Spring Hill, Saturn's original home, closing ?

[southphillylakes]

Any one hear about the Vue, moving to to Mexico?

[SKY Spy]

It was announced recently that the next gen Vue will still be manufactured in the US but they have NOT released the plant who will do this just yet!!!

Regards,

BA...

[southphillylakes]

Thanks, Someone just told me that the ION will in done March and that the new Vue is moving to Mexico. maybe they got it wrong, could be New Mexico. I can't believe that GM will leave Spring Hill

[Skip]

Tant the 2.0 engines made in Springhill?..Skip...

[vstar]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...d=970599119419

[wt2ga]

Web-posted Nov 28, 2006

By JOSEPH SZCZESNY Press Automotive Editor

General Motors Corp. plans to build the next generation of the Saturn Vue at a GM plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, where the company now builds the popular Chevrolet HHR.
The new 2008 Saturn Vue is to be unveiled this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It will replace the current model built at Saturn's old home plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., which is now facing an uncertain future.
Dan Flores, GM spokesman, said Monday he could not confirm that the new Vue will be built at the Ramos Arizpe assembly plant where GM now operates two separate assembly lines. However, GM officials confirmed that the company's executives will be prepared to state publicly later this week that the new Vue will be built in Mexico.
GM also is preparing to unveil the new Lansing-built Buick Enclave at the L.A. Show, which traditionally kicks off the auto show season.
The shift represents another step in the steady increase in production in Mexico by GM, Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group that got under way shortly after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993.
Clarke said GM is determined to breathe new life into Saturn, which had always been a brand that stood for customer service.
"But it was always intended to be more than that. Saturn as a brand aims to capture (customers) who are import intenders now by providing them with more European flair," he said. "The new design face of Saturn is meant to excite those customers," Clarke said.
Meanwhile, GM also plans to halt production of the Saturn Ion in Spring Hill at the end of March and last week confirmed it has killed plans to build a new minivan in Tennessee.
Production of the current Vue will halt sometime next summer as GM begins to roll out the new model introduced in Los Angeles.
Mike O'Rourke, president of UAW Local 1853 in Spring Hill, said Saturn workers are frustrated.
"Over the last three years we have done everything asked of us by GM. During this three-year period we have found ourselves with four canceled product programs and still in a position of begging for a product," O'Rourke said.
"We are now down to just four months left of production of that same little car we introduced to the world back in 1990 and the reality of facing an indefinite layoff with nothing tangible, nothing that we can place our hands on, just a lot of empty promises from GM," he said.
Flores said the decisions by GM's board and its product and production planners does not mean the Spring Hill plant, Saturn's home since the late 1980s, will close permanently. Spring Hill could still build other vehicles for GM, he insisted.
GM employed about 5,100 hourly workers at the Spring Hill complex at the start of 2006 but the number has been reduced to about 4,100 now by retirement and buyouts this year. The number of employees, however, is expected to fall dramatically even if the plant doesn't close permanently. GM, like Ford last summer, is preparing to drop out of the minivan segment, which is now dominated by Toyota, Honda and DaimlerChrysler. GM's minivan production will probably end in 2008 when the company finally shuts its assembly plant in Doraville, Ga.
Instead, GM will now concentrate on developing crossover vehicles.