Chevrolet News:GM Puts The Volt Plant On Five Week Shutdown; 1,300 Workers Affected

[William Maley]

William Maley

Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

March 2, 2012

General Motors is putting their Detroit-Hamtramck assembly on a five-week shutdown due to the overabundance of Volts sitting on dealer lots. The shutdown will effect 1,300 workers.

Currently, GM is on 6,319 Volts; 3,596 of those are sitting on dealer lots. That might not sound like a lot. But when you factor in the 1,023 Volts sold in February, then its a lot. GM usually tries to keep about two month's worth of inventory on dealer lots. The 6,319 Volts amounts to almost five months.

The move comes after the plant came back online from an extended holiday break on February 6th.

Source: Ward's Auto

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[G. David Felt]

GM, Needs to take a bigger loss on these cars just as Toyota did to get them out on the roads and get people using them and being seen on the highways.

With 8 Billion in profit, they should see a few million loss on these as marketing to get the cars out and running. Sitting on the dealer lots due to the price being to high does not help GM.

I also wonder just how many are base models, the units I saw at the two chevy dealerships were fully loaded and the sticker showed after gov rebate that the cost would still be 40K for this car. I think this is still about 10-15K to high for most people.

[G. David Felt]

Letter to GM,

You finally have world class quality products and the competition fighting to stay in the game. You are making your biggest profits ever. Take a page from Toyota,

SELL THE VOLT FULLY LOADED FOR $25,0000

You will sell everyone you can make, people will be happy and before you know it, you will not only have recaptured your R&D cost, but you will be able to easily expand the product lineup for auto's based on the Volt.

NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR DEALERSHIP GOUGING!!!

Edited March 3, 2012 by dfelt

[daves87rs]

Sounds like a long Vacation for my Dad....

And yes, I heard the Volts will be getting their first REBATES soon.....GM is trying to figure out how much right now.

[SAmadei]

Saw my first Volt "in the wild"... It was dusk and the lighting in the front made it look very strange... the headlights don't appear very bright to other vehicles... but this particular car might have the headlights pointed downward too much.

[hyperv6]

Now may be the time to take the hit as they are going to lose money if these cars go unsold anyways. Rebates on these cars are not like trucks that have a larger profit margin.

GM did the right thing to stop production now and clean up what they have. Price and media both have not helped.

I know some one who just got one of these as a company car. He likes the car for the most part. The only beefs he has are the brakes are not bad but just felt different. It rides well like a heavy car but still feels like a heavy car. Finally he hates to plug it in if he is in a hurry. On the other hand he said it it s nice car and the few complains are not anything that makes him no like the car. The cost per month on the electric bill is $30 when he keeps it fully charged.

He said for th most if the price was right he would condifer buying one but not at the price they are now.

GM needs to move to cut cost with these cars ASAP in what ever way they can.

The real negitive to selling them at a loss is it will not do stock prices any good. This is a catch 22 as if they sell them at a loss it hurts and if they bail on this it will hurt. There are some tough things they need to decide.

[G. David Felt]

I do not see how cutting the price to move and get them selling is going to hurt the stock price. Toyota took losses on their ugly Prius line for years. With the Profits theyhave right now, it is time to take the loss on everyone to get them sold and build up by word of mouth just how awesome these cars are.

[Daryl Z71]

One of GM's problems is they want to much for their vehicles. Ford is even worse.

[Drew Dowdell]

This is somewhat of a head scratcher for me. There was supposed to be another car rolling down the line at Hamtramck in a few months. Why not just wait for the retooling shutdown then?

[Robert Hall]

Fail..

[hyperv6]

I do not see how cutting the price to move and get them selling is going to hurt the stock price. Toyota took losses on their ugly Prius line for years. With the Profits theyhave right now, it is time to take the loss on everyone to get them sold and build up by word of mouth just how awesome these cars are.

The issue is that Toyota has not been a whipping boy in an election year. GM needs to get stock prices up and get the goverment to sell off the stock they hold to regain their freedom. The Volt itself is a also a political football getting kicked around. The media and people already using the Volt for Political fodder will be fast to point out that Gee I Guess they don't catch fire but look at all the money GM wasted on this car to sell it at a loss.

Trust me the Conservitives are going to kick this one till the election and if they don't win it will continue. I know as I lean to the righ center but I don't agree with them on this.

Toyota could get away with selling the Prius at a loss while on fires and put a dead body in the back of each model and get away with it. Even if selling it at a loss may be the right thing GM will not get a break on it.

Bad press on the Volt already has not helped on stock prices as other issues at GM. Selling a car from a program that has billions invested will not help values with high media coverage.

