.
The United Auto Workers, which represents U.S. workers, vowed to fight the cuts. "General Motors' decision today ... will not go unchallenged by the UAW," said Terry Dittes, the union's vice president in charge of negotiations with GM. Some UAW workers could land jobs at other GM factories, but many will face uncertain futures unless GM reverses course.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with Barra and expressed "deep disappointment."
In the United States, Trump's economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was scheduled to meet with Barra on Monday.
GM said it will take pretax charges of $3 billion to $3.8 billion to pay for the cutbacks, but expects the actions to improve annual free cash flow by $6 billion by the end of 2020.
SMALLER WORKFORCE
GM's North American salaried workforce, including engineers and executives, will shrink by 15 percent, or about 8,000 jobs. The company said it will cut executive ranks by 25 per cent to "streamline decision making."
Even as GM is moving to lay off salaried staff, the company is hiring. At GM's Detroit headquarters on Monday, there were signs directing people to a "new hire orientation" meeting.
Barra said GM can reduce annual capital spending by $1.5 billion and increase investment in electric and autonomous vehicles and connected vehicle technology because it has largely completed investing in new generations of trucks and sport utility vehicles. Some 75 percent of its global sales will come from just five vehicle architectures by the early 2020s, which means GM can reduce the people and capital required to keep its product portfolio updated.
Unlike Japanese automakers Nissan Motor Co Ltd, Honda Motor Co Ltd and Toyota Motor Corp, which rely on a more flexible system where they make multiple vehicles at a single plant, GM has too many factories that make just a single model.
The collapse in sales of compact and midsize sedans has hit certain GM models harder than rival Japanese brands. Sales of the Honda Civic are down 11 percent through the first 10 months of 2018. But sales of the Chevrolet Cruze are off 22 percent.
The Hamtramck and Lordstown assembly plants are currently operating on one shift. A rule of thumb for the automotive industry is that if a plant is running below 80 percent of production capacity, it is losing money. GM has several plants running well below that, and Barra said North American operations overall were operating at 70 percent capacity. Consultancy LMC estimates that Lordstown operates at just 31 percent of production capacity in 2018.
Through the UAW, workers at Lordstown have worked to improve quality, cut the number of union locals to make it easier for GM to negotiate and agreed to the outsourcing of some jobs, in a bid to persuade the automaker to add more models to its factory line.
Trump won Ohio in 2016 campaigning on bringing manufacturing jobs back to America.
"So far, President Trump has been asleep at the switch and owes this community an explanation," U.S. Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Lordstown, wrote on Twitter.
At the same time, many of GM's plants producing its higher-margin trucks and SUVs are running on three shifts, with some running six and sometimes seven days a week to keep up with demand. Some displaced GM car plant workers could find jobs at truck factories, GM officials said.
Rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler have both curtailed U.S. car production. Ford said in April it planned to stop building nearly all cars in North America. Fiat Chrysler moved even earlier to discontinue most of its sedans.

[Memphis SS]

Originally Posted by Chevmaro

Do we need to start a letter writing campaign to save the Camaro?

Not sure if I missed something here in the thread but the Camaro is currently built in Lansing, so nothing to do with the current closing.

I do hate to hear the loss of jobs..

[Memphis SS]

Originally Posted by Glen e

the motivation by mfrs to go electric has little to do with beeing better for the nvironment.

once tooling and mfr processes meet economies of scale, they will be faster, have more interior room and easier to put together. and most important to them, make more money.

they may claim green , but its all about whats best for them....

It's about being Green... But no one has asked the type of Green.. $$$$

[protovack]

Originally Posted by Doc

Unfortunately it may already be too late. If they knew how to save the Camaro, they would have done it already. The lead time takes too long to make significant changes and they need to make significant changes.

For the last few years in Camaro5 and this forum, I've been harping on the need for them to get a vision of what a great pony car is and should be, and reinvent it. I got all kinds of flak from the fan boys who insisted they loved the bunker housing cabin, big hips, transformer toy looks. That's great except it completely misses the mark. GM priced the Camaro out of the range of its former Camaro base, and we saw the effects of that last year when 4 months of unsold inventory was sitting on dealer's lots. Those cars didn't begin to sell until they drastically reduced the prices, which probably didn't make any money for GM and made it clear price was an issue.

GM is a business, not an emotional passion club. If it doesn't make money they aren't going to continue it, as we've seen in the announcements today. By making the Camaro an expensive track toy, they nailed the 2% of the market base that wants that, which is most of what's in here. It's probably not enough to keep the car alive. They could keep those cars, but should have also (maybe they are but we haven't seen it yet) reinvented the pony car and made it affordable again for the market base they used to have; the 98% that isn't/didn't buy the Camaro as it is now.

