A macabre English nursery rhyme called Solomon Grundy is about a titular character who was famously “born on a Monday.” The poem is meant to illustrate the fleeting nature of life, as Grundy is christened on a Tuesday. Next, he’s married on Wednesday, gets sick on Thursday. Life gets worse for him on Friday, and then he dies on Saturday and is buried on Sunday.
While that poem is a bummer, it’s apparently not as bad as buying a Corvette that was also born on a Monday.
That’s according to a TikTok user who goes by Snakepit (@shelbymaster20). In a viral clip with over 23,000 views, he makes a correlation between a car’s build quality and the day it was assembled.
@shelbymaster20 #chevy #mechanic ♬ original sound – Snakepit
The TikToker begins his video by showing the wheel well of an orange Corvette. Where the front bumper panel meets the front driver’s side shows a noticeable bump. Snakepit highlights this little “chin” with his finger, detailing where the protrusion occurs.
He then flips his camera around to show another Corvette, a red one, right across from it. Highlighting a similar area of the vehicle, he shows that this protrusion isn’t present.
Snakepit attributes the difference in craftsmanship to the days employees worked on the cars. “You want to see the difference between a Z06 built on a Friday and a Z06 built on a Tuesday? Look at that,” he says.
He’s implying that whoever was working on the car on a Friday wanted to just hurry up and get to the weekend already. Conversely, someone who arrived at work on a Tuesday had ample time to process being hung over from the weekend. Presumably, this allowed them to be able to work more effectively.
Does it really matter?
Jalopnik has previously reported on this phenomenon of purchasing cars on specific days of the week. In the piece, the writer responds to an email from someone asking whether or not the outlet could substantiate such a claim. The author states that they’ve heard of this myth previously, but that ultimately it’s just that: a myth.
Their answer indicates if there’s an issue with employee performance on one day, it’ll affect other cars on other days.
“The complete manufacturing process for a modern car takes more than a single day (though final assembly is amazingly quick),” they said. “And if a factory has worker performance issues two days a week, that factory is likely to have issues overall. There doesn’t seem to be any direct connection between the build quality of the vehicle and which day assembly was completed.”
One can still find folks discussing this point in forums, like in The Mustang Source. One person kicked off the conversation asking if there’s any truth to this speculative assumption. Folks who replied to the query didn’t confirm or deny the supposition. However, some said that if someone really wanted to find out when their car was built, their VIN number could help with that. As J.D. Power states, manufacturing dates can be discerned from a car’s VIN.
TikTokers add their 2 cents
One commenter replied, “This why I’ll never buy a Tesla.” This appears to be a reference to a longstanding critique of electric vehicles when it comes to panel gaps.
Another commenter said that the issue detailed in Snakepit’s video is ultimately a problem with General Motors cars overall. “GM fit and finish is God awful,” they said. “I buy em cause they’re cheap (relatively) and fast.”
However, it seemed others buy into the day of the week assembly belief. “Never buy a car built on a Monday morning or a Friday afternoon. Truth,” one said.
“I know that Friday work is see it quite often from previous shift bolting out for their week/end off,” another wrote.
According to Snakepit, the cars were delivered this way. And others wrote in the comments section that consumers can’t really hope for much more.
“Its a GM not a Toyota,” a user said. “That’s about as perfection you get from GM, ford, Stellantis etc.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to GM via email and Snakepit via TikTok comment for further information.
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