Could have been. But whatever PR person delivered the car to Popular Science probably should have checked for things like that.
I double checked, and the factory in Fremont actually was shut down in the 80s because it was so bad. The whole NUMMI project brought it back. This was the issue I was talking about. I suppose some of it could have been the wrong badging slapped on in different parts of the car. Screwing up a car never got anyone fired because the UAW would protect the worker. They'd protect workers who were smoking pot, drunk on the job, or even having sex in the factory, but it was just this one thing that could get someone fired.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/561/transcript
Frank Langfitt
All those mistakes added up at a GM plant, and the results were littered around the lots outside. Hundreds of misassembled cars. Cars that came off the line missing parts, cars that needed to be fixed before they could be shipped out to the dealers.
In a Toyota plant, there was nothing like this. Why did a GM plant produce so many screwed up cars? One cardinal rule that everybody in the company knew.
Billy Haggerty
The line could never stop. Never stop the line.
Someone have a heart attack, kick him out of the way, keep that line running.
Jeffrey Liker
It was a basic sin. You're violating the Ten Commandments.
Rick Madrid
You just don't see the line stop. I saw a guy fall in the pit, and they didn't stop the line.
Bruce Lee
You saw a problem, you stopped that line, you were fired.
I do find it hilarious that the UAW rep at the plant was named Bruce Lee. And this is where they get to the wrong parts slapped on. They even benefitted from this because later on they got overtime fixing the problems.
Frank Langfitt
In his old GM job, Billy Haggerty put on hoods and fenders and saw lots of mistakes go right down the line.
Billy Haggerty
So we had Monte Carlos with Regal front ends and vice versas, and they would just stick it on, run it out to the yard, and then change.
Frank Langfitt
And what they look like, the cars?
Billy Haggerty
Half Regals and half-- [LAUGHTER]. So those things would go out the door, into the yard, and be fixed out there. I did a lot of overtime in the yard, changing things back.
Frank Langfitt
Workers told me they saw cars with engines put in backwards, cars without steering wheels or breaks. Some were so messed up they wouldn't start, and had to be towed off the line. Fixing them piled on more costs, and sometimes, taking them apart and putting them back together, workers damaged them even more.