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General Motors’ Arlington Assembly Center Produces 10-Millionth Vehicle

It’s a landmark day for workers at GM’s Arlington Assembly Center in Texas: the 60-year old plant just announced it has built its 10-millionth vehicle, a black 2015 Chevrolet Suburban.

Plant production first began on January 6, 1954 and the first car ever completed was a 4-door black Pontiac Cheiftain. The starting hourly wage for a line operator was $1.54. In the days when a movie cost a nickel and a new car was only a few grand, a buck fifty per hour wasn’t anything to sniff at.

Today, the facility spans an incredible 4.375-million sq-ft on 250 acres of land. In 1997 production shifted to trucks and today the plant churns out the Tahoe, Suburban, the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, as well as the Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV.

Over 4,120 employees work at the Arlington truck plant, and GM doles out a total of $1 million in wages to those workers every single day.

Meanwhile, the 2015 Suburban marked the 80th anniversary of the family hauler, which first went into production back in 1935. You’d be right to think that’s a long life span for a vehicle– no other vehicle in the world has been in production for as long as Chevrolet’s Suburban.

Judging by GM’s success in the SUV segment, it looks like Arlington’s services will be in demand for years to come.

To all those at Arlington, well done.

Here’s a full list of the plant’s production milestones. (And FYI our picture above is a 1949 Suburban):

  • 1 millionth vehicle: 1965 Pontiac Bonneville
  • 2 millionth vehicle: 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass
  • 3 millionth vehicle: 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
  • 4 millionth vehicle: 1981 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
  • 5 millionth vehicle: 1985 Monte Carlo SS
  • 6 millionth vehicle: 1993 Buick Roadmaster
  • 7 millionth vehicle: 2002 Cadillac Escalade
  • 8 Millionth vehicle: 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe
  • 9 Millionth vehicle: 2011 Chevrolet Suburban
  • 10 millionth vehicle: 2015 Chevrolet Suburban.

A far-too-tall Ontarian who likes to focus on the business end of the auto industry, in part because he's too tall to safely swap cogs in a Corvette Stingray.

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Comments

  1. Now that they have 10 million under the belt, they can try to build the next 10 correctly.

    Reply

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