As has been his style, president-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter earlier this week to bash General Motors for importing Chevrolet Cruze compact cars to the United States from one of its plants in Mexico.
General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017
The tweet prompted the automaker to issue the following brief statement, which is included here in its entirety:
General Motors manufactures the Chevrolet Cruze sedan in Lordstown, Ohio. All Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the U.S. are built in GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S.
It all seemed like much ado about very little, what with Trump’s track record of not quite getting all his facts straight regarding automakers’ manufacturing sites and importation plans, and GM saying that it shipped just 4500 five-door hatchbacks to the United States among the 188,876 Cruzes it delivered to dealers last year.
But then, curiously, it turns out that there actually are several brand-new 2017 Chevrolet Cruze sedans for sale on U.S. dealer lots. In addition, that number won’t be quite as low as 4500 this year; the hatchback only just went on sale here in fall 2016, and a full year of sales could mean that as many as 10,000 to 15,000 Cruze hatchbacks will be imported from Mexico. GM has confirmed to Car and Driver that it will continue to source U.S.-market five-doors from its Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, plant for the foreseeable future. “So long as there’s customer demand, we’ll keep making them [in Mexico] for the U.S. market,” Pat Morrissey, GM’s corporate news relations director, told us.
It was another Twitter user, automotive writer Edward Niedermeyer, who first reported on the Mexican Cruze sedans, noting that the Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) of many examples listed for sale across the country clearly indicate they were “Hecho en Mexico,” as he put it.
Here is GM's 2017 Model Year VIN decoder. As you can see, Hecho En Mexico VINs start with 3G1 https://t.co/hX22l531wK http://pic.twitter.com/hRrLThLZOU
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) January 5, 2017
So all you have to do to prove that GM lied to the President Elect is to find Chevrolet Cruze Sedans for sale in the US with 3G1 VINs…
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) January 5, 2017
When reached by Car and Driver for comment, GM’s Morrissey confirmed that the automaker had indeed imported some Cruze sedans from Mexico: about 8400 units from September through November, which, he said, was done to satisfy demand during the fall launch of the 2017 model. GM announced this launch strategy back in June. “We were very clear about that, very transparent about it,” Morrissey said. One of our editors visited a Chevrolet dealer near his home in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday and noted some Mexico-made Cruze sedans on that lot, where a sales manager confirmed that those examples had been sitting unsold for quite some time.
A Chevrolet Cruze Monroney affixed to a car at a Chevrolet dealer in Portland, Oregon, on January 5, 2017. It displays the car’s production site.
Morrissey added that GM’s January 3 statement was addressing vehicles that are being built at present. He said the automaker currently is assembling all Cruze sedans in the United States for sale here. “The fact that there are vehicles on dealer lots—those were vehicles supportive of the launch in the fall,” he said. Mexican leftovers, essentially.
Sourcing additional Cruze sedans from the Mexico plant is unlikely to happen, both because of the current political climate—who wants to risk inciting another tweet storm?—and because demand for cars in general has been falling. Indeed, GM announced in November that more than 1200 workers at its Lordstown, Ohio, complex will be laid off as the plant goes from three shifts to two and that the 188,876 Cruzes sold in in the United States in 2016 represent a 17 percent year-over-year sales decline. (To be fair, 2016 was a transitional year that included winding down production of the old model and ramping up the new one, which can suppress sales numbers.)
The saga may not be over, however. GM’s Ramos Arizpe plant is set to begin supplemental overflow production of the new Chevrolet Equinox compact crossover in May and the new GMC Terrain at an unspecified date this year, according to Automotive News.
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