(September 22, 2012) BUFFALO, N.Y. — Four million, one hundred and forty-nine thousand. That is the final count of Ecotec 2.4L 4-cylinder engines that ended production this week at the General Motors Tonawanda Engine Plant with the lowest warranty costs in all of GM.

Completing the production run of 2.4L engines while ramping up two new product lines — the 2.5L/2.0L turbo and the GEN V V8 — was no easy feat.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team,” said Plant Manager Steve Finch. “They sacrificed going to the new businesses with other team members so they could be a part of this final build out. And they did it perfectly, with zero quality issues from our direct customer, the Fairfax Assembly plant.”

A crew of 13 hourly employees built the final production 2.4L on Wednesday, 13 years after production began in 1999. Since the plant opened in 1938, more than 70 million engines have been built there.

“Each person on the 2.4L team took on additional responsibility for performing several jobs daily as they built one part of the engine in the morning, and then moved down the line to finish them in the afternoon,” said UAW Local 774 Shop Chairman Bob Coleman. “When you’re starting up two new product lines and building out two lines, you do what it takes to have them all be successful.”

The latest product the Ecotec 2.4L engine went into was the 2012 Malibu. Prior iterations of the 2.4L, including the 2.2L, went into the Chevrolet HHR, Impala, Cobalt and Saturn Ion. Tonawanda will continue to make 2.4L blocks, heads and cranks for export to China through the first quarter of 2013.

Tonawanda Engine currently has 1,018 hourly and salaried employees and will be adding another 40 employees transferring from GM Component Holdings plant in Lockport on October 1 to help staff the new product lines.