Where do car companies decide to test their vehicles?

"WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe" (wesbarton89) 08/15/2015 at 13:04 • Filed to: None

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This is an honest question.

I regularly see GM’s unreleased vehicles, all camoflauged and done up, driving around, usually with an escort vehicle. It’s hard to get pics because I’m usually driving when I see them. The one time I did get lucky and caught the 2016 Camaro, but that was just days after the official unveiling, so the novelty was kind of gone. I’ve also seen what I believe to be the Cadillac CT6 testing. Same camo, but bigger than any other GM car. (Seriously, it looked a little bigger than a Chrysler 300, and I could make out the outline of Cadillac’s grille)

Yesterday, I saw the new Cruze driving around as well. Since it’s already been unveiled, it was pretty obvious what it was.

But why here? To my knowledge, the closest GM plant is the Lordstown, OH one (which is absolutely massive I must say, I’ve driven past there a handful of times), which is around 200 miles away, and obviously, not all of these are built there.

But, why would they test vehicles in a small MD town? Less chance of exposure and leaks? I don’t know. I’d actually like to speak with GM manufacturing and find out, as a blog piece, but I’m afraid that if I fudge that up, they’ll stop bringing them here, and we won’t see them.

Do you live in an area that’s far away from manufacturing plants where you still see prototypes running around?

MLGCarGuy > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe 08/15/2015 at 13:11

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As far as I’m concerned, SoCal doesn’t have any major car manufacturing plants, but yet companies test their cars here. Most companies do have some sort of tech center or have their headquarters here, so that’s probably why.

As to why they test their cars in SoCal, I think it’s because they want to see how the car performs on the freeway and in traffic (we’ve got tons of both).

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe 08/15/2015 at 13:15

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When I’m in Estes Park/Colorado Springs/Idaho Springs I regularly see Mercedes test vehicles.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe 08/15/2015 at 13:30

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While we don’t see many prototypes up here in Norway we do have a decent amount of pre production vehicles, BMW, VAG, MB and others come here to see if the cars can deal with our winter.

Urambo Tauro > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe 08/15/2015 at 14:34

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Very common to see manufacturer plates close to home.

I see FCA brands running around Auburn Hills all the time, as well as north of that along M24. Fords can be spotted in Dearborn and surrounding areas. An unpainted Ford GT was recently spotted on the Lodge in Southfield.

Cé hé sin > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh 08/15/2015 at 14:42

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They even more commonly come to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjeplog

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Cé hé sin 08/15/2015 at 14:51

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I know, Arjeplog is AWESOME :)