Chevrolet picked the 2019 Blazer to mount on Chevrolet Fountain, which is joined by the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado, because it’s one of the newest vehicles available from the brand that’s on the market today. While the Blazer has a sharp, athletic design, some weren’t too happy with the Mexican-built crossover being on display in the Motor City. The region is ground zero for white and blue collar layoffs stemming from GM’s latest cost-savings strategy, as two area plants are set to be “unallocated”, and the Warren Technical Center is now emptier by over a thousand people.
Noticing the announcement, several followers of Metro Detroit’s WXYZ contacted the broadcast station to question GM as to why a Mexican-made crossover is being festooned in a stadium where most attendees are undoubtedly connected to the American auto industry. According to the broadcast station, the automaker explained why it chose the Chevrolet Blazer; however, it avoided discussing anything about why it would be controversial.
There are a lot of eyes watching General Motors. Employees, politicians, and business analysts are keeping the company under a microscope as it charts a new course, aggressively investing in higher-risk autonomous and electric vehicles.
Nearby the Mexican-built 2019 Chevrolet Blazer on display at Comerica Park, home field to the Detroit Tigers baseball team, the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant faces closure. The plant continues to build the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac CT6, while it has already ceased production of the Chevrolet Volt. The Buick LaCrosse is expected to follow, if it hasn’t already. D-Ham is expected to build its last car in January 2020. Meanwhile, Lordstown Assembly has built its final Chevrolet Cruze.
Chevrolet products that are built in America are the Malibu, Camaro, Corvette, Sonic, Bolt EV, Traverse, Colorado, Silverado HD, Express, Tahoe, and Suburban. The Equinox is built in Canada, while the Trax and Spark are shipped from South Korea.
Part of GM’s plan to invest in the future involves proposing to indefinitely idle five factories in North America—one in Canada and four in the United States. Combine that with Chevrolet building the Blazer in Mexico, and the optics of the entire situation aren’t great. One analyst said the automaker needs to rethink its PR approach to the whole situation. This move seems to be the opposite of that advice.
For as much criticism as GM is getting for its decisions, the company is nevertheless investing in other U.S. factories and providing jobs, and relocating affected workers at the same time. Days after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the automaker for idling production at its Lordstown, Ohio factory, the company announced a $1.8 billion investment in the U.S. that would create 700 new jobs. And chances are most won’t notice that manufacturing detail of the mid-size crossover on the far-off fountain, whilst guzzling $9 pints and complaining about Tigers’ bullpen.
Comments
Equinox is also built in Mexico for US and Canadian consumption
Still this is an entirely new vehicle, albeit an existing platform, that arrives just as Typhoid Mary closes plants and fires employees. Other Mfr’s are increasing production in the US but GM is retreating. This move will not sit well with American consumers. GM’s shift to producing 80% vehicles with crappy interiors for strong prices will drive customers to better values such as the stunning new Hyundai Sonata. VW and Kia bring out strong new sedans yet GM kills them and makes ones that simply don’t cut it.. GM is a sinking ship… but MB wont call for help..
Since when are other manufacturers increasing US production? Ford is closing US plants, FCA recently cancelled their plans to move truck production from Mexico to the US, Ford is now building 3.5 Ecoboosts in Mexico for F-150 trucks, 5.0 Coyote production was moved out of the US, just a few years ago Ford spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build engine plants in China, Ford is importing new vehicles from India, Toyota builds more Tacomas in Mexico than in the US and they’re building another Tacoma plant in Mexico right now. Toyota doesn’t even have the union in their plants and they’re moving production to Mexico.
Isn’t that Crew Cab Silverado next to it also built in Mexico? Why outrage over just the Blazer? They’re both Mex-mobiles.
Yes, the crew can is made in Mexico. Most of the parts including the 5.3lt engine is being made in Mexico. I find it funny how both are made in Mexico and they are displaying them there. Not cool
The L84 5.3L Ecotec3 (most common engine in the 2019’s) is built at Tonawanda Powertrain in Buffalo, New York.
But, I will give you that the L83 5.3L is listed by GM powertrain to be built at 3 different plants:
Tonawanda – Buffalo, New York
Ramos Arizpe, Mexico
St. Catherines, Canada
I find it funny that Ford wraps themselves up in an American flag while they build trucks with foreign built engines. 6.7 Powerstroke? Mexico. 3.0 Powerstroke? England. 3.5 Ecoboost? Mexico. 2.3 Ecoboost? Spain. 5.0 Coyote? Canada. The Mustang GT’s engines are Canadian and the manual transmissions are Chinese (and junk).
3.5 Ecoboost is made in Cleveland Ohio.
Another publicity gaff. A Mexican built Chevy on display in the middle of Detroit. Really? Wonder if lasts the season or gets traded? LOL
It was built in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They build crew cab Silverados starting with the 2019 T1 trucks.
So they’re criticising a mexican made blazer on display, yet they’re perfectly fine driving around in mexican made Silverados and F150’s?
Exactly. This is getting so ridiculous with the whole “Made In Mexico” thing guys.
GM is a Global Company. What is so hard to understand? How many were outraged that some GM cars were coming here from Germany?
F 150s are not made in Mexico and Ford is not closing US plants
Might as well be. Domestic content percentages for the F150 have fallen to just 50-60 percent in 2018. Ford is now using Mexican-made 3.5 Ecoboosts and Mexican-made 10 speed transmissions.
Having some products made in Mexico is one thing; adding a brand new product line to Mexico while almost simultaneously closing US plants because the products are not selling is another. I doubt closing these plants was only recently realized or determined internally at GM. They could have phased the Blazer into a US plant that was phasing out a poor selling product.
