OilMaggott

AP:

A factory in Bowling Green, Ky., that makes Chevrolet Corvettes and the Cadillac XLR sports cars will be idled the week of Dec. 1. The plant employs about 900 workers. GM previously said that the Cadillac assembly line will be shut down that week.

Lucerne and DTS sales are each down 32 percent through the first nine months of the year. Cadillac XLR sales are off 26 percent and Corvette sales are off 9 percent.

The plants are scheduled to reopen after the one-week shutdowns.

FAST ZR1

I was just going to start a link. (Below you will find the whole story)

http://canadianpress.google.com/arti...Lb9g4vxgYcX58w

So they get the line up and running and now they are going to shut down again?

OilMaggott

Thanks for adding the link

xilr8n

No tours at bowling green assembly on these dates
November 4
November 14
November 27
November 28
December 1
December 2
December 3
December 4
December 5
December 24
December 25
December 26
December 29
December 30
December 31

curvesman

Ouch!

CETA 256

benspruce

Aren't corvette and most sports car sales slow during winter months, even when the economy is good? Add to that a global financial crisis and....jeepers

mpett1

Yea they have to get ready for the merger!!

allanlaw

The danger is that GM may decide that it is too expensive to keep Bowling Green open with less than a full shift on the line. Yes, I know that GM appears to make a nice profit on each Corvette sold, but this may be based primarily on the more visible variable costs (like parts and labor). I just have a really bad feeling about where this is all heading . . .

vette6799

I have had the same feeling for a while.

With no money allocated to develop the C7 and with the higher end market in trouble, C6 sales will lag over time even more than they are now. At some point, GM may well pull the plug and that could be sooner than later.

Minkster

WSJ yesterday had an article talking about the possibility of bankruptcy should GM not get the $ for the Chrysler merger. Should GM go into bankruptcy, it would ruin the marque such that it might never recover as a viable automobile manufacturer. Corvette sales are a drop in the bucket, plus the car is a drag on CAFE standards since it is below the mark (GM needs other cars with higher MPG to offset Corvette numbers), so not a lot going for the car given the extreme decisions GM is facing to stay in business.

homervet

If GM is in trouble it would appear that the Corvette is in trouble...But Chrysler is in much deeper trouble and they still make the Viper...GM stoped making the rear wheel drive Impala that every police dept..cab company and salesman bought..Theysold them by the truckload and they dropped them so how do you figure what their big picture is.

robvuk

I agree with most of what you say except for the mileage issue. If a profitable division like the Corvette get's dropped, "because it's a drop in the bucket" profit wise, the same holds true for the mileage. If the corporate fleet average is let's say 30, dropping the Corvette will make it 30.1. A virtual drop in the bucket.

So let's not worry about the Corvette getting dropped because it doesn't get the mileage of an Aveo. It gets waaaay better mileage than a GMC Denali or Escalade or Suburban and they sell a lot more of those than they do Corvettes. People have a MISCONCEPTION about what gas guzzlers are. Until the ZR1 there has never been a gas guzzler tax on a Corvette. I think that bodes very well for the Corvette.

People have to just stop buying giant oversize trucks for daily commuters if they want to save some gas. And GM better be planning for that demographic shift. With gas prices back down to $2, who knows. Ignorant people will go back to buying behemoth trucks. Foreign ones, no less, and then they'll wonder why gas prices are back up and they're out of a job. jmho.

RichieRichZ06

Buy Chrysler, pocket the $8 billion in the bank, keep Jeep running and close the other Chrysler brands to eliminate competition. Sounds like a good plan from here.

curvesman

Wish I would have thought of that!

GlennSullivan

When you look at it from the other side of the fence..............

Cerberus is pressing to swap the balance of GMAC that GM owns for the majority stake in Chrysler Cerebus owns.

Humm..

Could Cerebus want this because there is a massive (massive) bailout in place for financial firms including GMAC (lots of mortgage debt) that would allow GMAC to cleanse most of its soiled laundry, but nothing in place to help automakers?

So GM could buy Chrysler from Cerberus in exchange for the other 49% of GMAC they own.

In return they get 8 billion in cash AND a near bankrupt automaker with a much more unmarketable (except Jeep) product line AND a huge UAW worker retirement liability.

GM should have NEVER sold 51% of GMAC in the first place and should definitely not give up the other 50%, why do you think DB dumped Chrysler??

proexpert

My dad was a lifetime Oldsmobile guy. When I told him that GM was dropping Oldsmobile, he told me I was crazy. Corvette is far less than Oldsmobile ever was, it could happen. The Corvette and XLR could be killed off easily and quickly.

robvuk

[QUOTE=GlennSullivan;1567644084
Could Cerebus want this because there is a massive (massive) bailout in place for financial firms including GMAC (lots of mortgage debt) that would allow GMAC to cleanse most of its soiled laundry, but nothing in place to help automakers?
[/QUOTE]

Funny you should say that. GMAC is already applying to receive FED bailout status.

robvuk

Oldsmobile was losing money for many years and had similar built cars in the other divisions. Corvette is successful and has no Buick or Pontiac counterpart.

vette6799

And now this confirmation about development spending. Probably old news, but not good for the vette.

http://freep.com/article/20081029/BUSINESS01/81029030