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GM to Hire 400 more workers for c8 Corvette


Trailhiker

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51 minutes ago, Trailhiker said:

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/26/gm-to-hire-400-workers-mid-engine-c8-corvette/

Complete redesign into a next level super car....major factory investment....400 more workers...all that would seem to add up to GM expecting to sell many more.

But, it is becoming clearer that the c8 Corvette will need to cost much more than the outgoing model.

Meh.  They'll vastly overproduce and then be stuck with years worth of inventory in typical GM fashion.

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1 hour ago, Trailhiker said:

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/26/gm-to-hire-400-workers-mid-engine-c8-corvette/

Complete redesign into a next level super car....major factory investment....400 more workers...all that would seem to add up to GM expecting to sell many more.

But, it is becoming clearer that the c8 Corvette will need to cost much more than the outgoing model.

Why will it "need" to cost much more?  Still has 4 wheels, 1 motor and 2 seats.  It will start in the $60's

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9 hours ago, msm859 said:

Why will it "need" to cost much more?  Still has 4 wheels, 1 motor and 2 seats.  It will start in the $60's

If GM is hiring 400 more employees, it sounds like it is going to be much more labor intensive to manufacture.   

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23 hours ago, CurtisH said:

If GM is hiring 400 more employees, it sounds like it is going to be much more labor intensive to manufacture.   

No, they are adding a second shift because they expect demand will be very high - and it will for the first year or two - as it always is with a new generation Corvette.  I suspect this was primarily a publicity event to counteract all of the bad talk from closing other factories.

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2 hours ago, msm859 said:

No, they are adding a second shift because they expect demand will be very high - and it will for the first year or two - as it always is with a new generation Corvette.  I suspect this was primarily a publicity event to counteract all of the bad talk from closing other factories.

What is considered “high”?  They sold less than 19,000 last year.  If that doubles, it’s still less than 38,000.  Do they really need two lines for that volume?  Yearly sales volume hasn’t hit 41,000 in over 30 years.

By the way, they sold a little over 40,000 in 2016.  I don’t think they had two lines at that time, did they?  If they need two lines for that kind of volume, it still sounds like the build process will be more labor intensive.

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3 hours ago, CurtisH said:

What is considered “high”?  They sold less than 19,000 last year.  If that doubles, it’s still less than 38,000.  Do they really need two lines for that volume?  Yearly sales volume hasn’t hit 41,000 in over 30 years.

By the way, they sold a little over 40,000 in 2016.  I don’t think they had two lines at that time, did they?  If they need two lines for that kind of volume, it still sounds like the build process will be more labor intensive.

As you point out "high" is a relative number.  If last year they sold 19,000 cars and next year they sell 38,000 that is a 100% increase.  They currently have @900 workers.  So they are going to increase workers by less than 50% yet increase production by 100% that is pretty good.  And more importantly that refutes the argument about the C8 being more expensive because it is labor intensive.

Edited by msm859
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On 4/26/2019 at 11:28 AM, msm859 said:

Why will it "need" to cost much more?  Still has 4 wheels, 1 motor and 2 seats.  It will start in the $60's

Because they can-Just look at the GT500-it will most likely be in the 70-80K range for a car thats based off something that starts at 25-30K

The transmission alone in the car is something like $5-7K. 

I think GM is going to be hard pressed to actually make money on a 60K car, esp one that only sells 20K units a year. 

Even at 80K this car is a "steal" for what you get. 

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9 hours ago, msm859 said:

As you point out "high" is a relative number.  If last year they sold 19,000 cars and next year they sell 38,000 that is a 100% increase.  They currently have @900 workers.  So they are going to increase workers by less than 50% yet increase production by 100% that is pretty good.  And more importantly that refutes the argument about the C8 being more expensive because it is labor intensive.

Let’s see, 40,000 sold in 2016.  I suspect they had the same number of employees in 2016 as they did in 2018.  If they need an extra 400 employees for the C8 (and it is not more labor intensive), I guess they’re expecting to sell 60,000.  This is the only way the math works unless they had laid off about 400 employees since 2016.

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48 minutes ago, CurtisH said:

Let’s see, 40,000 sold in 2016.  I suspect they had the same number of employees in 2016 as they did in 2018.  If they need an extra 400 employees for the C8 (and it is not more labor intensive), I guess they’re expecting to sell 60,000.  This is the only way the math works unless they had laid off about 400 employees since 2016.

Actually in 2016 they added employees to bring the total to 1030. https://www.bgdailynews.com/news/corvette-plant-to-add-jobs/article_fc83a21d-4718-552d-9bf6-4a566c02f578.html  Now they are at @900.  So employment at the plant is quite fluid with a number of them being "temporary" which means they do not get the full benefits and security of regular employees. 

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7 hours ago, 630land said:

The sales high for Corvette was 1979, 53,807 units. But it was too common, almost a "2 seat Personal Lux coupe" alternative to a Monte Carlo. Better for it to be more exclusive. Was never meant to be a commuter car.

And the population in 1979 was about 100 million less than today.  So as a ratio it is far less. Not sure about the commuter car comment - mine is a daily driver.  Not only does the Corvette have one of the best bangs for the buck it is actually quite drivable.

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