Flint, Michigan is a city which previously relied on its automotive industry, and still does to an extent. Over the past several decades, General Motors plants in Genesee County have experienced re-namings, management shifts, openings, closures, reopenings, and spinoffs.
General Motors traces its roots to the Durant-Dort Carriage Company of Flint named after William C. Durant and Josiah Dallas Dort, and purchased the original Durant-Dort factory (built in 1880 as a woolen mill) on Water Street in May 2013 (and the Durant-Dort office, a National Historic Landmark across the street, as well). [2] The company will take over responsibility for maintenance from the Flint Historical Foundation. [3]
On Hamilton Avenue, the oldest buildings opened in 1908. This was the largest GM complex in the world. Buick originally opened in Flint on West Kearsley Street; this plant was repurposed as the first Chevrolet factory after the Hamilton Avenue site opened.
In 1983 Buick announced plans for Buick City (inspired by Toyota's "Toyota City" plant), which would combine Buick's assembly and Fisher #1's bodybuilding operations. The production of rear-wheel drive cars at Buick's Hamilton Avenue plant ended. After gutting the interior, installing robots (and other retooling), and the construction of a new body shop and just-in-time delivery docks, Buick City began building front-wheel drive vehicles in 1985.
Buick Motor Division became a marketing and public-relations entity in 1984, when the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac Group (BOC) was created and took over engineering and assembly control from Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and the GM Assembly Division. GM created the Flint Automotive Division to manage BOC's activities in Genesee County, which included the former Buick factories and engineering. BOC dissolved in 1992, and eventually its functions were transferred to the Cadillac/Luxury Car Division (not to be confused with the Cadillac Motor Car Division, the traditional Cadillac operation).
Buick City closed in June 1999. It (and other former Buick buildings not technically part of Buick City) was demolished from 2001 to 2003. The Buick Motor Division administration moved to Detroit in 1998. The 1960s-era former Buick world headquarters, after briefly housing EDS workers until 2003, was demolished in 2006. The adjacent former Buick transmission, transmission-parts, engine-assembly and engine-parts plants (GM Powertrain and Flint North) closed by December 2010.
Built before 1912, it replaced the original 1908 operation inside a Buick building. It closed about 1976, and was demolished shortly thereafter.
This plant manufactured spark plugs, air, oil and fuel filters, instrument clusters and other parts. It opened around the mid-1920s in the former Dort (automobile) plant. The Dort Highway plant became known as Flint East when AC took over the old Chevrolet manufacturing operations on Chevrolet Avenue in 1987. In 1988 AC Spark Plug merged with GM's Rochester Products Division, and was renamed AC Rochester. World headquarters remained in Flint, soon moving to the Great Lakes Technology Center. In the late 1980s, parts of Flint East were turned over to GM's Delco Electronics. In 1994, AC Rochester merged with Delco Remy and became the short-lived AC Delco Systems.
1995 saw the creation of Delphi Automotive Systems (which took over Flint East), and in 1999 GM spun off Delphi. Spark-plug production ended at Flint East in early 2006. Under an agreement reached by Delphi, General Motors, and the United Auto Workers in June 2007 Flint East and two other plants would remain open, operated by GM or a third party designated by GM. Hourly employment at the plant at that time had diminished to approximately 1,100 people. A GM Service Parts Operations packaging and processing center has opened in the easternmost plant in the complex, on Davison Road in Burton.
A spokesman for GM confirmed in February 2013 that Delphi Flint East will close in November 2013; the factory building is owned by DPH Holdings, while the equipment is owned by Delphi. [4]
The plant opened on Wilcox Street, later renamed Chevrolet Avenue, about 1913, comprising the Motor Division (engine-assembly and engine-parts plants) and the Pressed Metal Division (parts plants) and the pre-World War II Chevrolet Assembly (Plant Two) and Fisher Body #2 plants (later Chevrolet Plant 2A). It was located at the corner of Kearsley Street and Wilcox Street. [5] [6] This was also originally known as the Flint Wagon Works [7] before it was relocated to its current location, known as Buick City.
