2010 Chevrolet Equinox – Click above for high-res image gallery
It's safe to say that 2009 has been the most difficult year in the 101-year history of General Motors. But while most of the news coming out of GM has been tough to swallow, the Detroit, MI-based automaker has had one very good piece of news: its new products are faring well in the marketplace. And of all the new products GM brought to market this year, none has higher volume than its Theta-based crossovers built at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. The 2010 Chevrolet Equinox and the GMC Terrain have been successful enough that The General has added a third shift, scheduled regular overtime for the rank and file and even spent $93 million on a new body shop to increase production capacity by 40,000 units per year.
But GM was spending big bucks and building very important vehicles at a plant that it jointly owned with partner Suzuki. Well, GM changed that last week when it announced that it was buying Suzuki's stake in the Canadian facility. GM has not disclosed the amount of money it paid to take over full interest of the facility, but we're guessing the total wasn't nearly as much as the cost of a new plant, which can cost over $1 billion. But while the news was good for GM and the people of Ingersoll, we're guessing the folks who work at closing plant in the U.S. aren't all that happy about this development. Hit the jump to read over GM's brief press