GM to relaunch Camaro at Oshawa plant, saving 2,700 jobs

General Motorsannounced Monday that it will build the redesigned Chevrolet Camaro in Oshawa, Ont.,a move that will save thousands of Canadian jobs.

The new Camaro is scheduled to roll off the line in 2008, the same yearthat the No. 2 Oshawa car plant was slated to close.

The move will save 2,700 jobs in Oshawa.

GM officials said the preparatory work at the plant would begin immediately, with a total investment of $740 million.

In November 2005, General Motors announced that theNo. 2 plant in Oshawa would close in 2008 because of overcapacity in the market. At the time, the plant produced the Pontiac Grand Prix and the Buick LaCrosse/Allure models. Those models won't be made after2008.

But the plant also won independent praise for the quality of the cars it built. In June, J. D. Power and Associates said GM's Oshawa No. 2 plant won its gold plant quality award for the second consecutive year, meaning it produced vehicles with the fewest defects among car and truck plants in North and South America.

TheCamaro announcement comes after the Canadian Auto Workers union agreed to 2,500 early retirements to reduce the operating costs in Oshawa.

CAW president Buzz Hargrove said the investment in theplant"ensures the long-term future of this complex for the people in it."

GM confirmed earlier in Augustthat it would go ahead with a newversion of the Camaroafteran attention-grabbing debutof a Camaro concept car at the Detroit International Auto Show in January.

GM discontinued production of the Camaro in 2002, which left 1,000 workers at a plant in Ste-Therese, Que., out of work.

Muscle car field getting more crowded

GM, which sold almost five million Camaros from 1967 until it pulled the model, has become only the latest in a string ofNorth American automakers to relaunch a classic muscle car.

Ford announced two weeks earlier that it wouldrestart production of the Ford Shelby GT, ahigh-powered version of its Mustang.

And DaimlerChrysler announced in Julyit wouldrelaunch the Dodge Challengerin 2008.

GM hopes to sell about 100,000 Camaros a year. It said its new versionwill be more fuel-efficient than the 1960s version.

General Motors is hoping to turn around a steady erosion of market share that has seen North American consumers increasingly turning to Japanese brands like Toyota and Honda.

GM lost $8.6 billion US in 2005 but has since embarkedon an extensive restructuring and cost-cutting campaign that has included offering buyouts worth up to $140,000 US to thousands of its workers.