General Motors will start building the retro roadster pickup Chevrolet SSR at its Lansing Craft Centre in Michigan in the fourth quarter 2002, said Gary Cowger, GM’s group vice president of manufacturing. GM said it will invest $70 million in the plant to prepare it for the vehicle, which GM President Rick Wagoner said last summer GM would build. The SSR is GM’s answer to the success of retro vehicles such as the Volkswagen Beetle and the Chrysler PT Cruiser, both of which have sold strongly. Production of the SSR will begin pending completion of financial incentive and regulatory nego-tiations, GM said. The SSR is based on a new mid-sized platform or architecture. It was introduced as a concept ve-hicle at the 2000 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.