In 1984, due to smaller sales of four-cylinder engines, the Chevrolet Flint Motor Plant (Plant Four) closed after millions of dollars in improvements several years earlier. The same year, the newly created Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada Group briefly took over Chevrolet Manufacturing from Chevrolet Motor Division; soon, the newly formed Fisher Guide Division acquired the complex. Around 1987, the Chevrolet plant was taken over by AC Spark Plug and became AC Spark Plug Flint West. In 1988 it became AC Rochester Flint West, and in 1994 AC Delco Systems Flint West. In early 1995, it was renamed Delphi Flint West.
Around this time, the plant complex (known as "Chevy in the Hole") began to disappear. Among the first plants to go were the truck garage, Plant 5 (formerly Engine Parts) and the administration building. This continued until 2004, when Plant Four (which had reopened some years after it initially closed in 1984) shut down and was demolished. Plant Four's last products were generators and fuel filters.
The only remaining buildings are Building 35 and Plant 38. Building 35 (originally housing new-car delivery and, later, heat treatment) was donated to Kettering University (originally General Motors Institute) in 1996. After the addition of another floor and a new facade, it houses the university's Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry Center. Workers in Building 35 built the first Corvette prototype, around 1953. Plant 38 (the Die and Engineering Center) opened in 1967, is still operated by GM and is known as Flint Tool and Die. According to GM's website, at Flint Tool and Die there are 228 hourly and 25 salaried workers. [8] The rest of the land is being redeveloped to be turned into a public park for the City of Flint. The park will be called "Chevy Commons".
Opened on Van Slyke Road in 1947 for car and truck assembly, in 1970 Chevrolet Assembly converted to truck-only production and GM created the Truck and Bus Group in 1981. The GM Assembly Division then transferred the Chevrolet Flint Assembly plant to Truck and Bus, which was later renamed North American Truck Platforms and then the GM Truck Group.
Now known as Flint Assembly, it remains an important operation for GM; it builds Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick commercial trucks, and Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickup trucks. In December 2004, GM announced it would invest $150 million into retooling at this plant. After a maximum of at least 8,000 workers at Fisher 2 and Chevrolet Assembly, 1,862 hourly and 185 salaried employees work there. [9] Events at this plant during the late 1970s are chronicled in Ben Hamper's 1991 book Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line.
On Bristol Road, it opened in 1954. Operated by the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada Group from 1984 to 1992 and eventually by the Metal Fabricating Division, the plant is now known as the GM Flint Metal Center. GM has spent over $60 million upgrading the plant in recent years. 2,000 hourly and 180 salaried workers are there today. As of 2022, due to poor leadership, the plant population has shrunk to under 400 hourly workers. [10]
On Van Slyke Road, it opened around 1953, closed around 1999 and was soon demolished. Immediately south of it, GM built the $500 million Flint Engine South (now known as Flint Engine Operations) to build the Atlas L6 Engine plant which opened in 2000. A $300 million addition, recently opened, builds the High Feature V6 engine engines. [11] The land where the V8 Plant once stood is now home to the GM Paint plant section of Flint Assembly.
On Bristol Road in Swartz Creek, it opened in 1957. It merged with other car divisions' parts operations in 1969 and was renamed the GM Parts Division (later Warehousing and Distribution). General Motors Parts Division, as it was known in the 1970s and 1980s, had operations both at its headquarters in Swartz Creek and its engineering and technical cataloging operation in downtown Flint, housed in the Genessee Bank Building on Saginaw Street. Susbsequently, in the late 1980s, the downtown operation was folded into the new GMPD building in Swartz Creek. During the late 1990s, GM's worldwide parts purchasing and distribution office headquarters moved from here to a new building in Grand Blanc Township. Known as Service Parts Operations-Flint, the Swartz Creek facility remains open with a large amount of vacant office space. Currently, 595 hourly and 70 salaried workers are employed at SPO Flint. In May 2014, GM invested $10 million in upgrading the appearance and quality of the plant.
Recently, a new processing/packaging center has opened on Davison Road in Burton, in a former AC Spark Plug (later Delphi) plant. [12]
This plant was located on South Saginaw Street, and manufactured Buick bodies and pressed-metal parts. GM bought the plant from Durant Motors before 1935; it had opened in the early 1920s as Durant Motors headquarters, producing the "Flint" car.
