BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - It didn't come out completely unscathed, but the General Motors assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky will continue to produce the great American sports car, the Corvette.
"I was cautiously optimistic the Corvette would make it through," Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker told News 2 Monday morning.
She said she learned around 10:30 a.m. the plant will keep making Corvettes, just not as many.
"We've got something unique in the Corvette. It's not just a vehicle, it's not just another one of the GM products, it's an American icon," the mayor said.
As part of GM's cutbacks, workers at the plant in Bowling Green, about 65 miles north of Nashville, will build only enough Corvettes to meet demand, currently around 50,000 per year.
In addition, the facility will not get another vehicle line to replace the Cadillac it lost earlier this year.
The plant will also not need three shifts in the future.
Gary Cockriel of the National Corvette Museum just across the highway from the plant said the cutbacks beat having to shut the plant down completely.
"It keeps people coming to Bowling Green to see the car being built and to see the Corvette museum and keeping jobs here for a lot of people who have relocated their lives to Bowling Green," he said.
Since 1981, every Chevy Corvette in the world has been built in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
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