The last car to be made at General Motors’ Vauxhall factory at Luton rolls off the production line on Thursday 21 March. It marks the end of almost a hundred years of car production at the plant in Luton, Bedfordshire (about 40 kilometres north of London).
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The UK subsidiary attracted considerable criticism when it announced in 2000 that, as part of GM Europe’s costs rationalisation strategy, Vectra production would be axed at the Vauxhall car assembly plant at Luton, north of London. The company said that weaker demand for GM’s Vectra model was part of the reason and that Luton would not be getting the next generation Vectra. Around 1,900 jobs have been lost at the plant.
Shortly afterwards it was announced that the next generation Vectra would still be made in the UK at Vauxhall’s more modern Ellesmere Port (Merseyside, Liverpool) facility.
Margaret Moran, MP for Luton South, told the BBC that it was a day of “great emotion” for the town.
She added: “I am proud of the great amount of professionalism, dignity and dedication that the employees have shown throughout this traumatic time.”