In 1984, Fisher #1 became BOC Flint Body Assembly. After Buick ceased building rear-wheel-drive cars and Buick City got underway, BOC Flint Body Assembly earned a reprieve by building bodies which were shipped to GM assembly operations in Pontiac, Michigan until the plant closed in December 1987. Most of it was demolished in 1988, except for portions which were gutted and transformed into the Great Lakes Technology Center; the original administration building remains intact. GM initially had substantial office and engineering operations at the GLTC (including AC Rochester world headquarters), but eventually transferred those staffs elsewhere.
This plant opened on Van Slyke Road in 1947 (on the same site as the Chevrolet Assembly plant), and made Chevrolet bodies; it was dissolved in 1970.
On South Saginaw Street, it manufactured pressed-metal parts. Opened in 1942, it originally built tanks for World War II and is still sometimes called the "Tank Plant". It was transferred to BOC in 1984, and later to the newly formed Cadillac/Luxury Car Division (not to be confused with the Cadillac Motor Car Division). Most recently operated by the Metal Fabricating Division, this plant has recently all but eliminated its metal stamping operations and now serves as a corporation-wide weld-tooling center. According to GM's website, 411 hourly and 29 salaried workers are at Grand Blanc today. [13]
GM announced in January 2013 that Grand Blanc Weld Tool would close to an extent in six months. [14] Currently, it has been speculated that GM will redevelop the plant for larger operations and future use.
In Genesee Township, it opened to manufacture body hardware around 1953. The plant was originally intended to build aircraft engines for Buick during the Korean War, but never did.
In 1969, Ternstedt Division merged with Fisher Body Division (its original parent), which was dissolved in 1984 when its Coldwater Road plant was turned over to the newly formed Fisher Guide Division. Fisher Guide became Inland Fisher Guide Division in 1989. The Coldwater Road plant was renamed again in 1995, when the newly formed Delphi Automotive Systems took over. Finally, in 1996 Delphi sold the Coldwater Road factory to Peregrine Inc, which attempted to make the plant profitable before closing it around 1998. It was soon demolished.
Roger & Me is a 1989 American documentary film directed by Flint area native Michael Moore. Moore portrays the regional economic impact of General Motors CEO Roger Smith's action of closing several auto plants in his hometown of Flint, Michigan—reducing GM's employees in that area from 80,000 in 1978 to about 50,000 in 1992.
William Crapo Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each seemingly independent, with different automobile lines – bound under a unified corporate holding company. Durant, along with Frederic L. Smith, co-founded General Motors, as well as Chevrolet with Louis Chevrolet. He also founded Frigidaire.
Durant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former General Motors CEO William "Billy" Durant following his termination by the GM board of directors and the New York bankers who financed GM.
Buick City was a name applied to the former Buick home plant following major renovations completed during the early 1980s to better compete with Japanese producers. The plant was a massive automobile manufacturing complex in the northeast portion of Flint, Michigan.
Flint Assembly is an automobile factory operated by General Motors in Flint, Michigan. It is the city's only vehicle assembly plant after the closure of Buick City. Flint Truck Assembly is also GM's oldest, still operating assembly plant in North America. As of 2022, the Flint factory currently produces full-size pickup trucks. Engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations, internal engine components were created at Bay City Powertrain and Grand Rapids Operations, and the engines were then assembled at Tonawanda Engine and Romulus Engine. For most of the 20th century Flint Assembly was the home factory for all Chevrolet vehicles.
Flint Engine Operations is a General Motors automobile engine factory in Flint, Michigan. The plant opened in 2002 and is named to replace the Flint North engine plant. The plant currently produces the small four-cylinder SGE and Duramax I6 engines. The factory receives cast engine blocks from Defiance Foundry in Defiance, Ohio and Saginaw Metal Casting Operations in Saginaw, Michigan. It replaced Flint North.
