Hope to see you there!!!  Bring a friend or two!

Please mark your calendars for August 19, 20,21 2010.  These are the dates of our annual open house featuring Happ’y smokin BBQ and all the fixins!  We also will have activities for the kids, as well as numerous new vehicle models on display for you to look at.  We hope to see you there!

Exerpt from Fairfax assembly newsletter after 2nd group.

Lighthouse Automotive Dealer Makes another trip to Fairfax

On Thursday, February 18, another group of 31 employees and family members from Lighthouse Automotive Buick/GMC braved the cold weather to visit Fairfax Assembly. Lighthouse is located in Morton, Ill., about 375 miles from Kansas City. This eager group wanted to see firsthand how the cars they are so proud to sell are made. While at Fairfax the Lighthouse group was given a tour of the plant by George Ruiz, Don Schweer, and Dave Robertson and listened to a GM/UAW presentation about the history of Fairfax Assembly and the future of GM. John Melton, UAW 31 Chairman, and Plant Manager Rex Blackwell spoke to the group and answered many questions
about our facility, our products and our people. To say the least the group was very impressed with our facility.

“Thanks to all of you for your hospitality and the great tour,” said Jeff Grimm, Lighthouse Automotive owner. “We were proud to be selling the new LaCrosse before we came, but that was reinforced big time after meeting all of you.”

The following are comments from our visitors:

“Wow this place and the people are amazing”

“I never imagined a ‘factory’ to be like this. It is poetry in motion watching these cars being built by the thousands of employees, everyone was no nice and so busy.”

“This is the most quiet and soundly built car I have ever worked on. No customer complaints. Keep up the great work!”

“No wind noise. No squeaks. No rattles. No comebacks.”

“We love the LaCrosse and our customers are very impressed with the quality of the vehicle, it is second to none!”

Special thanks to the DVT team for making the visit extra special for our guests. The team at Fairfax should feel very good, once again, about the accolades that Lighthouse gave to Fairfax.

Excerpt from Fairfax KS plant weekly Newsletter 

Visitors Impressed with Plant and Team

On Tuesday, 31 employees and family members from Lighthouse Automotive Buick/GMC visited Fairfax Assembly. Lighthouse is located in Morton, Illinois, about 375 miles from Kansas City. On February 19, Lighthouse will bring another group of employees to Fairfax for another visit.

This eager group wanted to see firsthand how the cars they are so proud to sell are made. While at Fairfax the Lighthouse group was given a tour of the plant by George Ruiz and listened to a GM/UAW presentation about the history of Fairfax Assembly and the future of GM. John Melton, UAW 31 Chairman, and Plant Manager Rex Blackwell spoke to the group and answered many questions about our facility, our products and our people.

Lighthouse Automotive braved the cold weather to visit Fairfax.

“Thanks to all of you for your hospitality and the great tour,” said Jeff Grimm, owner of Lighthouse Automotive. “We were thankful and proud to be selling the new LaCrosse before we
came, but that was reinforced big time after meeting all of you.”

One participant mentioned that the plant was so clean, much
cleaner than was anticipated. Following are some additional
comments regarding the visit:

“We are your biggest fan. We want you to succeed and we are behind you supporting you 100%.”

“We love the LaCrosse and our customers are very impressed with the quality of the vehicle, it is second to none!”
“We are doing everything we can to win customers for GM one by one.”

“We are proud to sell this vehicle.”
“Thanks SO MUCH for the hospitality and kindness that your plant showed. It was very informative and helpful for us to sell and defend ‘our’ product, the LaCrosse.”

The team at Fairfax should feel very good about the accolades that Lighthouse gave to Fairfax. In return, we should all know and feel good that our Dealers are out selling our products, talking positive about our products. They are engaged in selling one customer at a time while taking care of new and existing customers with the utmost professionalism and concerns. From Fairfax Assembly to Lighthouse Automotive Buick/GMC thanks for the great visit and we look forward to seeing your next group on February 19.

We at Lighthouse Automotive were lucky enough to take a “field trip” to Kansas City to tour the Buick Lacrosse assembly plant.  We each were able to bring 1 family member or friend.  1 group of 35 went each time and we had 2 different trips.  We had a great time being together and spending quality time “away from work”.

Although cameras were not allowed in the plant, we were able to take notes.  Here are some interesting observations:

–1 finished car comes off the line every 52 second!  This equals 1200 vehicles build in 1 day.

–There are 3,200 different parts that make up a modern vehicle.  This means that during the course of 1 day, 3,840,000 parts are installed on the assembly line.

–The stamping floor where the sheet metal is molded has concrete that is 7 feet thick.

–1 roll of sheet metal weighs 46,000 lbs.

–The wiring harness for the interior of the Buick Lacrosse weighs 50 lbs!

A car factory tour is always a very interesting thing to do and we would recommend it to any of our customers.  Tours are available at numerous plants across the Midwest.  It was a very fascinating experience and one that we will not forget.

A great time was had by the service and parts personnel on the evening of Oct 27th.  Dinner at Texas Roadhouse, then bowling at Safari lanes in Morton.  It is good to get away from work once in a while to visit and talk about our personal lives.  Many laughs were shared!  Thanks for coming everyone!

A great time was had by the employees and friends of Lighthouse Automotive Labor Day Morning. Breakfast at Busy Corner, then trap shooting for 2 hours at the Grimm pond.

Thanks to all who helped make our annual Open House a success.  Over 2,000 people attended this year over the 3 days!