Chrysler following GM and Ford's lead - cutting NA production
The 2009 Dodge Ram can't come soon enough. Chrysler, along with GM and Ford, will be turning out the lights in its Warren Truck Assembly Plant for a few weeks as of this month. The Jefferson North Assembly and Windsor Assembly plants will also be shut down.The Warren plant that assembles the Dodge Ram and Dakota pickups will be closed the longest, from December 21 to February 4. Jefferson North, which builds the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander SUVs, will close for three weeks as of January 4, 2008. That plant will also lose 911 workers, and will lose its second shift as of February 4. The Windsor plant, in Ontario, Canada, which builds the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, will go silent on January 14 for two weeks.
The acronym to describe it is "volume-related downtime," which is yet another painful step that needs to be taken to right the domestic ships. Dealers lament that not enough of the buying public is buying enough products to keep production going. But dealers must also be happy that they themselves won't have to be the involuntary recipients of more product they can't sell.
[Source: Auto News, sub req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
phil 4:05PM (12/13/2007)
That's no acronym, what you got there is a euphemism.
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geo.stewart 4:51PM (12/13/2007)
whatcha got there is your standard VD (volume downtime) resulting from a Sales Traffic Deviation (otherwise known as an STD) and thats just not good for anyone down at the plant.
toronado455 4:12PM (12/13/2007)
What's the big deal? Autoworkers can take a holiday!
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Robert 4:53PM (12/13/2007)
Are we surprised? Didn't Toyota just announce a decrease in Tundra production? It's the market, not just the Detroit companies. Hunker down for 2008.
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Dinger 5:01PM (12/13/2007)
Whats up with 2008?
If your answer isn't "zombies" then I see no need to "hunker down".
gforce 5:25PM (12/13/2007)
Well, they did not NOT mention the word zombies.. so you never know...
blogged to death 7:02PM (12/13/2007)
Didn't Chrysler just note several weeks back that Caravan sales are only slowed by production and that was why the new Caravan sold less than Nov 2007 sales?
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Mark Tisch, Salt Lake City 9:14PM (12/13/2007)
They should have built the Gladiator. I wonder how Ridenour is feeling about that decision these days.
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Dad 9:11PM (12/13/2007)
"The acronym to describe it is "volume-related downtime,"
I love it when the market and not some Government employee dictates the actions in the market. The Government is always slow to respond and then causes more harm them good. Let market forces make all automakers restrict production as the market requires.
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