Lights Out: GM Minivan plant closes up shop
The last aardvark inspired minivan has passed through the doors of GM's Doraville, GA assembly facility. The plant, which opened in 1947, has four developers vying to get their hands on the 165-acre parcel. About 1,500 workers have been idled due to the closing, which was a long time coming. The Doraville plant's closing is an unfortunate consequence of the old GM, and its divestiture is intended to aid General Motors as it continues clawing its way back from the brink.
We can't say the U-Platform vans will be missed. Though significantly changed from its inception as the Lumina APV with its odd styling, the Uplander was a swing of the pendulum to the other side of weird. Smack dab in the middle was the normal, yet lackluster, Venture. None of the platform's iterations managed to ignite buyer passions, coming up short against the competition, and lately completely crushed by the Odyssey/Sienna 1-2 punch, with a kick in the head from the Grand Caravan for good measure.
[Source: Auto News - sub req]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
epilonious 8:42AM (9/29/2008)
Now for the fun part:
Having the workers line up in one of the ten gas stations that actually have gas so they can drive home.
Stupid Atlanta Gas Crisis *grumble*
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Virginia Wolf 8:47AM (9/29/2008)
Chevy could have used a nice minivan, when optioned those things can cost 30-40K (a BMW 1-3 series territory).
But i for one will not miss Pontiac Montana.
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Brent 9:39AM (9/29/2008)
Apples to Oranges.
Avinash machado 9:45AM (9/29/2008)
Why did the excitement division need a Minivan anyway? Nothing much exciting about the Montana.
Bill 8:55AM (9/29/2008)
Yes...the longest running sob story in Corporate History. A company that makes Woolworths look preeminent.
Anybody have any boilerplate for a Washington Mutual/GM suicide pact?
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Virginia Wolf 8:58AM (9/29/2008)
Hey, at least WAMU is not on Welfare, was not.
Funny how i single mom with two children and Rick Wagoner are on the same line. And Rick got a better side of the deal.
epilonious 9:50AM (9/29/2008)
@virginia
Rick Wagoner very likely pays a hell of a lot more taxes than you.
Virginia Wolf 12:09PM (9/29/2008)
epilonius, OK, but i do my job CORRECTLY, if i did my job the way Rick does his i'd be fired YEARS ago.
RG 9:22AM (9/29/2008)
Well at least they learned not to develop a platform and then split it into 4 pieces to cater to their brands.
Oh wait a second, they're doing exactly that with their SUV line.
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Virginia Wolf 10:00AM (9/29/2008)
RG dude, only a few years ago they had sextuplets, The Trail Blazer line.
JDMlover 9:42AM (9/29/2008)
good...toyota and honda make much better minivan's any way
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Avinash machado 9:44AM (9/29/2008)
The Lamba CUV's are recognized as being among the best in their category. Far better than the Minivans that they replaced.
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Virginia Wolf 10:01AM (9/29/2008)
But they do not sell either. Also SUVs and VANS are different cars.
Patrick 1:55PM (9/29/2008)
True...while I hear great things about the Buick Enclave and it looks quite good, I have hardly seen any on the road.
As for these dead minivans, it seems like GM was going for an SUV/truck type of front end, with a flat hood as opposed to the traditional sloped, short hood on all other minivans. While this may have been a good idea to try to pretend to be more SUVish, they made them so ugly and awkward that nobody wanted them.
SocalObserver 3:04PM (9/29/2008)
I remember when the Montana first came out (when they basically added a bunch of plastic body cladding and changed the name from Trans Sport), the ads had this Wild West theme and the tagline was something like "Because life is more exciting in Montana!" I've been to Montana, and "exciting" is probably the last word I'd use to describe life there.
Paul 10:22AM (9/29/2008)
Yes, these minivans were very ugly.
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Frank 12:09PM (9/29/2008)
Isnt' everything from GM ugly
Bob-omb 7:30PM (9/29/2008)
God, LOOK at that thing. These minivans were an absolute embarrassment.
NT 10:11AM (9/29/2008)
Even if Rick paid 50% of his income in taxes, he would still be making 7.5 MILLION a year.
So yeah, excuse me while I don't break out my violin to play his sob story.
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inteller 11:17AM (9/29/2008)
Lights out? That's fine because those minivans should only be seen in the dark anyways.
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