While you and I understand the full picture few people in the unwashed pubic understand much of the auto industry let alone the Economy and the conflict in the Middle East. This is where Washington gets away with what they want as they know most people today are either do uninformed or stupid they can tell them anything. Both the left and right are guilty here, The right is beating on the Bail outs and The Left is using the pipe line as a toold for votes in the election. Just watch the line will be built after the election as the pipe llne company is already starting. The sooner GM can break free the better as if the right takes over and will befriend GM and then the left will take their shots at GM then. GM can't win no matter who is in office. Either way this car is a car and system that needs to be built if there is to be any future for this option.

It is a shame we are a very able country that keeps letting those in office kick us in the nuts for their own self serving interests. To get to Washington they all have to sell their souls.

Edited March 3, 2012 by hyperv6

[regfootball]

rather poignant that when you present the save the earth global warming ecoweenie bunch the best option to in fact save the earth, and lessen our dependence on oil, they become hypocrites and do not follow through on what they preach.

[daves87rs]

This is somewhat of a head scratcher for me. There was supposed to be another car rolling down the line at Hamtramck in a few months. Why not just wait for the retooling shutdown then?

You mean the Malibu and the Impala?

And It's tough to say at this point to see if the Volt makes it another model year...

[SAmadei]

And It's tough to say at this point to see if the Volt makes it another model year...

Heh, heh... LOL. No, the Volt will definitely make it more model years, regardless of the disaster it's sales could be. GM let the Aztek embaress itself for 5 model years.

That said, the reading around the interwebs on this shutdown is not a positive for GM. GM should have done ANYTHING to hide this... move some other car into Hammtrack or something to cover the shortfall... even if GM was building throwaway Impalas or something. Maybe move Caprice production there and finally sell a few to the civilians.

[regfootball]

If i were GM, I would skip right to the gen2 Volt. Cut the weight to 3000 pounds. Make the generator a 1.0 litre 3. Bring in instances of lighter weight materials, if even for test bed for production.

And hopefully some more battery tech and a cheaper price.

Ford may just leapfrog everything with the plug in Fusion and Focus..... GM's hybrid approach here though is worth refining.

[regfootball]

now that the volt has rolled out nationally also, maybe its time to peel back the most marketing efforts for the places where it will have the most impact. California, east coast, places like that.

[daves87rs]

And It's tough to say at this point to see if the Volt makes it another model year...

Heh, heh... LOL. No, the Volt will definitely make it more model years, regardless of the disaster it's sales could be. GM let the Aztek embaress itself for 5 model years.

That said, the reading around the interwebs on this shutdown is not a positive for GM. GM should have done ANYTHING to hide this... move some other car into Hammtrack or something to cover the shortfall... even if GM was building throwaway Impalas or something. Maybe move Caprice production there and finally sell a few to the civilians.

Actually, it's very true. GM is really considering this. If sales continue the way they do, they will cut it. Rebates will help, though leases might be a better option at this point. They already have plans to use stuff from the Volt into other cars anyways, so it's not like it would be a total loss here.

While D Ham won't be hiring anybody, the new Mali and Impala (plus another possible car) could pick up the slack easy.....

[hyperv6]

The technology will stay no matter what. It may be time to move to the 2nd or third gen to remove some price or advance the performance. If that is done then = change the style or model and rename the next car. They did show the small mini van like Volt in China. Use it.

Also GM still needs to get this car out in the hands of a lot of people yet, as here in Ohio they are still a very rare sight. I have only seen a few here on the roads and I have only seen a couple at the dealers. You have had to look for them to find them. If they are a rare sight here in the midwest they have to be rare in many other places too.

I would like to see GM be more proactive to put people behind the wheel of these for a wheel like Chrysler Turbines. Loan them out to the people in different ways. Even loaners for dealer repairs. I think the more people drive these the better opinion they will have of the cars. While many still will not rush out and buy one they will be better informed and have first hand knowledge of what these cars are about. Unlike many on the web that bash them or talk down on them with never have been behind the wheel.

I would offer the loans to Prius owners, Smart owners and Honda owners as a priority. They are the ones who would have the most interest here. Work with enviro groups to help promote these cars.

GM should have learned even cleared of the Fire issue it did a lot of damage. Even the Fiero's Issue really was not a great issue in pure numbers but even today I still get people asking telling me these things catch fire don't they? Then when you give them the numbers built and the number of fires they are shocked to find they all did not combust.

Edited March 4, 2012 by hyperv6

[hyperv6]

I finally got to drive a Volt today. It is even better than I expected. It rode very well and for the most was quiet even in the snow slop on the road. It was comfortable in the fron. The wife said the rear seat was ok but she was not thrilled in the back.

Brakes have a little different feel but you can adapt to them fast. I hear many EV's have odd brakes and the Volt is the best. I only can wonder how bad some of them are.

The Volt handles well but while it is not a FE5 Suspension it does well enough around town to not make driving a chore.

If they only could get the price down to under $30K this would be a very good option for many.

Also lose the I Pod white trim.

[daves87rs]

Looks like a lease baby now....