Buick Regal Adds Second Production Shift in Canada

General Motors has just announced that its Oshawa Car Assembly plant will add a second shift for the production of the 2011 Buick Regal. The shift, which will led to the return of 700 employees to the Oshawa flx line, will begin in the fourth quarter of 2010 in preparation for the North American production of the Buick Regal. Production of the Regal is slated to debut in the first quarter of 2011.

“We’re really excited to be adding production of the all-new Buick Regal alongside the hot-selling Chevrolet Camaro at the Oshawa Car Assembly Plant,” said Marc Comeau, GM of Canada’s vice-president of sales, service and marketing. “With the plant’s longstanding reputation for quality, and the Regal’s award-winning European roots, customers are in for a top quality ride, unlike anything they’ve seen from Buick before.”

According to GM, this is just another result of the positive development of the Canadian market, and follows the implementation of some other decisions, as follows:

• Oshawa Car Plant running Saturday overtime since June 2009 to keep up with demand for the Chevrolet Camaro
• Production of the Camaro Convertible will begin in Oshawa in Q1 2011
• The recent addition of a 3rd shift, plus steady scheduled overtime at CAMI Automotive, plus an additional investment of $C96 million to add a further 50,000 units of annual capacity to keep up with strong demand for the all-new Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain
• The recent $200m investment in the high feature V6 engine to increase capacity in St. Catharines and to implement Spark Ignition, Direct Injection technology
• The announcement of a planned additional module of the new 6-speed front wheel drive transmission to be built at St. Catharines