SaturnFans.com Links

Maureen Milford from the Wilmington News Journal via USA Today: Joe Trincia, 51, of Bear, Delaware, returns Monday to his job at the General Motors auto-assembly plant just as he's done countless times since he was a 19-year-old kid lucky enough to land a decent-paying manufacturing job. But this will be his last recall. He joins just 414 other workers for the final two weeks of the Boxwood Road plant. "I'll miss the people," said Trincia, who is raising his grandchildren and needs another job....

General Motors is ready to give its Lordstown complex a new small car that gets nearly 40 mpg, a union leader said. "We're going to have longevity. This car's going to sell," Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, said at a news conference Friday about a new labor contract. Graham didn't provide any other details about a new model, but an industry analyst said it would be the new version of the Chevrolet Aveo, which is now made in South Korea. Erich Merkle, an analyst with IRN ...

The conference will focus on how changes in the economy, technology and the work force will affect the automotive industry over the next four years.

GM won't create new jobs at its Spring Hill assembly plant, but the $400 million to $500 million upgrade its board approved yesterday is a sign that the plant will be a part of the Tennessee landscape for some time to come.

Saturn will use the same platform to build the S-series car and its new sports utility vehicle on the same assembly line at its plant in Spring Hill this fall, said Guy Briggs, general manager of North American vehicle manufacturing for General Motors, Saturn's parent company.

Production on Saturn's new small-car line is set to begin this fall at the plant, replacing Saturn's standard S-series. Between the Ion, which has sedan and coupe versions, and the Vue, Saturn's new sport utility vehicle, the Spring Hill plant will be operating near capacity.

A request for site-plan approval of a $12 million General Motors logistics warehouse on 60 acres in Spring Hill was withdrawn from consideration Monday evening, while the company scrambles to meet city drainage, sewer and water standards.

When Saturn first set out to build and sell cars in the mid-1980s, they were literally starting from scratch. While the company had access to General Motors' world-class engineering and test facilities, they had no place to build or sell their cars.

The Fairfax plant last year succeeded in getting tax abatements for a new Saturn car that will be built on the same Epsilon platform. GM has invested $203 million in the plant to roll out the mid-size Saturn Aura in the fall of 2006.

Randolph Heaster from KanasCity.com: The Fairfax plant just dodged a bullet as big as a shiny new Buick. Was it luck or skill, or a bit of both? About 2,400 workers at the General Motors car assembly operation in Kansas City, Kansas, learned Thursday that their assembly line will keep moving next month while 13 others across the country go idle. "A bittersweet announcement," said John Melton, bargaining chairman of the United Auto Workers Local 31. "Our people feel pretty lucky, but there are a ...

Now that S-Series production has come to end and ION production has begun, Saturn has found itself with a new dilemma: how will it fill the void left by its old engine and transmission plant?

Lindsay Chappell from Automotive News: Suppliers and workers at General Motors' assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, thought they had the inside track this summer when GM had to decide quickly where to build a new family of subcompact cars. The plant boasts a recent renovation, a history of good labor relations and the sort of innovative supplier-automaker partnership that automakers profess to seek. It wasn't enough. A plant in Orion Township, Michigan, got the nod. "A lot of us are still ...

From the Associated Press: Delaware Govenor Jack Markell has spoken with a top General Motors official but doesn't have any details on the future of the struggling automaker's Wilmington plant. GM is announcing it will cut 21,000 U.S. jobs by next year and phase out its Pontiac brand. The Wilmington plant makes two versions of the Pontiac Solstice, along with two other sports cars, the Saturn Sky and Opel GT roadster. It employs about 500 hourly and 100 salaried workers.

Barbara Wieland from the Lansing State Journal: Inventories also were close to industry standards at GM's Lansing Delta Township plant, where the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook crossovers are made. The Enclave's inventory rose slightly to 50 days as of July 1, up from 46 days a month earlier. But there was a 49-day supply of the Acadia, down from 59 days. And the Outlook inventory held steady at 53 days. The Delta Township plant will begin production of the Chevrolet Traverse early...

Plans announced last year to move 2,000 General Motors jobs from Wilmington, Delaware, to Bowling Green appear to be on hold, United Auto Workers Local 2164 President Eldon Renaud said yesterday. "The future does not look good for that right now," Renaud said in an interview of the plan to add the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky to the Corvette factory by 2012. "The talk we are hearing is those vehicles will not be built here." Renaud's comments came as GM announced plans to shave 10,000 from it...