I travel between a bunch of GM sites for my job, and I always check the parking lots for cool stuff. Today I was visiting an office I hadn't been to in awhile, and checked out the area where they keep a small fleet of cars that are used for analysis. Mixed in with the full size pickups was a 2009 Red HHR SS Panel. It was a 5-speed, but had the non-sport seat. The wheels were perfect, but judging by the rust on the rotors, it had been sitting for quite awhile.

I'll check the build info when I get back to work on Monday to see what all it has. I used to know the guy who was in charge of this fleet, but he retired last year. I may give him a call to see who's in charge now. Most likely this will get scrapped before too long

 

Scrapped????? Why?

 

Often these cars have been used for testing or other Gm criteria and are deamed unfit for resale.

Like show cars there is at times liability issues involved. They are often sent and stripped for parts or sometimes destroyed depending on their use.

It is nothing to get stressed about as ever company and every model has a number of cars that get scrapped every year. I is just the nature of the buisness.

There was a Pontiac G5 Turbo at the Lordstown plant they built just to show it could be done. It can not leave the property and will be scrapped too. It is one of none built and would be a rare off the record GM car but it one of many like this built and never seen by the public.

It is like life some live some die.

 

So a good panel body gets crushed..... Okay, makes sense.

 

I wish they would keep some stuff like that... There was just a thing about a Buick truck some guy in Flint has that supposedly is like 1 of 5 ever built, and they only used it to transport things in the Buick plant....so it never left the factory. Somehow it got sold and now is in a collection.

 

There is some really cool older stuff that's made it out to public hands. There were some really inventive people back in the day.

The problem is now, everything is tracked, and they are very worried about lawsuits. They use cars like this for testing, etc, and don't want to worry about getting sued. This one will most likely end up at an auto recycler and parted out. Hopefully I can find out where and when.

 

I'll take the hood, frt and rear clip for spares, just my color

 

That is the way it has been for years. Most of the Motorama cars were sent to a junk yard to be scrapped. The guy at the junk yard cut them up and saved them. Some have been restored today.

I would worry less about the couple GM kills vs the many people who own them trash them out in only a couple years. Many more panels will die due to poor owner care or drunk drivers crashing into them.

More of these cars have been save and sold by GM in the last 30 years than ever.

Besides some of the cars getting scrapped are pretty trashed from audits and testing.

 

[QUOTE=hyperv6;477400]That is the way it has been for years. Most of the Motorama cars were sent to a junk yard to be scrapped. The guy at the junk yard cut them up and saved them. Some have been restored today. QUOTE]

That junk yard is still there. I've spent many a pleasant day wandering the aisles

A bunch of those cars from the Joe Bortz Collection will be on display at Meadowbrook later this month

 

Heck I remember back in the day at the Mazda plant my uncle works at in Flat Rock. He was "leasing" this RX7. He did so for about 9 months, had to fill out paper work on it weekly at work, etc. He was basically demo driving it. After which it went back to the factory where they tore it apart for inspection and they destroyed the car. I remember being like 14 and didn't understand why they would destroy a perfect car.

You would be amazed at what these manufactures do. My bud that works for Lexus/Toyota has a warahouse full of competitors cars that they go thru and reverse engineer. They also rent cars/trucks to do the same.