Sunday, December 2, 2007

News

Buick City was a massive automobile manufacturing complex in Flint, Michigan. Elements of the 235 acre (951,000 m²) complex dated from 1904, but it became known as Buick City in 1984. The complex was closed on June 29, 1999 and demolished in March of 2002. It was the last Buick plant in Flint, long a center of automobile production. The final cars built at Buick City were the Pontiac Bonneville and the Buick LeSabre.
The plant originated with Buick before the formation of General Motors. Other elements were built by early manufacturers and suppliers like Fisher Body. GM employment in the city peaked in 1978 at 77,000, with Buick City workers reaching a high of 28,000 in the 1980s.
The factory represented a failed attempt by General Motors to ramp up production volume in response to Japanese manufacturers. However, the experiment wasn't without its successes: The 1989 Buick Le Sabre built in Buick City was ranked the top car in the J.D. Power and Associates rankings for that year; it was the first American built car to show up on the list. In 1999, the year the plant was closed, Buick City won the Platinum Award. As of 2006, it was the only General Motors plant given this award.

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