1981 Malibu classic 2 door buckets and console
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long shot , I have no idea where the '81's were built .
but the earlier years were built in Oshawa ,Canada and years ago you could request from GM Canada details for your car.
Sadly the plant in Oshawa is a shadow of it's former self ( thinking it stamps body panels now ,employing 300 . at it's peak it was 40,000 plus , this includes the battery plant / the axle plant / the glass plant / the Lear seat plant and the PPG plant
The woman who handled these request's ,I am sure is retired ( ? )
But google could help you.
but the earlier years were built in Oshawa ,Canada and years ago you could request from GM Canada details for your car.
Sadly the plant in Oshawa is a shadow of it's former self ( thinking it stamps body panels now ,employing 300 . at it's peak it was 40,000 plus , this includes the battery plant / the axle plant / the glass plant / the Lear seat plant and the PPG plant
The woman who handled these request's ,I am sure is retired ( ? )
But google could help you.
Thanks for the info. But I was wondering on the number of vehicles built with that combination
If the 81's were built in Canada , this information is / was available .
direct from GM Canada , for some reason car's build in the US not so lucky unless it's a Corvette.
where was your car built ?
GM in the USA never kept track of option content in that manner.
FWIW, you couldn't get buckets in a Malibu in 1981, only Malibu Classic (which includes Landaus, as they were all built on Malibu Classics)
FWIW, you couldn't get buckets in a Malibu in 1981, only Malibu Classic (which includes Landaus, as they were all built on Malibu Classics)
Generally, GM typically did not keep detailed records of cars that they built. Especially if the model year was done and over with.
It's easy if they all came with buckets and console and autos, like say, 1984 Calais had. But 81 model year Malibus could come in any combination that was allowed via the ordering books for the dealership. They may restrict options on certain models, and include them on others.
The typical thing that GM gave a crap about was number of Malibus produced for 81 model year. Exterior colors. Engine type and transmission types. Plus any specialized, limited edition car that they gave a flip about even if the VIN didn't designate it. For example, if they had a hankering to track M80 cars, they could. The 2010 and 2012 Camaro "Transformers Edition" cars were counted and tracked by GM via RPO "CTH".
It was more helpful if there was a VIN designator that showed a particular model. Like, they could tell you how many Monte SS cars they made since it had a specialized VIN designator. But they probably couldn't tell you how many came with posi or solid roof. If there were a convertible option, they could tell you that, but there wasn't one so no research needs doing there.
But other than that, T-top cars (don't EVER believe anyone telling you they know how many whatever cars were built with T-tops that hasn't sifted through all the build sheets to manually tally that number), or bucket seat with or without consoles, etc., G80 posi, etc., and other things that car buffs may think is important, GM didn't. They never built cars to satisfy the collectors down the road.
It's easy if they all came with buckets and console and autos, like say, 1984 Calais had. But 81 model year Malibus could come in any combination that was allowed via the ordering books for the dealership. They may restrict options on certain models, and include them on others.
The typical thing that GM gave a crap about was number of Malibus produced for 81 model year. Exterior colors. Engine type and transmission types. Plus any specialized, limited edition car that they gave a flip about even if the VIN didn't designate it. For example, if they had a hankering to track M80 cars, they could. The 2010 and 2012 Camaro "Transformers Edition" cars were counted and tracked by GM via RPO "CTH".
It was more helpful if there was a VIN designator that showed a particular model. Like, they could tell you how many Monte SS cars they made since it had a specialized VIN designator. But they probably couldn't tell you how many came with posi or solid roof. If there were a convertible option, they could tell you that, but there wasn't one so no research needs doing there.
But other than that, T-top cars (don't EVER believe anyone telling you they know how many whatever cars were built with T-tops that hasn't sifted through all the build sheets to manually tally that number), or bucket seat with or without consoles, etc., G80 posi, etc., and other things that car buffs may think is important, GM didn't. They never built cars to satisfy the collectors down the road.
Weren't the M80 cars an upfitter/aftermarket deal, done after they were built by GM assembly? Similar to the CanAM, Mustang II Cobra IIs, convertible fox body Mustangs, etct
I don't know. I was simply using it as an example. Even if they were off-plant, if GM wanted to track them, they would. There was SOMETHING in the build information to designate a car as an M80 or not. So it could be shipped off-plant for the conversion. I don't know if they did track M80s or not. 83/84 H/O's were upfitted off-plant too. But they kept tabs on those. Mainly because of the VIN engine code.
Also, for example, nearly every 2010 Camaro was shipped off site if there were stripe packages to be added because apparently they couldn't keep up and do it right at the factory, at least at the beginning. But they didn't track that. They COULD have if they wanted, they had all the data available, but it would take someone to keep track of all that stuff and for the most part, they didn't care.
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