Posted on 01/08/2017 3:15:23 PM PST by mandaladon
DETROIT (AP) -- Fiat Chrysler will add three new Jeeps to its lineup including a pickup truck as it invests $1 billion in two U.S. factories, furthering its effort to increase production of hot-selling SUVs and pickup trucks and get out of producing small and midsize cars. The expansion will create 2,000 new jobs.
The Italian-American automaker said Sunday it will modernize a factory in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan, to make the new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer large SUVs. A factory complex just south of there in Toledo, Ohio, also will get new equipment to make the new pickup. The company wouldn't provide details of the new products, but said the factory work would be done in 2020.
Consumers worldwide have gravitated toward SUVs and trucks while turning away from passenger cars. Last year in the U.S., car sales fell 7 percent while truck and SUV sales rose 8 percent.
Last year, FCA announced plans to stop production of the slow-selling Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200. Factories that make those products in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and Belvidere, Ill., will get new trucks and SUVs as FCA searches for an automaker that would build small cars under contract.
The factory upgrade in Warren also would allow the plant to make heavy-duty Ram pickups that now are produced in Saltillo, Mexico. But FCA would not say if it has plans to shift production to the north.
Producing vehicles in Mexico and shipping them to the U.S. has become a thorny political issue with the election of Donald Trump as president. Trump has criticized Ford, General Motors and Toyota for building small cars in Mexico and shipping them across the border. He has threatened to impose a big border tax on the companies.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
“Chrysler Imperial. Because no Toyota has ever been banned from demolition derbies.”
I always liked the big Cherokee Chief and the old full size J trucks
A guy who owned a hardware store where I grew up drove a Chief regularly for years.
There was really beat up old J10 or 20 that lasted up until the late 80s that ran around the same place. It had a little character I guess.
Now I heard that Jeep will be renaming the Cherokee to the Jeep Liz Warren. Rumors is that it will come with a Briggs and Stratton 3 horsepower engine. It will be part of the 'Fake Jeep' lineup for 2018, along with the Jeep Ward Churchill edition. :-)
To that end I’ve pinged some of the brightest minds on FR to help answer the question: How many jobs REALLY ARE created from a BILLION dollar investment. :)
Anyone hazard to guess the real number? Are the 2k Permanent auto workers? That would mean electricians, construction crews, etc. are on top of that.
Even if for only 3 years, much money can be made and those folk can move on to the next big project :)
“.....but they drove with pride...”
Jeeps have gotten too large and too expensive, they’ve gotten away from their roots and need a basic, utilitarian entry level offering that’s not a tarted up cute ute. The inspiration is there, they just need to tap it. And, put a 4 cylinder diesel in it, with a real transfer case.
The rounded shapes are a fashion and all the manufacturers have followed it, imitating the benchmarks and market leaders. They say it’s due to aerodynamics and fuel efficiency requirements, but aerodynamic efficiency does not necessarily dictate a jellybean, look at the stealth fighters. Quite aerodynamic, quite angular. Somebody will be daring and break the mold eventually, and if they’re rewarded with a big sales increase, then the cycle will repeat itself anew, with benchmarking and imitation to the point that you’re sick of angularity and want to see something more flowing and rounded. The days of being able to remain both distinctive and successful went away when so many foreign entrants came into the US market. They’re all jostling for position and no competitive advantage will be allowed to remain a brand specific thing.
Tessa’s are a dime a dozen here in Walnut Creek, CA. I like the new Mercedes, BMWs but also miss the early 1960s muscle cars and land yachts
I agree with that. Since the demise of the Ford Explorer as anything but a "mall finder", there's very little out there in the way of a reasonable price SUV for the average family of 4, that can get them and a week of supplies to a campsite on an iffy road, or through a foot of snow, or pull ~4000 lbs., AND be at least "average" reliable. (The '08 Explorer qualifies, and we have one.)
If one doesn't need quite the towing or cargo capacity, a Subaru Outback is a great choice, adding much better drivability, mpg, reliability, and all around "execution" -- and we have one of those, too! But, if our Explorer bit the dust for some reason, and we were "ok" on money, I'd probably look for a used, low mileage, maybe 6 years old, Toyota Sequoia. We have relatives with one, and, I'm sorry, it's just so much better thought out and executed, in most ways, than the Explorer, or even any Chrysler products I've been in, that it's almost not funny. The Sequoia's are very reliable, as well.
I’m a big Sube fan, own one myself. In my opinion, they have the best AWD system bar none for on-road and light off-road use. But, for true off-roading they’re not as capable as a Jeep.
Love Jeeps, but you are 100% correct. I’m the only 2000 Toyota 4runner out of my 4wheeling group of about 7 of us. Mine is mild, 2.5 inch Old Man Emu suspension and factory electric locker. I go everywhere they do, effortlessly. Every single time, something breaks on one of their Jeeps. Its astonishing.
I think about getting one... but.
Dump the CAFE Standards ASAP.
Government overreach at it’s finest.
I took my Driving Test in my Mom’s 63 Cadillac Coupe DeVille.
19 feet long and it hauled a$$ with the 390 V-8. She got that when she sold her 59 Coupe DeVille.
If I knew then what I know now, we would still have that 59.
Then again, my Dad probably would have kept his 55 Cadillac Biarritz Convertible too. I watch Barret-Jackson and cry. LOL
Fiat Chrysler will add three new Jeeps to its lineup including a pickup truck >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes, three new models:
1) The Jinnster Truck ( marketed to jihadhis )
2) The Purdah ( marketed to Muslim women learning to drive)
3) The Taqiyya ( a car that one cannot tell whether its moving forwards or backwards)
Speculation in the market is based on the assumed fact that Fiat Chrysler is now owned by a consortium of Iranians looking for favors from the Trump administration.(Sarc?)
(Is this how false news works? )
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Fiat heir is now an ‘Islamic martyr’
November 16, 2005 6:33 am By Eric
From ADNKI:
Tehran, 15 Nov. (AKI) – A demonstration in front of the Italian embassy in Tehran, more than 100 university events marking the anniversary of his death and a ‘documentary’ about his life to be aired on Iranian state television. The subject of such obsessive interest in Iran is the late Edoardo Agnelli, heir to Italy’s most famous industrial family, the Agnellis, who own the FIAT motoring empire. Under an Iranian urban myth, recently resuscitated and embellished, Edoardo Agnelli’s suicide five years ago was ‘a Zionist plot’ to rob him of his inheritance because he had ‘converted to Islam’.
State television is broadcasting a ‘documentary’ which accredits the thesis of a “Zionist plot” to get their hands on FIAT wealth by killing Edoardo Agnelli. The programme is also being shown on the Sahar satellite channel, translated into Russian, English, Arabic, Urdu and Azeri.
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https://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/11/fiat-heir-is-now-an-islamic-martyr
The current Corolla has a quarter mile time of about 17 seconds on modern tires. Big block muscle cars of the late 60s and early 70s did the quarter mile in 13 seconds on little pizza cutter bias ply tires.
CAFE kills more people than it helps. Make cars lighter and they crush like pop cans. Bring the steel back into cars.
I can think of a much better location than Detroitistan to re-initiate the Auto manufacturing industry.
I have a 2005 JGC. All the lights are on. It needs a Catalytic Converter and the 4wd service message is on.
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