Posted by Agent Skelly Oshawa I think gets the most GM's own internal awards for best quality too. I remember learning about that at Janesvile because that crew was angry they came in 2nd every year since like 1993...

i'm going to start documenting every Lumina, Monte Carlo and Impala here in my are that has in excess of 200,000 miles on it, send it to GM as an 'in your face' to those smug Toyota drivers... i was talking to a woman today at the market that has 340,000 on her 97 Lumina.
three hundred forty thousand miles... same engine. same transmission.

those crazy Canadians can build a car.

Posted by Samurai i'm going to start documenting every Lumina, Monte Carlo and Impala here in my are that has in excess of 200,000 miles on it, send it to GM as an 'in your face' to those smug Toyota drivers... i was talking to a woman today at the market that has 340,000 on her 97 Lumina. three hundred forty thousand miles... same engine. same transmission. those crazy Canadians can build a car.

They sure can

I raise a beer to GM when they bought the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in 1918. They made Buicks for Canada because they sold like hot cakes...

Though the idea of manufacturing cars in Canada goes to Ford when they did it in 1904 by creating a plant in Walkerville, ON (now Windsor) to sell parts and cars to not just Canada, but to the rest of the British Empire.

It wasn't until the 80s on that GM actually created the Oshawa Car Assembly that we know today when they created the "Autoplex" right there off the 401 by expanding the existing plant by 3 times its size and really started to produce cars for both the USA and Canada at the same rate.

Posted by Agent Skelly Wonder why that would be. I remember at Janesvile, they didn't have specific fuel for specific destinations but I do remember that one line got premium fuel and one line got regular. Now, at the end of the line after the vehicles passed testing, I do remember there was 3 lots where vehicles were sorted based upon destination. One was for stateside, one was for Canada, and the other was everywhere else.

it was the jit that got my mind spinning, trannys were loaded in the order they came down the line in yipsilanti, engines the same, and they had to meet up at precisely the right time, 2 engine options 2 trannys, but the manual and auto matic had different flywheels to that was then technically 4 different engines (the flywheels were installed att he engine plant) the tranny tunnel on the automatic wasnt the same as the manual. and oh yeah, vins were on all these parts at origin! so if one dashboard was mis placed the line stopped

there was the canadian/american dashboard too, im getting a headache just thinking about it!

the autoplex had origins with the can am auto trade pact, remember gm had to export from canada an equal number of cars imported back then

i was just in a cab, a 99 camry, with 608 000 miles, not km but miles, I was impressed.

most montreals cabs are rebuilt american accidented cars, my friends dad drives for diamond, his whole family drives malibus, former cabs and all accident rebuilds, a lot of times the vin number and associated mileage are nothing to do with the car you are in

Posted by Nismo i was just in a cab, a 99 camry, with 608 000 miles, not km but miles, I was impressed.

but was it 608,000 with the same engine/transmission?

sam i know, like i was sayin, taxi garages are a notch away from chop shops

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! sam i know, like i was sayin, taxi garages are a notch away from chop shops

how do they get the cars across the border?

i know my friends families malibus are generally imported by car importers, the new orleans floods were a great source of cheap taxis up here

Posted by Samurai how do they get the cars across the border?

pretty damn easy to get a car across the border into canada in any condition. You should have seen the Evo I shipped over last summer.

Yeah, its pretty easy...the only thing you have to do is of course install DRLs (as they are mandatory in Canada), which I think there's kits out there for that for under $100 I believe.

Of course, whats nice about GM cars 2000 and on is that you can flip the switch from US Customary to Metric all in software pretty easy for the importation

Half the time they forget to check the DRLs when the do the free inspection at Canadian Tire. I just turned my lights on when I started the car for them... lol

Posted by bandi Half the time they forget to check the DRLs when the do the free inspection at Canadian Tire. I just turned my lights on when I started the car for them... lol

The inspection at CT technicall isn't free.. You paid for it when you came across the border in the fees, and then they pay the store who did the inspection. Even if the RIV inspection missed the DRL's, it should be caught during the usual Provincial Safety inspection that has to be done before it can be plated

Yeah, but technically CT can't charge you for it. And I safety my own cars

Posted by bandi Yeah, but technically CT can't charge you for it. And I safety my own cars

Thats because you sleep with shop manager

Posted by Agent Skelly I do agree with you on that, but the lawn chair itself was funny. I figured a company like GM would you know give the guy a decent chair, but no it looked the guy picked up on the way to work from a garage sale.

The chair is funny, am seeing a Norman Rockwell type painting of the old guy with his pipe and coffee pot. Like if he was ice fishing, instead he's building an Empire, Escalade?. A swiveling Recaro with full motion would make his job easier...

at ste-therese an employee got a bonus for inventing a door closer
used to be the guy who put the lock hardware on had to close the door, to save a little time he rigged up 2 of those spring loaded cable things one to the ceiling one to the floor and duct taped a pillow to it. this little device got him a hefty bonus, and if you saw it in action you would be shocked at the ghettoness of this thing

Posted by Agent Skelly Thats because you sleep with shop manager

Ew. No. He has a mullet.

whats wrong with a mullet! im growing one now! i wanna look like larry walker did when he played for the 94 world series champion expos

I will not sleep with you