Does a Minivan Plant Shutdown Indicate an Aluminum Wrangler Is Coming?
Currently, the FCA Windsor Assembly Plant is under a 14-week shutdown. This plant makes minivans. It is the only plant that cranks out the Chrysler, Dodge, and Ram minivans. For Jeep fans, this isn’t that interesting. But if you add in the controversy about the Toledo, Ohio assembly plant, there might be more than meets the eye. Could this shutdown indicate that the next Wrangler will have aluminum construction?
First, some back-story: a while ago, FCA boss Sergio Marchionne made some public comments that concerned the City of Toledo officials. Marchionne indicated that it’s possible the Wrangler would move, if the cost of retooling would be more than the cost of building a new plant. The Wrangler is a Toledo icon, along with Jamie Farr and Tony Packos.
To me, it makes sense. Shutting a plant down to retool means that in addition to the cost of the retooling, there’s the lost production, which carries a price. If Jeep built a new plant to produce the new Jeep, they would be able to seamlessly transition production from the current plant to the new one when it came time to build the new Wrangler. This would mean that production was virtually uninterrupted.
It also wouldn’t cause any loss of jobs in Toledo, because the extra capacity of the plant could be used for more Cherokee production, or for the new Grand Wagoneer, which is in Marchionne’s 5-year plan. Nobody has indicated that there’d be a loss of jobs during this process.
But what does that have to do with minivans?
If Jeep is considering a new plant to avoid a prolonged shutdown, they must be expecting a longer shutdown than in Windsor. The Windsor re-tooling is an 80% rebuild, which is significant, but not a complete tear down and start over from scratch. This tells us that FCA is comfortable with 14 weeks without producing new vehicles to sell.
Now, what manufacturer just went through a significant shutdown for retooling? Ford. The F-150’s aluminum body required significant changes at their production facilities. Ford benefited though by having more than one plant building F-150s. They could shutdown and retool one at a time.
Obviously, the minivan changeover is a significant event that will require lots of work and labor. But with the Windsor plant being so large, it’s possible that the plant could churn out enough extra minivans to survive a 14 week production drought. It’s also possible that the Wrangler plant’s capacity can not be increased to create enough surplus to survive a normal retooling. At this point, it’s all just speculation.
The Wrangler is to FCA what the Mustang is to Ford. It’s a launch that needs to be executed perfectly. What do you think? Does this all make sense, or am I just absolutely crazy? Let us know in the forums!
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