Posted on 06/02/2005 2:46:40 AM PDT by RWR8189
Report: Military buying Chrysler minivans, Pacificas to ferry troops in non-combat zones.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The U.S. military has ordered 24,000 Chrysler minivans and Pacifica crossover SUVs for use as light-duty vehicles in Iraq and other places, according to a report in a Canadian newspaper.
DaimlerChrysler, Chrysler's parent company, builds the Pacificas in Windsor, Ontario and makes minivans there, as well as at other locations.
The order is for 19,000 minivans and 5,000 Chrysler Pacificas, according to the story. The Pacifica is not designed for off-road use and resembles a large, tall station wagon.
The military has complained about the use of fuel-thirsty armored personnel carriers for non-combat use in Iraq, the story said.
The Windsor Star newspaper story, which appears on the Web site Canada.com, quotes an unnamed source at the Canadian plant as saying the military has already placed a down-payment on the vehicles and that the factory has begun building them.
Chrysler's executive vice-president for manufacturing, Frank Ewasyshyn, would not confirm the report, according to the story, saying only that "Sales are great."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Oh, you know that these things will somehow end up in combat operations if they are available transportation. Our troops know how to improvise. The minivans and Pacificas will just be "light assault vehicles" with good air conditioning! LOL.
Hmmm…. A minivan loaded down with a couple tons of armor plate.
:-)
GM is in trouble and we are buying Daimler-Chrysler? Congress may get mad about this.
Maybe the military thought that the Pontiac Aztec was too ugly. LOL.
Actually, some 3/4 ton Suburbans would be pretty useful.
I don't know. I see vehicles like these involved in combat operations every day on the Interstates.
I hope they buy extra transmissions so they can use them for more than 50000 miles (although I got 65000 on one of mine.)
I want and armored pacifica
I'm not comfortable with the Canadians being war profiteers in this. I say build these in the US. Why build up the Canadian economy after their less than useful assistance?
Because most of the candidate vehicles for all three "US" brands would be made there anyway? Thank the UAW for that.
Possibly, but they're most likely going to spend the war in the Green Zone as staff cars.
I don't think Iraq is a place you want to be hitch hiking
and if their using a caravan they will be.
It seems pretty stupid to me. We all know the right vehicle for Iraq is the Toyota 4 wheel drive pickup, Its what the Iraqui insurgents use and they have had good luck with them.
Just paint them a color other than white.
There is plenty of Canadian assistance, Afghanistan, plus naval parol and resupply ships in the gulf. There are also quite a few Canadian soldiers in Iraq they are attached to Brit Australian and USA units. Not that they could muster up much more anyway. As far as vehicles being built in the canadian plants, like Spktyr said, thank UAW for that with their unrealistic health care demands. the USA has also lost out to Toyota building a huge assembly plant in Windsor, simply because of the cheaper labor costs. Another thing you should consider, is GM may be in trouble in the USA, but the Canadian plants are keeping it alive, as well as other plants such a mexico. The union has made American labor too expensive. Canadian workers make basically the same wages, but they pay their own health care. the UAW health care deal for American workers works out to about $1500 tacked on to the cost of every car made in the USA.
Heh, and don't attach the red quarter panels.
What's the deal with that look, anyway?
You beat me to it!
How long before somebody gets the great idea to pile sandbags on top of one of these things, and then starts complaining about instability?
"Hmmm…. A minivan loaded down with a couple tons of armor plate."
Sounds like something out of the old Stev Jackson game "Car Wars."
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