The Center for Automotive Research looked at the 450 auto plants that have existed since 1979.
Sixty percent of them didn't make it. But the report's finding that so many of those closed sites found new life … well, it surprised even the authors.
Valerie Sathe Brugeman is one of them. She says employment at the re-purposed sites isn't what it was.
Almost a third of the old plants had at least 2,000 workers.
{Brugeman}:
"But, there's still something going on. To see a hulking piece of metal sitting there or a demolished concrete wasteland is not good for a community."
The study suggests an upwards trend - more than 40 percent of sites surveyed were purchased between 2008 and 2010.
That may be because Detroit's strapped automakers gave up so many properties at that time.
For Changing Gears, I'm Kate Davidson.
