Pontiac Vibe = Toyota......Matrix?
How are you going to transport it?
What's a NUMMI?
As
@Wrenchturner44 posted in #6, NUMMI was a joint effort between GM and Toyota to build small cars and trucks. A friend had one of the 1st Novas (stole the name); it was a nice little Corolla type car.
Before that, it was a GM plant; our 65 4-4-2 was built there. They also made trucks and El Caminos.
My 93 strippie Toyota 4wd was built there. The quality of the NUMMI cars was top notch; better than any other North American plant and better than the similar Japan made vehicles. Toyota did a strudy and found the combination of the American worker ingenuity and the Japanese manufacturing style (no muda) built great quality cars.
After NUMMI shuttered, the local community suffered because NUMMI was the biggest employer in the area. There were as many as 9,000 workers at their peak. Tax base was decimated. Homes were lost, restaurants and other businesses lost customers. Interestingly, NUMMI was building a Tundra line when they decided to close.
After Musk took over Tesla from Eberhard, he was looking for a factory, but NUMMI was far to big. Fremont gave him a sweetheart deal so he took on part of the large plant. They put out full page ads in the SJ Merc-News urging ex-NUMMI workers to apply. TV and radio as well. The Toyota investment in worker training was well known; they were good.
Today over 20,000 people work there and Tesla is always hiring. This was a key reason we bought our Model 3 in Dec 2018. I salute and support Tesla's efforts to employ so many in our community.
I toured NUMMI twice. The plant is about 15 miles north of me in Fremont, CA. Part of Silicon Valley. I worked across the street at Lam Research.
