[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

A pilot car like this one and yours were small batch built before production and put into normal driving duties by engineering testers in various locations to give un-biased feedback on pretty much everything about the car and build quality.

Some went to GM Proving Grounds and got stress tested to extremes.
Those types usually were not resold into the general public, and destroyed.

Some went to vehicle development: demonstration use by the program team and management (captured test fleet) and regular commuting.

Some went to vehicle validation: the aforementioned Proving Ground activities.

Also - Marketing - like photo shoots and advertising, fluffed and puffed to give to magazines for review.

Cars were assigned to Service and Powertrain.

The various vehicle assembly plants could also be give a vehicle, to assemble and disassemble as often as required. Early pilot cars would be built off line, either in a stationary build or in a small mocked up assembly line (not on the regular assembly line) in a separate quarantined area of the plant, months ahead of model changeover.

Start of regular production cars would be build on the actual assembly line, after changeover, at a reduced rate until problems were address and production could be ramped up to full volume.

K