GM launches plant-city tour to showcase line-up, empower employees to promote new vehicles

2010-03-01

• Latest Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles to visit 40 GM plants
• More than 40,000 employees will get up-close, in-depth look at products
• Program encourages employees to be advocates for the  vehicles

DETROIT – General Motors announced today a program called the GM Vehicle Plant Tour that encourages employees across North America to help drive awareness and sales in their communities for GM’s latest vehicles.

The GM Vehicle Plant Tour, launched this week, will give employees at 40 North American manufacturing facilities the first-hand experience and knowledge they need to become active spokespeople for the newest models from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.

As part of the GM Vehicle Plant Tour, General Motors is sending four semi-trucks with six vehicles each – 24 vehicles in all – on a tour that will make monthly stops at major GM plants across the United States and Canada. By the end of the tour, the program will have reached facilities where more than 40,000 employees work.

The GM Vehicle Plant Tour, jointly developed and run by United Auto Workers and salaried team members, is an unprecedented effort by GM to connect employees, their friends, family and surrounding communities, to the company’s latest models. The tour runs from March to December, beginning this month at GM plants in Arlington, Texas, Tonawanda, N.Y., and Defiance, Ohio.

Loaded with marketing materials that highlight product features, the vehicles will be used by the plants for overnight employee test drives, shorter ride-and-drive programs and community events that showcase the vehicles. Employees are encouraged to allow non-GM employees to test drive the vehicles as long as a GM employee is a passenger.

“Employees across North America have played a vital role in creating an outstanding line-up of new vehicles for Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac,” said Denise Johnson, GM Vice President for Labor Relations. “We want to give our employees the opportunity to become even more familiar with the final products, so they can speak based on first-hand experience about our line-up.”

The GM Vehicle Plant Tour is built on the premise that personal, word-of-mouth testimonials are the best way to persuade consumers to try and buy new products. The program is designed to engage employees at all levels in outreach efforts to provide these testimonials one-on-one in their communities.

“The hardworking men and women at these plants are focused each day on producing high-quality vehicles,” said Cal Rapson, vice president and director, UAW International. “The UAW is proud to support a program that enlists the help of our members to play an active role in promoting these vehicles in their communities.”

The products on tour include the Chevrolet Equinox, Camaro and Malibu, Buick LaCrosse, GMC Terrain and Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon.

The GM Vehicle Plant Tour is an extension of the Vehicle Advocate program started last year for employees at Michigan facilities, including GM World Headquarters in Detroit, the GM Warren Technical Center, GM Powertrain Headquarters in Pontiac and GM Service and Parts Operation in Grand Blanc.

GM conducted a pilot of the program last November at a plant in Flint, Mich. Wendy Stachowicz, manager for the GM Vehicle Advocate Program, and Jeff Mulnix, UAW member and Quality Network Representative at Flint Assembly Center, worked together to develop the vehicle program for the plants, resulting in today’s first set of vehicles to the manufacturing facilities.

Key Facts about the Tour:

• Forty stops at GM manufacturing facilities, including every major assembly, powertrain, stamping and metalworking plant in the United States and Canada.
• Stops on the tour will reach more than 40,000 hourly and salaried GM employees.
• The tour will spend a month at each plant through December.
• All six vehicles featured in the tour are made at United Auto Workers- or Canadian Auto Workers-represented facilities.

Snapshots of Vehicles Showcased in the Tour:

Chevrolet Equinox: A compact crossover that offers space and fuel efficiency. The 2.4L engine gets a segment-leading EPA-estimated 32 mpg highway. The MultiFlex rear seat moves fore or aft nearly eight inches for the best rear legroom in its class.

Chevrolet Camaro: A 21st Century version of the American muscle car, it was the most-searched vehicle for 2009, according to Yahoo!. The 6.2L V-8 offers up to 426 hp and 25 mpg on the highway while the 3.6L V-6 delivers 304 horsepower and 29 mpg on the highway.

Chevrolet Malibu: A midsized sedan that won North American Car of the Year for 2008. Models equipped with the 2.4L engine/six-speed automatic combination are rated at 33 mpg on the highway. Changes for 2010 include three new exterior colors and the replacement of the driver’s manual lumbar control with a new, power-adjustable control.

Buick LaCrosse: Redesigned from the ground up for 2010, this luxury sedan comes in front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive and a choice of two fuel-saving V-6 engines. It offers available head-up display that projects essential information for the driver on the windshield and available adaptive lighting that can direct the high-intensity discharge headlight beams up to 15 degrees for enhanced illumination of the road and its curves.

GMC Terrain: A five-passenger crossover that comes in front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive versions. It provides a host of standard safety and technology features, including rear-vision camera, programmable power rear liftgate and Bluetooth hands-free phone capability.

Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon: Cadillac’s first-ever North American wagon, the CTS Sport Wagon is essentially the same size as the CTS sport sedan, but the Sport Wagon nearly doubles carrying capacity, with 25 cubic feet (720 liters) of space behind the rear seats; and 53.4 cubic feet (1,523 liters) with the rear seat folded. Available features include all-wheel drive, a 40-gigabyte internal hard drive, pop-up navigation screen and a hand-cut-and-sewn cabin.

About General Motors: General Motors, one of the world’s largest automakers, traces its roots back to 1908.  With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 204,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in some 140 countries.  GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 34 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands:  Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling.  GM’s largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy.  GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services.  General Motors acquired operations from General Motors Corporation on July 10, 2009, and references to prior periods in this and other press materials refer to operations of the old General Motors Corporation.  More information on the new General Motors can be found at www.gm.com.