Incidentally, some 1500 crew cab Silverado models are made in the US, I have seen them on lots. I believe the double cab and maybe the single cabs are as well.
Interestingly, the US content of the Blazer (per the sticker) is higher on the Blazer than the US made Silverado trucks that are on our local lot.
Machete Mary claims that it takes three years to determine an assembly site for a vehicle. Funny, on the other side of town, FCA is building a new assembly plant with a paint shop that has not broken ground yet, and will have that up and running in about 20 months. Either she is lying or they have some awful ignorant people running the manufacturing end at GM.
No, it takes years and millions of dollars to retool a plant to build an entirely different vehicle than it was originally designed to manufacture. GM spent nearly a billion dollars just a couple years ago to move truck axle production out of AAM’s Mexico plant, back to Michigan. These new Silverado’s are using Michigan-built axles.
Funny. Whatever happened to Fiat-Chrysler’s announcement that they were moving truck production from Mexico back to the US? Oh wait, they quietly cancelled that plan. Ram trucks are staying in Mexico boys!
My 2019 Silverado LTZ crew was built in America, I believe later built Silverado crews are now made in Mexico
Every Detroit automaker has Mexican made parts and cars. How is this different?
Exactly LOL
Ford and FCA are not closing US plants.
So you would rather have GM to continue making the Cruze so we the Tax payers Bail them out once again? Got it.
GM is unfortunately doing the right thing. The Lordstown Plant is HUGE and cannot get anything allocated there in time to keep it open. How hard is this to understand?
Trump can keep Tweeting all he wants or any other Candidate and it will not matter. That is not how the Auto Industry works. It takes years of planning to figure out which Plant will be allocated what products. Unfortunately GM didn’t make the Cruze good enough. That is the underlying issue.
We need to hope that no other plants close due to all the lackluster recent vehicle attempts by GM.
Yeah, I am sure that even if they were building the Cruze at a small loss, they would be going bankrupt especially considering the massive profits they are making on their Mexican made Silverados and Sierras.
GM’s management is by far the worst of any OEM. The Cruze did not have to die and a segment did not have to be abandoned. Both Det-Ham and Orion could have easily took on the Cruise while Lordstown was retooled for another product.
The time argument does not hold water either FCA and Ford saw this trend three and a half years ago and reacted by retooling plants, while Machete Mary had an epiphany last November- just after all the hot sellers were allocated to plants in Mexico- that the trend for sedans is falling.
Bottom line: GM has PISS POOR upper management. Most are GM lifers that have never seen how other successful organizations are run. The sooner Barra and her incompetents are swept out the better.
“Machete Mary claims that it takes three years to determine an assembly site for a vehicle. Funny, on the other side of town, FCA is building a new assembly plant with a paint shop that has not broken ground yet, and will have that up and running in about 20 months.”
Let’s see, building a new assembly plant, that has not broken ground yet, will have that up and running in about 20 months.
You are contradicting yourself, that’s almost two of the years that you claim Marry is lying about. How long do you think the planning stage of something of this magnitude takes? a week? a month?
I don’t know what everyone else here thinks but it’s not the Chief Executive Officer of General Motors, who HAS TO make the tough decisions (aka, the “Machete”) that “appears awful ignorant” here.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/03/30/ford-is-making-gm-ceo-mary-barra-look-really-smart.aspx
GM as of Mar 29 4:00 PM ET Markets are closed
37.10 â–²0.04
FCAU as of Mar 29 4:00 PM ET Markets are closed
14.85 â–²0.05
Ford Motor Co as of Mar 29 4:00 PM ET Markets are closed
8.78 â–²0.01
Time for a little ÷
https://newsok.com/article/5626614/gm-plans-to-make-new-electric-car-spend-300m-hire-400-workers
GM builds engines and transmissions in the US. Ford decided to build the 6.7 Powerstroke in Mexico. They could have built it anywhere but they decided to built it there. GM builds their 6.6 Duramax engines in Ohio. Ford is now building 3.5 Ecoboosts in Mexico. They used to only be made in the US. In a few years, all 3.5 Ecoboosts will be MIM. The 10-speed is now being built in Mexico. Won’t be long before the majority of 10-speed Ford transmissions will be built in Mexico. The Mustang GT’s manual transmission is a cheaply made Chinese MT-82. They could have built it in the US but Ford decided to build it in China instead. Actually, Ford spent nearly $1 billion dollars building engine plants in China instead of investing in engine plants in the US. The Ford Ecosport is being imported from India to the US instead of building it here. The 5.0 Coyote is made in Canada and imported to the US. Ford is no better than GM. Domestic parts content of the F-150 has plummeted in the last couple of years. Engines and transmissions made in Mexico. The cheap recycled plastic dashes in the F-150 are China garbage, which explains the warped dashes and glove-box.
The 3.5 Ecoboost is made in Ohio.
I also bet they don’t get mad at the players buying BMW, Mercedes or other foreign cars. Most people who purchase cars have no idea where they are built and don’t care.
40% of MLB players on the field are from somewhere south of the border (Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic).
Don’t love that the Blazer is made ‘off shore’ (for now). But baseball is even more dependent on Latino workers than carmaker are.
At least it isn’t a turdota tumdra like the Cincinnati Reds Great American Ballpark….
this is why the new blazer is a disgrace and gm has jumped the shark once again.
i have 2 chevy’s in my garge at home. the new mexican made blazer is ugly with its upsidedown frown face toyota front grill!
The K2 Silverado/SIerra Crew Cabs all came from Silao, MX. The new body style “T1” trucks will have crew cabs sourced from both Silao and Fort Wayne. Hopefully, the Crew Cab Silverado at Comerica is a Fort Wayne Truck…
One more in a string of seemingly poor choices by GM