Corvette Production
Discussion
Hello all,
I'm doing a project on Corvette production for college, I've found out a lot but I can't find where parts are manufactured. I know that the cars are assembled at Bowling Green, but are the parts made there as well or are they brought in from factories else where in the States?
Many thanks,
George
I'm doing a project on Corvette production for college, I've found out a lot but I can't find where parts are manufactured. I know that the cars are assembled at Bowling Green, but are the parts made there as well or are they brought in from factories else where in the States?
Many thanks,
George
Without doing your work for you,
The Bowling Green plant is essentially an assembly and painting operation.
Base engines come from a GM plant in Canada and the fancy engines come from a specialist GM engine centre in USA.
The base chassis (steel) is constructed at Bowling Green. The hydoformed main chassis rails are worthy of mention.
The lighter chassis (aluminium) is IRRC manufactured complete by one of the specialist aluminium companies.
So far as I know all the transmissions are built at GM's specialist transmission plants.
Other components are sourced from a very wide range of sub-contactors.
The Bowling Green plant is essentially an assembly and painting operation.
Base engines come from a GM plant in Canada and the fancy engines come from a specialist GM engine centre in USA.
The base chassis (steel) is constructed at Bowling Green. The hydoformed main chassis rails are worthy of mention.
The lighter chassis (aluminium) is IRRC manufactured complete by one of the specialist aluminium companies.
So far as I know all the transmissions are built at GM's specialist transmission plants.
Other components are sourced from a very wide range of sub-contactors.
If you can get a service centre to do an example report on a chassis number from GMVIS (IIRC), this quite often gives you the production plant details of key components, such as airbags, ecu, engine, trannsmission along with production dates.
Edited by JimexPL on Tuesday 5th January 15:15
Z06George said:
I didn't realise that so many parts were from different places. Must cost them a fortune.
Not necessarily. It's bit a like going to the supermarket and filling your trolley with shopping which has been sourced cost-effectively by Mr Tesco from all around the world.Final assembly has to be a very cost-effective process in itself. Many elements of the car will arrive at the factory pre-assembled by a supplier. One of my early recollections in the industry is learning, "It costs the same amount to screw the back lights on a Mini as it costs to screw the back lights on a Rolls Royce". Whether or not it's 100% true it's a point well made.
Broadly speaking, the best value for money for the customer is at the bottom of any range of cars. This is why it's sometimes virtually impossible to find a base model available at dealers - the manufacturer likes to advertise a low entry price but doesn't really want customers buying them. Dealer margin tends to slope in the same direction. The "expensive extras" which are added for higher trim levels or to special order cost the manufacturer virtually nothing over and above the base parts. In particular the cost of final assembly of the vehicle remains the same or very nearly the same.
If you carry that across to the current Corvette range you find the 2010 Grand Sport. It's essentially a sort of hybrid (no not like a Prius!) between the base car and the Z06 but without using the expensive bits of the Z06. So the customer pays quite a bit more money for a car which costs the manufacturer not much more than the base model to build.
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