GM Nixes Minivan For Saturn Plant

Spring Hill Tennessee November 21, 2006; Reuters reported tha a GM spokesman on Tuesday said the automaker's board had decided last week not to go ahead with a truck-based minivan that had been considered for production in its Spring Hill, Tennessee plant.

The Spring Hill plant, which built GM's first Saturn vehicles when the brand was launched in 1990, employs 4,700 hourly and 400 salaried workers, GM said.

The plant makes the current-generation Saturn Ion sedan and the Vue sport utility vehicle. Production of the Ion is scheduled to be discontinued in March, GM has said.

The Vue is being redesigned and its production of the new version, which GM will unveil later this month, is expected to shift to Mexico next year.

GM spokesman Dan Flores said that GM had opted not to build the proposed minivan in Spring Hill, but said that did not mean the plant would be shuttered.

"The program was canceled so that option is obviously not going to go forward anymore," he said. "But it would be wrong to assume that means the demise of Spring Hill is imminent."

United Auto Workers union president Ron Gettelfinger, who addressed union rank and file members on Tuesday via an online chat, said he saw a working future for the plant.

"Stay the course," he told a UAW member from the local that represents Spring Hill. "Product announcements are made by the corporation and we will leave that to them." GM launched Saturn as a separate car company intended to compete head on with Japanese car makers such as Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co.

Saturn negotiated a flexible labor contract with the UAW that allowed workers to take on a wider range of work and pioneered a no-haggle pricing strategy at its dealerships that made its first S-Series sedan a sell-out hit.

But Saturn foundered in the late 1990s, and GM disbanded the independent corporate structure behind the brand and its product development efforts.

Under GM product chief Bob Lutz, Saturn is aiming to compete with a redesigned line-up featuring European styling for customers who might otherwise buy import brands.

GM North America President Troy Clarke said on Tuesday that the automaker was on track to sell about 5,000 of its recently launched Saturn Aura sedans in November or about 60,000 units on an annual basis.

"GM needs to have a strong presence in mid-size cars once again and this is the type of design that will lead us to be known as a great car maker -- not only as a great truck manufacturer that also happens to make cars," Clarke said.