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GM adding another shift to build more Pontiac Solstices

Analog

Lifer
Good news for the lines of people waiting to buy the Pontiac Solstice roadster. General Motors Corp. said on Wednesday that it will add a third shift of workers next year to the Wilmington, Del., plant that builds the Solstice in order to boost output of the hot-selling car and build two additional roadsters.

During its first three months on the market, GM has sold 1,488 of the two-seat convertibles in the United States. But GM has received more than 15,000 orders for the car.

"By adding the third shift in January, we will increase the flow of Solstices to help fill the thousands of orders we have already received," said John Larson, general manager of Buick-Pontiac-GMC.

GM will add two more roadsters to the plant next year. The Saturn Sky will go into production in the first half of next year and GM will begin building an as yet unnamed model for GM?s Opel brand in the second half of 2006.

GM expects to add 550 hourly jobs to the plant, drawing mostly from the ranks of auto workers laid-off when GM discontinued production of the poor-selling Saturn L Series sedan in June last year, spokesman Dan Flores said. If needed, GM can also hire other laid-off GM workers from the area, including those in the jobs bank from the closure of its assembly plant in Baltimore.

Wilmington currently employs 1,200 hourly workers and 150 salaried employees.

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm7084_20051102.htm
 
WTF were they thinking only having 2 shifts to start with. This car has big seller all over it. Let alone when the Sky and the supercharged version comes out. I guess they thought making more trucks when gas is $2.XX+ a gallon was a better idea.
 
Yay - instead of limiting production, helping the cars resale and general desirability - GM will produce as many as possible, saturate the market, then when sales drop off - they'll be left sitting there wondering what happened, and their owners will wonder what happened to their resale once everyone and their freakin' grandma drives a Solstice.
 
Originally posted by: Ryan
Yay - instead of limiting production, helping the cars resale and general desirability - GM will produce as many as possible, saturate the market, then when sales drop off - they'll be left sitting there wondering what happened.

Gee, did they do that before? Cough... Fiero.... Cough... Fiero....
 
Hehe..looks like GM's management is looking for short term profits instead of long term. Didn't Chrystler's PT Cruiser suffered similar fate when the demand died out?
 
Actually the market for a roadster is limited your competition is a Miata or whatever the hell its called today and it looks the same as what was released in 89 so the market is hungry for something new and the solstice doesn't look like a chick car either appealing to a wider demographic.
As long as quality stays up build a bunch I heard since 89 there is over a half million Miatas built GM's production schedule isn't as agressive as that.

Found it!
Mazda Motor Corp. took the wraps off its 2006 Miata MX-5, due out later this year. It's the third generation of a roadster that is the best-selling two-seat convertible sports car in history, with 720,000 sold since the Miata made its debut in 1989.
 
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