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Cobalt Production Moves Ahead Slowly, But Surely "
By Dan O'BrienLORDSTOWN, Ohio -- General Motors Corp.'s Lordstown complex is producing new Chevrolet Cobalts at a rate of about 200 a day, but don't expect to see the vehicles in showrooms anytime before November."We're going to hold them at Lordstown until we've determined they're ready to go to dealers," said Tom Mock, GM Lordstown spokesman. Mock stressed General Motors is focused on manufacturing high-quality cars, and Cobalt is still in the early stages of its launch. "It's a brand new process. The jobs are different, new tooling has been put in -- there's a whole new way of doing this. These are the things we still have to work through," he explained.Precisely how long the plant will produce cars at this rate is still undetermined, Mock said. Over the last two weeks, GM Lordstown has manufactured "several hundred" of the new cars -- still parked at the plant in a holding pattern until the final go-ahead is given.Once in full production, officials have said the Lordstown plant will produce about 300,000 Cobalts and Pontiac Pursuits a year, or an average of about 800 a day.All Cobalts will undergo a final inspection phase before they are shipped to dealers, Mock added. "In the old days, they just used to build them and ship them. Today, the quality standards are extremely high," he said.The Cobalt is targeted at the premium end of the small-car market to compete with vehicles such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and the Volkswagen Jetta. The strategy is a departure from GM's previous foray into the small-car business with the Chevrolet Cavalier, which ceased production at Lordstown Oct. 6. General Motors isicompleting a $1 billion renovation of the Lordstown plant, which includes a massive, 500,000 square-foot paint shop. The new paint shop is expected to be completed by mid-2005. The Cobalt is offered in nine different colors.The Cobalt is manufactured according to GM's Delta platform, and uses processes new to the Lordstown facility. Among these are automated guided vehicles -- or AGVs -- in the chassis marriage area, off-line cockpit assembly and a "doors-off"process in which the doors will be removed before the car enters the general assembly line, allowing workers more freedom to install interior components. The Lordstown complex produces both the Cobalt sedan and coupe, as well as the SS Coupe, a high-performance vehicle geared to customers in the tuner market.Contact Dan O'Brien at [email protected] "