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GM Lordstown Celebrates Production of Last Pontiac Sunfire
By George NelsonLORDSTOWN, Ohio -- With the final units of the Pontiac Sunfire due to roll off the production line within a few days, workers and managers at the General Motors Lordstown Complex gave the decade-old car an official sendoff Friday afternoon. "There's a time for everything," said Maureen Midgley, manager of the Lordstown Complex manager. "It is a time for us to finish our old models and get ready for our new models, and where it may be a little sentimental and emotional, it's time. We're ready for it. We're happy that we were able to build the Sunfire and bring it to where it is, and we have to let it go to move onto our future, as with anything in life."How do you feel when you leave high school and go to college?" she continued. "It's kind of sad but we're excited for the next step."Midgley's reflections followed Friday's media event at the plant, which culminated with two ceremonial final models driven on the plant floor. The Lordstown Complex is converting its facilities to produce the new Chevrolet Cobalt, scheduled for the fourth quarter.Workers will continue to build the Chevrolet Cavalier until a week before the model changeover takes place.The Lordstown plant began production in 1994 of the Sunfire, successor to the Pontiac Sunbird launched in 1982. GM officials estimated that 827,830 Sunfires have been manufactured at Lordstown since. The last Sunfire was put on the line Friday morning, and is expected to be finished by third shift Sunday night. That car will be the prize in a fund-raiser for the Make-A-Wish foundation. Employees and retirees can buy raffle tickets to win the last Lordstown-produced Sunfire. The drawing will be held in August, at a car show celebrating the new Cobalt and the to-be-retired Chevrolet Cavalier."We really wanted to be able to do two things," Midgley said. "First, we wanted to give something to our charity that's of significance to the work force, and we wanted to allow a worker -- either a retiree or a current employee - to have that last Sunfire. It's something we had talked about some time ago and we were able to pull it off."Rich Kidd of Austintown, a materials supervisor and employee at the plant 37 years, admitted he wasn't sure at first whether the Sunfire would find acceptance in the marketplace. "When we first took this product over, we were all skeptical, and it has just sold and sold and sold," he observed, "and it's still selling today. I still can't believe we're letting it go."Orville Bowser, sales manager at Jim Pace Pontiac, Niles, agrees the Pontiac Sunfire will be missed. Bowser said Sunfire sales usually are about 10% of his dealership's business. "They've been nice little cars to sell," he commented. Contact George Nelson at [email protected]"