GM Wants To Unload Its French Transmission Plant - Again

by Bertel Schmitt

May 9th, 2012 12:43 PM

gm wants to unload its french transmission plant again

In a reminder of the dark days of 2008, GM did put its Strasbourg, France, transmission plant up for sale. GM had tried to sell the plant in the crisis year of 2008. Not able to find a buyer, GM decided to keep it. Now, GM wants to unload the plant again.

Officially, GM “is conducting a comprehensive strategic review of its Strasbourg (France) transmission operations for potential sale. The review includes both the manufacturing plant and the engineering and product development operations.”

After GM had bought the plant back for one euro in 2010 from a liquidator, workers agreed to a two-year wage freeze in return for job guarantees.

GM does not feel that it is reneging. “There are commitments in place to continue manufacturing the transmissions for the next several years,” GM spokesman Jim Cain told Reuters.

Approximately 1,000 people are employed in the Strasbourg operations. Last year, the plant produced approximately 280,000 six-speed automatic transmissions, mostly for customers outside of Europe.

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6 of 16 comments

Schmitt trigger on May 09, 2012

That has been my impression too. GM's vehicles are not the best by far, but their automatic transmissions have been reasoneably reliable... But then, this perception may be related to simple 4-speed autos with torque converters. A 6-speeder with dual clutches is another ballgame that they may have not yet mastered. And I would blame the design first, workmanship later.

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Wmba on May 09, 2012

This isn't a dual clutch automatic, it's a normal torque converter unit. Also, GM id using the 6L45E inthe new ATS, so the same decontented tranny they sell to BMW is going into their BMW fighter. Ironic.

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- Robert.Walter on May 09, 2012
  
  Maybe somebody at GM assumed that significant BMW revenue is coming from the repair of failed GM-supplied transmissions.
  
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Indi500fan on May 09, 2012

FWIW the picture is Allison 1000s (diesel pickup) on the dock at the Baltimore plant.

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Bill Wade on May 09, 2012

I think you guys got it wrong. GM has traditionally designed good reliable automatic transmissions........ ________________________________________________________________________ George, you owe me a keyboard for that one, my old one is completely drenched with the coffee I spit out. Just a few transgressions: 700R4 4L60E THM200 4T60

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- Peter E. Puffington IV on May 10, 2012
  
  The 700R4 and 4L60E have been known to live very reliably behind some serious street rods and are considered by most to be bullitproof. I know many a 700R4/4L60E is pushing around all sorts of offroad beasts (my friends FJ80 Trail rig with a 5.3 swapped in for one) in some very serious enviornments. I have always been a Ford guy when it comes to domestics, but even most Panther owners I think would agree that GM automatics are the bees knees. They certainly put all those AOD derivivitives to shame. I wish I could get one behind my Toyota straight 6. Yes, the A442 is bombproof, but it takes a whole lot of power to turn it. I remember the GM autos as fairly efficient in this regard. Check out a drag strip on Friday night. Yeah many are the old school 3 speeds and powerglides, but youll see a lot of the 4 speed OD units as well, espically on the cars folks drive more than a quarter mile at a time.
  
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