They're caught in old-school thinking of one-customer, one-vehicle buyers. That's no longer the case today. Yes SUVs and trucks are selling, but those buyers also have more than one vehicle. If they'd position a reinvented pony car as a second or third car choice, and put it in a price range that makes it appealing for that purpose, they'd see a lot more sales. This won't be a track monster; there won't be videos of it at the 'Ring setting lap records. The 98% doesn't even know what that is, nor do they care. They're never taking a car to the track. While appealing to them might seem like sacrilege to those in here, if the 98% decide to buy in big numbers, that's what will keep the Camaro track cars in business that you guys like and buy.

GM is in real trouble. What they announced today wasn't a growth strategy. Blaming Trump or anything else is a fatal mistake; the problem lies within. They're carrying a huge amount of retirement costs. They're not leading anymore, they're following; design by trend rather than by vision. What they announced today is their plan to make the company appear profitable by amputation. That has absolutely no vision for future growth.

I saw this coming and was warning about it years ago; it makes me terribly sad to see it happening. I feel terrible for the employees; there's nothing like finding out you're losing your job right before Christmas.

GM... don't blame; think and change. GM execs... drive around neighborhoods and notice what customers are actually buying. Don't put all your eggs in the SUV/truck basket because that basket is getting close to saturation. Think; look ahead. People aren't going to be replacing those expensive SUV/trucks every year. That market is going to experience an adjustment, and it'll be pretty severe. If you think electric is going to save you, take a look at Tesla; business-wise it's a crap sandwich. It can't stand on its own without subsidies. If you're going electric, you need to start NOW with a dealer/support/charging infrastructure so that by the time you go 'all-electric' the way you think you want to, it will work. As a poster already said in this thread, how is the electricity generated? You want to sell electric? Make solar charging stations at every GM dealer, and make it free to charge there; that would be a good start. Start negotiating NOW with a major gas company to invest in solar charging units at their gas stations. You have to do more than follow trends, or you'll follow them right over the cliff.

Oh come on now. I've had enough doom and gloom. GM is a global business just like any other. They close plants and open new ones. It's not the end of GM, it's not the end of Camaro. Please. GM is one of the most forward thinking companies out there, with many of their vehicles able to run on E85 and not much of a stretch to get to full ethanol operation. Ethanol is the future and liquid fuels are not going anywhere. Electric is a niche market for here and now that's it. GM is hedging on both sides. Plant closures aren't done because they "hate workers" or because their business model is failing. Rather, they close (and open) plants in response to a variety of economic factors. Closing these plants will likely ensure that other plants stay open and doing well. Politicians obviously have to come out publicly and say they are "so concerned" about the closures (those employees vote), but they know just as well as anyone else why it is happening. Meanwhile people on here use routine news such as a plant closure as an excuse to predict the failure of GM and the Camaro, or just to hate on the 6th gen camaro. I feel bad for the families depending on those paychecks but, if you fall into the trap of thinking a corporation is always going to be there to take care of you, you are dreaming. Sorry. And if you don't like the 6th gen Camaro that's fine. But take a look around. The 6th gen camaro re-ignited passion for Camaro and it appears to me that enthusiasm for this car is at an all time high. The car sold in solid numbers and it dwindled down near the end of this generation's cycle just as everyone expected, nobody is surprised, GM isn't either. They've probably made a good profit off this car and I'm glad they did. The base model camaro is not designed to be a track monster and I believe your hypothesis about GM mistakenly targeting "track rats" is way off base. Plenty of people have bought V6 or 2.0 camaros just to have a fun daily driver and I think they got their money's worth considering even those cars are trackable with easy upgrades.

[vinman]

It's a sad day for sure, mine was one of the last coming out the doors up there

[Whocares05050]

Theres already a thread on this

[Moto-Mojo]

If you consider what I believe is driving these changes being the moving target that is millennials, then I don’t see the Camaro faring well over the long haul. The Boomer is long in the tooth. But that’s just it, the consumer world is so dynamic. The Big Three have also conceded that their once-coveted, younger customer base would just as soon Uber instead of owning a car where loans take 6-8 years to pay off.

I’m in the driveshaft business. I’m glad to see the SUV and pick up still being desirable, even though I plan to ride into the sunset in 3 or less years. In my Camaro!

[WCKD 1LE]

Yup ^^^

[ItsChristianInHD]

Rant incoming.
I am currently and sadly here in Ohio for right now. The market changed. No one wants a car anymore, SUVs get nearly just the same gas mileage as a car. It is sad...jobs are being lost...I know a lot of employees are getting transferred to other plants which is good, that’s the thing going right now. I don’t know what anyone can do to save the plant. The fact that GM will not retool the Lordstown plant for the Blazer is bullshit. They know they can pay a multitude of people MUCH less in wages in Mexico to build them. Rather than keeping jobs for the men and woman in America. It’s complete bullshit. The people that run this state are not much better, they could care less about anyone.

This is why I am currently applying for IT jobs in North, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas. There’s no jobs up here. **** Ohio.