Flint East was an automobile component production complex owned by Delphi Corporation in Flint, Michigan. The complex, parts of which were over 100 years old, was located on Dort Highway, stretching along Robert T. Longway Boulevard past Center Road. The plant produced numerous automotive components, including instrument panels, instrument clusters, spark plugs, filters, air meters, fuel pumps and other parts. Flint East once employed nearly 14,000 people, but by 2007, the number was down to nearly 1,100 hourly workers. The plant closed entirely in November 2013 and the remaining buildings were razed. In 2017, Phoenix Investors, a Wisconsin-based commercial real estate firm, purchased the land.
Leeds Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Leeds, Missouri. It was closed in 1988. The factory produced the A-bodies and J-bodies.
Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly, also referred to as Factory Zero and GM Poletown, is a General Motors automobile assembly plant straddling the border between Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. It is located about three miles (five km) from GM's corporate headquarters.
Oshawa Assembly is a manufacturing facility in the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, that built various automobiles for General Motors Canada. Vehicles were primarily produced for the US, Canadian, and Mexican markets, but they also built exports for various countries around the world, particularly South America and the Middle East. Historically the Oshawa plant was the source of all right-hand-drive market GM exports with complete vehicles or knock-down kits shipped to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom until the end of the 1960s. At one time, the factory was one of the largest auto manufacturing facilities in the world, with two car assembly plants, a truck assembly plant, as well as parts production including Harrison radiators, AC Delco batteries and American Axle. Between 1999 and 2019, it had won more quality and productivity awards than any other GM plant. The plant is part of the larger GM Autoplex.
Spring Hill Manufacturing is a General Motors factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The plant currently includes vehicle assembly as well as powertrain, stamping and molding operations. The plant originally operated as the sole manufacturing facility for Saturn Corporation.
The history of General Motors (GM), one of the world's largest car and truck manufacturers, dates back more than a century and involves a vast scope of industrial activity around the world, mostly focused on motorized transportation and the engineering and manufacturing that make it possible. Founded in 1908 as a holding company in Flint, Michigan, as of 2012 it employed approximately 209,000 people around the world. With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, United States, General Motors manufactures cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2008, 8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under various brands. Current auto brands are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Baojun, and Wuling. Former GM automotive brands include LaSalle, McLaughlin, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Opel, Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall, Daewoo, and Holden.
Pontiac Assembly was one of four General Motors assembly plants in Pontiac, Michigan located along Baldwin Avenue. It served as the home factory for GM's Pontiac Motor Division since it was built in 1927. It was across the street from the currently operational Pontiac Metal Center, which was the original location for the Oakland Motor Car Company, which Pontiac evolved out of.
ACDelco is an American automotive parts brand owned by General Motors (GM). Factory parts for vehicles manufactured by GM are consolidated under the ACDelco brand, which also offers aftermarket parts for non-GM vehicles. Over its long history it has been known by various names such as United Motors Corporation, United Motors Service, and United Delco. The brand "ACDelco" should not be confused with GM's former AC Delco Systems, formed in 1994 from the merger of AC Rochester Division and Delco Remy Division. In 1995 Delphi Automotive Systems absorbed AC Delco Systems.
The W.F. Stewart Company was an American carriage body and automotive body manufacturer founded in 1881 by William Francis Stewart and based in Flint, Michigan. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of wooden carriage bodies for horse-drawn transport and later automotive bodies. The company also briefly produced light aircraft, but went out of business in the Great Depression.
Flint Wagon Works of Flint, Michigan, manufactured wagons from the early 1880s. One of the world's most successful horse-drawn vehicle makers they formed with their Flint neighbours a core of the American automobile industry. In 1905 Flint was promoting itself as Flint the Vehicle City. The former site is now located in the neighborhood of Flint known as "Carriagetown".
Chevrolet Assembly Division was a designation applied from 1933 to 1965, then renamed the General Motors Assembly Division until 1980.
Saginaw Metal Casting Operations is an automobile engine foundry plant in Saginaw, Michigan. Opened under GM management in 1919, the factory produces engine blocks and cylinder heads for General Motors vehicles. The factory currently occupies 1.9 million square feet on 490 acres. Historically in September 1927 it was known as the Chevrolet Grey Iron Foundry. In the past when it was called GM-Saginaw Product Company (SPC) a cloverleaf casting symbol mark was cast onto the iron component.