Better Assembly Quality in Mexico?
Ste. Therese closed in 2002, building Camaros and Firebirds. OKC closed in 2006, building Trailblazers and Envoys. All 3 plants did build the same product at one time - in about 1990. A-bodies. Chevy Celebrity, Olds Cutlass Ciera, Pontiac 6000, and Buick Century. I have worked for GM long enough to remember all of it...
Too many really have little concept at what is in play here with plants and quality.
There are many factors that come into play. The design of the car, the age of the plant, the age of the platform being built, the age of the tooling on the line etc all come into play.
Newer plants with newer lines with newer platforms generally have the better quality. The HHR was a older platform that had many of the bugs worked out and at a plant that had just has most of the line revamped to produce it.
It really matter little anymore where a vehicle is built as the lines are standardized. At one time two plants used to built the same car but did it different ways. They would have different paint booths and different lines. We see little to none of that anymore.
For the most anymore most of GM's cars are pretty flawless as in my last 3 GM cars I have had only one quality issue failure in any of them and that was a TPM in one of the wheels.
There are many factors that come into play. The design of the car, the age of the plant, the age of the platform being built, the age of the tooling on the line etc all come into play.
Newer plants with newer lines with newer platforms generally have the better quality. The HHR was a older platform that had many of the bugs worked out and at a plant that had just has most of the line revamped to produce it.
It really matter little anymore where a vehicle is built as the lines are standardized. At one time two plants used to built the same car but did it different ways. They would have different paint booths and different lines. We see little to none of that anymore.
For the most anymore most of GM's cars are pretty flawless as in my last 3 GM cars I have had only one quality issue failure in any of them and that was a TPM in one of the wheels.
The paint today is water based base coat clear coat enamel and it will chip much easier than some of the older enamels.
The fact is there color and clear coats on the paint but to meet the EPA regs in the paint booths we are left with paint that is not as good as it once was. They keep working to improve it but the goverment keep making new rules and makes it more difficult to paint cars.
Even the paints in the rattle cans is not as good as it once was.
All MFG are in the same boat. Some cars because of their design show more. The HHR has a 3 sided front and flair fenders at are prime to show more damage than a flat fronted slab sided car.
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