Chevrolet Record

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30982, 11 February 1966, Page 9

Chevrolet Record

QN December 7 the threemillionth Chevrolet vehicle to be built in 1965 came off the assembly line at the division’s plant in California. It was the first time any manufacturer had produced so many vehicles in a single year. It has been estimated that to transport so many vehicles from an assembly plant a train 3000 miles long would be required. To produce the vehicles, the

division used more than 3,500,000 tons of steel, enough copper and copper alloys to make a pile of pennies 8000 miles high, and enough windows to cover 2000 acres. The amount of steel used represents one seventh of the annual output of the Pittsburgh mill district in the United States.

About 13,000 supplier firms made items for the three million vehicles. Materials ranged from steel, the largest single component, to castor oil and bees wax. Even these are important—castor oil as a brake cylinder lubricant and bees wax as a wire insulating and adhesive material. Chevrolet suppliers are found in hundreds of American cities and small towns. Half of them have fewer than 25 employees. Approximately an eighth of the firms have been doing business with Chevrolet for more than 31 years. There are many much smaller businesses across the country which are sub-con-tractors to the suppliers themselves.

AMERICAN Motors announced its international automobile operations in 1965 reached record volume for the ninth consecutive year.