If built, not in Canada per Lutz
01-17-2006, 01:03 PM
#76
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Friendswood, TX, USA
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Re: If built, not in Canada per Lutz
Originally Posted by morb|d
you missed about 3 months worth of discussion a year to a year and a half ago. the problem is as long the plant was there, it was a CAMARO plant. the CAW had GM's ***** in a vice. so no, it wasn't possible to move Camaro production as that would breach the CAW contract and get GM into all sorts of penalties and troubles.
that saying about the devil in the details... it's especially true when it comes to GM and their myriad of deals and contracts. things that are "obvious" fixes aren't all that obvious when you dig in and discover the "gotchas".
the whole point to get across here, is it was necessery to KILL Camaro, to convince the CAW to level the plant. no plant, no contract, no problem. understood?
that saying about the devil in the details... it's especially true when it comes to GM and their myriad of deals and contracts. things that are "obvious" fixes aren't all that obvious when you dig in and discover the "gotchas".
the whole point to get across here, is it was necessery to KILL Camaro, to convince the CAW to level the plant. no plant, no contract, no problem. understood?
When it appears that it was the politics, and not the cars fault!!
01-17-2006, 02:55 PM
#77
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Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: OSHAWA
Posts: 254
Re: If built, not in Canada per Lutz
The CAW didn't have GM's ***** in vice. It was the various levels of Governement that gave huge amounts of money to keep that plant open so they didn't want to invest big and then NOT have a long term commitment for jobs there from GM.
The plant already had a state of the art paintshop that had been built way before the camaro went to Ste-Therese with the help of you guessed it....government money. This plant had been rumoured to be closed 3 or 4 times even before they landed the F-body. It almost closed in 82, 88 and 91-92!
The plant never had a great track record and even though quality can be increased, why reward a plant with a bad track record with a new product especialy if overcapacity was becoming a big problem???
GM simply saw the rear-wheel drive 2 door coupe as a declining market segment. I was only when Ford redesigned the Mustang and that Chrysler brought out their rear drive cars that GM realized they were wrong. GM never seem to know what will sell and wait for others to test the market first.
Had Bob Lutz been at the helm back then at the right time, it's very possible that the camaro would have seen an earlier redesign, but Lutz arrived too late to save it and the agreement between GM and the CAW and the Goverment became a stumbling block.
Lutz new GM needed to do something so they brought in the GTO.
I hope this new Camaro is made and sells tremendously well. I don't really care where it's made. I just want GM to do well.
The plant already had a state of the art paintshop that had been built way before the camaro went to Ste-Therese with the help of you guessed it....government money. This plant had been rumoured to be closed 3 or 4 times even before they landed the F-body. It almost closed in 82, 88 and 91-92!
The plant never had a great track record and even though quality can be increased, why reward a plant with a bad track record with a new product especialy if overcapacity was becoming a big problem???
GM simply saw the rear-wheel drive 2 door coupe as a declining market segment. I was only when Ford redesigned the Mustang and that Chrysler brought out their rear drive cars that GM realized they were wrong. GM never seem to know what will sell and wait for others to test the market first.
Had Bob Lutz been at the helm back then at the right time, it's very possible that the camaro would have seen an earlier redesign, but Lutz arrived too late to save it and the agreement between GM and the CAW and the Goverment became a stumbling block.
Lutz new GM needed to do something so they brought in the GTO.
I hope this new Camaro is made and sells tremendously well. I don't really care where it's made. I just want GM to do well.
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