The carmaker has confirmed that production of the iconic two-seater will be stopped for a period of one week next month, reports Automotive News. After this point, GM plans to lay-off some employees at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and drop the assembly line speed from 18.5 vehicles an hour to just 15.
Through the first eight months of this year, Corvette sales fell 8.5% to 21,066 units. They rebounded 47.4% in August after 2008 models were included in GM's employee pricing sale. During the sale, prices for the Z06 – normally listed at $72,125 – dropped by almost ten grand to just $62,653, while there were savings of close to $6,000 on even the base model.
Similarly, the price for the Cadillac XLR-V dropped to $84,771 – a saving of roughly $15,000 – but unfortunately sales still remained dismal with sales last month only reaching 118 units for the entire XLR range.
Nevertheless, offering discounts on their halo car is something GM is reluctant to maintain, thus the production halt may be in anticipation of a further downturn in sales.
According to the president of the local chapter of the United Auto Workers, Eldon Renaud, the production halt will be the first in almost 30 years. Renaud also speculated that up to 75 people could be let go by GM as a result of the production halt, reducing the number of hourly workers from 800 to 725.
Reader Comments
Mon Sep 15 2008 12:09 PM
Strada says
Thanks for the information.
Mon Sep 15 2008 1:10 PM
bambam says
it's not your normal up and down situation. Its not about survival anymore but more of a must to change, thats if you can survive this in the first place. Someone said that this is a once in a Century situation. Consider this as a early warning, because there is still time to fix it.
Anyways the car is still great and it should of been cut down in the first place.
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