Following up on Fixer's post about the pending Big 3 bailout, I thought I'd whup out a little about the factory that made my pickup, of which a photo appears on the masthead of NUMMI's site.
Wiki, many links as is their wont.
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. is an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. The factory was an old General Motors plant originally opened in 1962 and is now a joint venture between GM and Toyota. When it reopened for production in 1984, it was the first automotive joint venture plant in the United States. GM saw this joint venture as an opportunity to learn about the ideas of lean manufacturing from the Japanese company, while Toyota gained its first manufacturing base in North America and a chance to implement its production system in an American labor environment. Many business textbooks mention NUMMI when they discuss joint ventures.
NUMMI is now an award-winning facility which ranks with other Toyota plants among the most productive manufacturing operations in North America. GM places around 12 managers each year at the plant to learn lean techniques and has improved quality enough across the rest of its operations for it to show through on J.D. Power quality rankings. While the plant has been successful in adopting Lean, other GM plants have seen benefits. GM's Oshawa, Ontario plant received the 2006 JD Power Gold Plant Quality Award, the third time in the last five years.
From Toyota:
As the pioneering joint venture of General Motors Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation, NUMMI was established in Fremont, California in 1984. NUMMI helped change the automobile industry in the United States by introducing the Toyota Production System and a teamwork-based working environment. The company's core values are based on five cornerstones: teamwork, equity, involvement, mutual trust and respect, and safety.
...
Current Investment: $883.1 million
Employment: 5,333
This approach seems to be working, if the number of their products that I see on the road is any indicator. Toyota Tacomas and Corollas, that is. The less said about Pontiac Vibes the better, I think.
A word about build quality and reliability from the driver's seat of a Fremont-built Tacoma: In 3½ years and 35,000 miles, there have been exactly three problems with this vehicle.
The little plastic dashpot that keeps the glove compartment lid from slamming open fell off. It's been put back in place by me and by the Service Manager at Carson City Toyota. It always falls right back off. The problem is a little molded-in plastic split pin that's just ever so slightly bent. The solution is to either replace the dashboard, which is out of the question, heat the pin and spread it a little without melting the entire dashboard, bend it cold and risk breaking it off thus ensuring it can never be fixed, or to cram something like a small wedge in the end of the thing after the dashpot is installed. If I ever think I have enough time to mess around like this, I'll go fishing instead. Since Mrs. G's knees do an adequate job of stopping the lid before it tears itself off its little hinges, and since it's a royal pain in the ass to get my big fat fingers in the tiny little place it resides, and since I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I had a vehicle with nothing wrong with it, I am happy to let this inconsequential problem slide.
At about 30K miles, a rear axle seal started leaking, which was noticed by my buds at The Auto & Tire Doctor, who advised me that it was a warranteeable repair. Note: this is one of the best reasons to get your rig serviced regularly by a shop you trust. The Toyota dealer at first said the warranty had expired by one day, even though I had informed them of the problem and made an appointment before the 3 years was up. They self-corrected on this and said oops! when they remembered that the drive train on the products sold out of the showroom forty feet away had a 60,000 mile warranty anyway. They replaced the seal and the brake shoes on that wheel at no cost to me. Happy I are.
The third, and most visible, problem was the right rear plastic mud flap catastrophically partially dismantled itself last weekend. It tore itself almost in two and fell down on the hot exhaust pipe, which put a big melty-lookin' spot on it. Naturally, I called the dealer to see about getting a new one. He had 'em in stock, but at $95 a copy, the damn thing is about three feet behind me at present, awaiting the old Gorilla Glue and ty-wrap treatment. The hardest part so far has been to find push fasteners to reattach it to the truck without another fiscal shock from the dealer. I scored some at an auto parts store that are supposed to fit GM products that look like they'll work. In case the glue and cable tie method doesn't work, the same store has very nice do-it-yourself rubber-like mud flaps for $24.99 the pair. I always liked the reclining nekkid girl with one knee up anyway. Just kiddin', dear. Or there's Pick-n-Pull (1-800-442-JUNK). Heh.
I would say I've had no trouble at all with this truck from NUMMI, and am very happy with it. I consider that I got good value for money. What else is there when it comes to a vehicle?
When it comes to the bailout, I'm torn. On the one hand, given the awful management and shortsightedness that has gotten them to where they are, not to mention the behind-the-times nature of some of their products, and that it didn't come as a surprise but has been heading that way for years, I would have to say that the market should prevail and they be allowed to go down the shitter.
On the other hand, being the sentimental old fool that I am, I kinda got a soft spot in my head for these old American makes. I remember back when they were the good cars. From a flathead six Chrysler in '61, a hand-me-down '50 that my Dad bought new, through a succession of other cars and Chevy and Dodge trucks, a coupla which I still have, they were rugged and dependable. They sorta turned ta shit a few years back, so I went with that other American make, Toyota. I'd hate to see 'em go.
Note: I even had a Ford once while I was in the service. I was desperate for wheels in those days! A '52 four-door sedan, it was painted flat black with a white roof. I called it 'the horny nun'. Used more oil than gas, which wasn't much of a problem as you could get 'reclaimed' oil, AKA 'crankcase squeezins', for 6¢ a quart in those days. I was probably the tenth Marine to own the thing and probably also the tenth Marine to pay fifty bucks for it too. It was better than walkin'. The Marine I sold it to was gonna take it back home to Tennessee and give it to his Dad to haul field hands to the tobacco fields. Picture on request. No concours contender, that one!
If, and it's a big 'if' given their history, the Big 3 can make changes worthy of loaning them our money, then OK, give it to 'em with conditions and oversight that work. Better still, Michael Moore has said that since the entire value of GM stock is only about $3bn, we should just buy it outright rather than give 'em $34bn or whatever it's up to today. Sell the sonofabitch to Toyota or Hyundai or Fiat or somebody that can make it work again and keep Americans employed.
Boy, looking back at this before I post it reminds me of another fine old American car: Rambler.
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