General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant will lay off roughly 200 workers at the end of the year, Autoblog reports. According to unnamed sources, the plant will shutter for six weeks starting in mid-November, and will reopen with production cut by about 20%, resulting in a couple hundred job cuts.
The plant currently produces the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Chevrolet Impala, and Chevrolet Volt. The temporary plant shutdown comes as GM attempts to cut down on unsold inventory of some of those products. According to The Detroit News, GM had a healthy 68-day supply of the Chevrolet Impala in September, but its cache of Chevrolet Volt sedans stood at 102 days’ worth, its supply of Cadillac CT6s at 115 days, and its supply of Buick LaCrosse sedans nearly 300 days.
GM had an average 76-day supply across its entire car portfolio in September, and the automaker says it plans to cut supply to around a 70-day level by the end of the year. A number of US plants have already seen extended downtime this year as GM worked to reduce a record-high 105-day supply.
Comments
GM has to give the right product in the right segment. The Volt stands on the D2XX as the Cruze, why not a Cruze Hybrid rather than a Volt another name. The Impala should be RWD Alpha based not E2XX FWD as its competitors from Chrysler and Dodge. The Lacrosse and CT6 should both run on Omega and CT6 goes more luxurious .
I feel sorry for those workers. They are the ones that pay the price for the factory not paying attention to the customer. Unfortunately this is the result. Hamtramck produces a fine product, which even got better with robotics.
The Union is partly at fault for not fighting to keep jobs here instead of letting them go off shore.
The US produces Great Products, that other countries relish to get. Instead we decide to make products there, and bring those products here, which is sort of like standing on your head in a foot of water, and wondering why you are drowning.
The poor Lacrosse. It’s almost like GM is trying to kill it. There is no advertising for the car at all.
Also, with nearly 300 days of supply, why are there no incentives to move metal out of showrooms? Buick offered 17% off its crossovers almost all summer, with only a similar one month deal on the Lacrosse that was restricted to a singular trim level. Right now, Buick’s website shows nothing on in the way of cash back, only a lease deal and 1.9% financing (seriously, not even 0% ???). It’s the end of the model year, now is the time to pull out the incentives to move the ’17’s so that they can build some ’18s. Some further searching through dealer websites reveals a “hidden” $1000 rebate, but only if you finance through GM financial, and may also be restricted to select trims. They are currently offering $4000 rebate on the Encore, which seems like the minimum they should be offering up on the Lacrosse at this point.
In other news, Toyota and Mazda are building a new US plant in a joint venture that will create 4000 new jobs and produce 300,000 vehicles annually.
General Motors Hamtramck plant has bad luck as it builds some of GM’s most sophisticated vehicles and apparently they’re also cars that no one really wants to buy; one wonders whether GM can export some of the Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6 to China.
Trouble is even GM’s most sophisticated vehicles are barely competitive in the U.S. All of these vehicles rate toward the bottom of their respective class when reviewed. GM takes a good design then takes costs out until the vehicle passes the “good enough test” while other manufacturers strive toward a higher level. It’s the same old GM, where management gets big bonuses, Barra, Stevens, Ammann, and Reuss received over $40,000,000 in total compensation last year. However, GM won’t spend any money marketing product they have already spent $100,000,000’s to develop. The rich get richer, while they shrink the company and the rank and file get laid off. Same old plan, different year.
What are you talking about? Every car at this plant, the LaCrosse, Volt, Impala and CT6 have gotten very good reviews and beat other competitors cars in comparisons for the most part. The Impala is a better car than the lame Taurus will ever be and is a better made product than any FCA junk. The CT6 stand pretty well with it’s much costlier German rivals save some nit picky door plastics and the Volt is one of the best in it’s class. The new LaCrosse is even catching on and sales have been steadily climbing and most every review gives it praise.
It is a shame how they kill their best products and then blame the customers for not buying them. I am sure there are nice small appartments waiting for them near the furnaces of hell, stoked by their personal greed.
Hey if GM had not built these cars you would complain they did not build them. They did and yet you complain.
At the time these cars were planed and started 6-7 years ago the CUV was just starting to grow.
There is no one here nor was there a company that knew the CUV was going to take off as they have.
The market is fast changing anymore and companies need to try to predict years ahead what is in and what is out. GM is now working to make quicker decisions and shorten the time to develope new models. Other issues are the cost of development over time. You can change things faster but you still sometimes have to wait for the funding.
If this was easy every vehicle would sell and there would be no days in supply on any vehicle.
The bottom line is you make your best estimate and hope the market does not change its mind by the time you get the product out.
As for the workers they are not new to this. It has been going on for a while. They either learn to deal with it or they get into another line of work.
And GM wants to go fully electric in the next decade. Just shows how inept and clueless there marketing team really are.
They could have gone Electric in the 20’s, and almost did. They even wanted to not use Gasoline because it was too dangerous to use. They are not inept, just dreaming. Economics always comes through in the end.
I find it very interesting reading comments by readers especially regarding the LaCrosse. I have owned many Cadillacs as well as several of Jaguars, including their best XJL luxury sedan. I just sold our CTS and bought a 2017 LaCrosse Premium. I have only two complaints ; one is trying to understand all the features in the infotainment system. It repeatedly talks about down loading apps on I-Phones or I-Pads. I don’t have either and don’t plan on buying one. It seems GM forgot that older people still buy cars and don’t have electronic devises that use apps. I have no idea how to use the apple car play or android google feature and nothing in the manuals as see it explain them. the My other complaint is the model we bought has the 20 inch wheels which are very classy over the 18 inch, but the ride is a little stiffer. Other than that I feel it is the best car I have ever owned and reeks of class in m y opinion. With the deep discounts available I feel we stole the car. The window sticker was $44,110 and I bought it for $27,500 which I feel I can do with the complaints for that savings.