It sits there, gleaming in the sun, paint clean and chrome shining. It’s a car, a new car, and it sure looks enticing. Go ahead: get behind the wheel and take her for a test drive. But before you do, there’s a few things you might want to know about how that car came to be. In fact, there are volumes of important information about how a car goes from idea…to wheels on the ground. It’s a long (though getting shorter) and expensive process that starts with that one idea that gets executives thinking about headlines, sales or survival. Indeed, the process of actually building a car has become an immense game of connecting dots and modules from around the world. As we dive more deeply into how cars are built, we’ll focus on three core areas: the Idea, Building Your Ride and Buying Your Ride. For now, we’ll start with the basics of each, but stay tuned for an expanded series of articles about how cars are built, and why.
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The Idea
Urban legend claims that cars, just like songs, are built on the back of a napkin over drinks usually served at some mysterious automaker mover and shaker country club. In the case of the Solstice, the idea was more inspiration than perspiration: designers came up with a stunning concept, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz approved it, and they were able to develop a last minute concept vehicle in time for the Detroit Auto Show. In the case of the Solstice, the real work came after the show, as planners and product managers struggled to meet Lutz’s mandate that the Solstice be sold for less than $20,000.
But that’s the romance of the car business, such as it is. More often, however, a more realistic approach takes hold, one based strictly on need: an automaker sees an opportunity to build sales, makes plans and develops a car by using thousands of hours of analysis, trend study and focus groups. Given the type of car to be built, exterior designers then go about creating something people will actually look twice at, and interior designers work to keep them inside the cabin, with quality materials and smart design, all done on what is often a tight budget. Once the idea is approved and work toward prototypes and production begins, most automakers build concepts and pre production models to gauge the public’s reaction. Often showcased at an Auto Show, these before prime time models supply a wealth of information to the automaker and also serve as a valuable marketing tool, driving anticipation and “buzz” about the new model.
Building Your Ride
Usually, cars are built on an existing “platform”, which is fancy pants auto talk for sharing components across multiple vehicles. For example, though they look different and serve different buyers, the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook all come from the same platform. Or here’s another: the Honda Accord and the Honda Odyssey. More than likely, these shared components include the chassis (framework and lower parts), steering mechanism, suspension, safety equipment and powertrain choices – though this is changing. The rest is, more or less, interchangeable window dressings. In the case of the GM crossovers we saw built at the Delta Township Assembly plant, a new platform was put into place. Plant included, the total expense of getting these vehicles on the road was more than $800 million.
That’s some serious cash for a serious game of selling family cars. The assembly process itself is also a serious, complicated game, one that involves humans, robots and intense timing. Case in point: at the Delta Township, as with other plants, all the components that go inside a specific vehicle are timed to meet together via a line that rivals a metropolitan freeway system. It starts with welding the main body panels together, then moves on to the assembly of doors, trunk lid and hood, at which point the completed shell goes into the primer, paint and baking phase. Up next is assembly, starting with the interior floor and ending with the seats. The line then moves to powertrain assembly, then to wiring and fuel tanks/tires and wheels. Finally, it’s tested, inspected and shipped. That’s it: Body, Paint, Parts and Performance. Sounds simple, right?
Not so fast. In fact, it’s all about timing. In the process, if you were to stop the line, you’d lose time, and time is money. If you screw up, you build a car that no one wants, costing your employer thousands of dollars. As a result, tasks are timed to the second and workers, either those programming robots or working side-by-side installing dashboard, seats and other facets, must do so with consistency. In order to improve the quality and speed of assembly, in fact, the Delta Township has a practice line for new workers to use until they’re ready for the real thing, and workers are able to build tools to help make them more efficient at their jobs.
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