Automotive News

January 14, 2008 - 12:01 am ET

Toyota's sprawling Georgetown factory in Kentucky horse country has taken over as the top-producing vehicle assembly plant in North America.

For eight consecutive years, that honor went to General Motors' Oshawa car plant in Ontario.

Georgetown finished on top in 1998, the year a long GM strike knocked the Canadian operation out of first place.

Oshawa No. 1 and No. 2 are in the same building so are counted as a single plant. GM's Oshawa truck assembly is in a separate building and not included.

In 2007, Georgetown turned out 514,382 vehicles, up 2.1 percent from 2006. Oshawa produced 470,016 units, a decline of 13.5 percent from 2006.

Georgetown builds the Toyota Camry, Camry Hybrid, Camry Solara and Avalon cars on two lines. At Oshawa, GM produces the Chevrolet Impala, Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick LaCrosse cars on two lines.

Oshawa was down mainly because production of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo car ended in June. But LaCrosse, Grand Prix and Impala production were all down, too.

Nissan's Smyrna, Tenn., plant took a tumble last year, slipping to sixth place from third in 2006 and 2005 and second place in 2004. Smyrna output was off 11.6 percent to 410,991 units.

Production of the Smyrna-built Maxima, Frontier pickup and Xterra and Pathfinder SUVs all declined compared with 2006. Among Smyrna's vehicles, only the Altima increased as production of the coupe version began this year.

Factory race

Here are North America? top-producing vehicle assembly plants in 2007. Georgetown moved ahead of GM? Oshawa car plant into first place.

?Production % change from '06

1. Toyota: Georgetown, Ky. 514,382 2.1

2. GM: Oshawa, Ontario (cars) 470,016 ?5

3. Honda: Marysville, Ohio 458,843 2.3

4. NUMMI: Fremont, Calif. 407,881 -4.8

5. Volkswagen: Puebla, Mexico 409,566 17.6

6. Nissan: Smyrna, Tenn. 410,991 ?6

7. Honda: Alliston, Ontario 390,580 1.1

8. Chrysler: Belvidere, Ill. 333,077 68.7

9. Nissan: Aguascalientes, Mexico 322,357* 17.5

10. GM: Oshawa, Ontario (trucks) 316,082 38.6

*Estimate

Notes: Volkswagen in Puebla added a model, the Jetta wagon; Belvidere and Oshawa truck went through changeovers and ramp-ups.

Interesting.....

That's ok, the GM plants are still rated #1 in quality and at the end of the day that's all that matters.

Top-producing? What kind of honor is that? Anyone can crank a plant up to full speed, but then quality dips substantially, the market gets saturated faster, overproduction often occurs, and then the incentives start piling up.

Top-producing? What kind of honor is that? Anyone can crank a plant up to full speed, but then quality dips substantially, the market gets saturated faster, overproduction often occurs, and then the incentives start piling up.

So, Croc, I see you're back after a long absence. Where ya been, and how are my stuff now?

Interesting... I have a cousin that works there, interior assembly line manager or something like that.