The once-bustling GM-Toyota New United Motors plant, located at the northeastern edge of the area known as Silicon Valley and about 25 miles down the freeway from Chez Murilee, shut down on Friday.
The very last NUMMI vehicle to roll off the line was a red Corolla, ending a parade of Corollas, Vibes, Tacomas, Prizms, and Novas that went on for 25 years. Given the office-space hunger of the technology industry, it wouldn't be a big surprise, in a few years, to find another endless series of office parks where the giant factory complex once stood. Perhaps the NUMMI-built Corolla FX16 that won the first-ever Texas 24 Hours of LeMons will be enshrined by the entrance to a multinational hard-drive manufacturer's HQ, to remind visitors of what once stood in that location.
[San Francisco Chronicle]