In the midst of the throes of drought, Colmotores, whose assembly line opened on February 16, 1962, 62 years ago with all the pomp due to the illustrious visitor, none other than Prince Philip of Edinburgh, who accompanied by the then President Alberto Lleras Camargo, witnessed the first turning of the wheels of an Austin truckwhose English components merited the presence of British royalty in which a huge industrial world was predicted in this country.
(Context: General Motors Colmotores will stop manufacturing vehicles in Colombia)
Montoya, widely known in the Colombian business community for this task and previously for his diligent work in Coltejer, from which he brought all the Paisa momentum, directed and grew the company until the 80s of the last century and was the “shadow president ” in the last period of Virgilio’s presidency, between 1986 and 1990, where he served as the president’s private secretary.
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This long path of the assembler does not change course, but it does change methods. Just like the old CCA did ten years ago, almost exactly when it closed the plant where it made Mazdas, Colmotores, now formally called General Motors Colombia SASalthough in the memory and feelings of all Colombians it will continue to be generically Colmotores.
The land is for sale to the highest bidderundoubtedly for social housing, and the administrative part had already premonitorily moved to offices on 100th Street in Bogotá, where imports of cars and spare parts, service and financial support will be handled so that Chevrolet’s life continues differently internally, but without differences regarding its clientele and history.
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Germán Montoya considered at the time that Colombia was a country of trucks and that the production of the plant would be a brutal injection to the system of heavy, medium and microbus transport, but in reality not even the Austin products were suitable for our roads and tonnages and the trucks did not give the expected performance nor did some campers from ephemeral life Nor did the demand have the size of the factory, since then and now for the most part, the world of heavy trucks is connected with the product of the United States.
Montoya, who had done the business with the English despite not speaking a word of that language, but accompanied by the brand’s representative in the country Ralph Codina Kitchen and the restless Osvaldo Duperly Anqueyra, who worked with the signature dealership. , called Autopropio by the well-known businessman Hernando Zuluaga, soon moved towards other European brands and found on the market “de Société Industrielle de Mecanique et de Carosserie Automobile”, whose initials translate into a name that was super-incident in Colombia: Simca. This was majority owned by Chrysler, a link with which this American firm ended up being the dominant one in Colmotores, which was known by that first surname.
The arrival of the Simca to the assembly line was a novelty because it marked a stark contrast with the automotive fleet, made up of large American cars and very few European parts. The first Colombian Simca was the 1969 model, called 1000, (it cost 88,500 pesos) which preceded the Sofasa R4, launched a year later with a lower engine, a utilitarian profile, but mechanics more suitable for Colombia, since the Simca was an evolutionary car of some Spanish Fiat models. Sportier, yes, the Simca produced just over 27,000 units until its discontinuation in 1977. Then the Dodge Alpine appeared, which was actually the Simca 1308 in Europe, where it had just been declared “car of the year”, scrolls that the car It did not mechanically accompany in the country.
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Simultaneously, Colmotores developed the American sedans of Chrysler, Dart and Coronet, but the restless Germán Montoya moved again in the vestiges of the English industry, grouped in the BMC (British Motor Corporation) and found in Argentina the parts to assemble two very nice cars, but metallurgically weak, which also had their moment known as the Dodge 1500 and Polara 1800, which in the depths of their genealogy were models from Hillman, also English.
Chrysler’s history in Colmotores ends in 1979, when this firm went bankrupt in the United States and sold its operations abroad to cushion its enormous losses. Among these is Colmotores, which was acquired by General Motors in 1979, but whose transition took several years and was not specifically towards General Motors products, as it launched the LUV pickup, originally from Isuzu and which marked a long and productive history of links of Colmotors with Japan. The LUV was the first Japanese vehicle assembled in Latin America and, in addition, marked a before and after in the profile of the country’s light utility vehicles.
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However, above all these previous and subsequent products, The great success of Colmotores was its association with Suzuki for the car known as the Chevrolet Sprint, to which the line of campers was added and was extended on the assembly lines with models of the Swift celebrity, of which the GTI sports version made a separate history and continues to underline it despite its age. Simultaneously, the Suzukis walked through the showcases alongside the Isuzus, pickups, campers and trucks.
That commercial diplomacy with Japan was gradually diluted when General Motors bought the dying Korean Daewoo whose cars had been copied, or rather to put it bluntly, shot from GM cars that they assembled, which here came out as the well-known Aveo and Optra. subsequent years, once the Americans took full control of that firm. In the middle of that offer, Colmotores brought the Corsa to the assemblyyes, totally from its birth, since it came from Brazil, but before from its factories in Europe.
There are many more accidental models and other permanent ones, but it is already part of the history of obligatory addition to quote what was communicated by Colmotores when making public the cessation of its assembly with the last copy of Colombian Joy, which will take to the streets and will join a extensive inventory that will meet market demand for about three months while the assortment of the same model arrives from Brazil.
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Of course, a radical determination of these is not made by a corporation in a week based on the monthly sales statistics of a country but because it has enormous negative records under its belt and considers that the business projections – these companies are to make money -, they need a financially profitable procedure. Or as Santiago Chamorro, a Colombian who hurts more than anyone else to take and communicate this moment and is CEO of GM for all of Latin America, from Mexico to the South, told us, it makes no sense. “sustaining operations with inefficient results.”
Santiago Chamorro.
Photo:General Motors
Part of this panorama is embedded in the Colombian reality and Colmotores must make the hard decision to close its plantwhere it had an installed capacity with all the steam of 3 shifts of the line of 100 thousand units per year and was operating at an unsustainable 9% of its potential.
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At the same time, The power was also cut off at the OBB plant in Ecuadorwhere it made an insufficient number of Isuzu Dimax pick-ups and its geographical domain, which previously also included Venezuela, was reduced years ago, when the government of that country expropriated the factory.
Thus, now the cars will essentially arrive from Brazil, Mexico, China, where it has a strong participation in the SAIC conglomerate, Korea or Argentina and other origins that offer the product that is consumed in the country and at prices that are profitable.
Naturally, these painful episodes have their painkillers in the pharmacy to ratify the continuity and development of the firm. In the course of the year it will launch two electric trucks Blazer and Equinox, the Colorado Euro VI and in 2025 it will have a seven-seat SUV called Spin, originally from Brazil, the new Captiva that will come from China, in addition to the evolutions of the Joy.
Chamorro was clear in noting that this step is not directly linked to the current economic situation of the country., although it does not rule out that the fall of the local market is an unquestionable factor. But he explains that in this industry many changes have happened in a short time that have led to drastic decisions of efficiency and compaction of the production and sale of cars and in that scheme an operation like the Colombian one, which, although it is of enormous benefit for Colombia, It is a small portion of the overall manufacturing of a corporation of that size that they can source from other sources.
All of these arguments are real and unquestionable, but it pains all of us Colombians that a company with this deep roots closes a source of work, of development, of boosting auto parts, of technological innovations and that, although it continues to offer the same menu, The seasoning of Creole cuisine will continue to be lacking, while we get used to the international menu.
José Clopatofsky
ENGINE DIRECTOR
