Filed under: Trends, Minivans/MPVs, SUVs, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, LLC., Dodge, Jeep, Earnings/Financials
Chrysler plans to idle minivan plant in St. Louis
Click above high-res gallery of the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT
Now that General Motors and Ford have completely abandoned the minivan market for good, the American originator of the species faces only Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Kia and soon Volkswagen as manufacturers that also offer competitive choices. Perhaps you'd think that Chrysler would be benefiting as the only domestic automaker currently playing in the segment, but it seems that sales are down this year by 13 percent for the Chrysler Town and Country while the Dodge Grand Caravan is down an alarming 35 percent. High gas prices are the obvious reason why the minivan market is seeing such a harsh downward trend, and likely the culprit behind Chrysler's impending move to idle its St. Louis South minivan plant as early as December, which would leave some 1,500 employees jobless.
Utility vehicles have been the biggest gas-price casualties, and slow sales are said to be forcing the Jefferson Avenue assembly plant in Detroit where the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander are assembled and the Toledo, Ohio North assembly plant which builds the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro into extended shut-downs, as well.
Gallery: 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Torrent 6:07PM (6/30/2008)
This came expectedly..... As did every other car company's same move like this. But it's the right thing to do.
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Purifoy 6:12PM (6/30/2008)
"Now that General Motors and Ford have completely abandoned the minivan market for good, the American originator of the species (Chrysler) faces only Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Kia and soon Volkswagen as manufacturers that also offer competitive choices . . . "
I suspect all of the aforementioned will be making similar decisions regarding the production of their minivans as well.
Unfortunately, it's a sign of the times.
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Hike15 6:16PM (6/30/2008)
i cant imagine toyota and honda stopping with their minivans
but maybe nissan honda and volkswagen
G-Meister 6:52PM (6/30/2008)
Hike 15- Toyota is getting ready to start building Camrys in Princeton. While this is initially to take up slack from Tundra and Sequoia production, they could easily scale things around to build more sedans or even the new Venza wagon/crossover
Hike15 6:13PM (6/30/2008)
Is volkswagen really a competitor?
its the same platform
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azzo45 6:28PM (6/30/2008)
You are correct... The VW is the same van with a V-Dub front & rear clip. Autoblog... how is that a "competitor" of Chrysler in mimi van market?
Gary Watts 7:09PM (6/30/2008)
its a competitor if the price tag goes into VW's pocket over Chrysler. Just because burger king and macca's both sell meat inside a bun doent make them friends.
azzo45 9:22AM (7/01/2008)
No Gary... Not if VW is PAYING Chrysler to make the van for them. If Burger King has McDonald's prep a line of hamburgers, who makes the most $$$. McDonald's.
Izuzu was very happy to have Honda pay them for the original Passport SUV. Obviously Honda made more profit designing/ building their own Passport.
Gary Watts 11:44PM (7/02/2008)
I think you will find the most profit is in selling cars not producing them for other manufacturers
Thedevil 6:13PM (6/30/2008)
I did'nt think minivans were doing that bad.
dang chrysler has no luck at all.
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G-Meister 6:55PM (6/30/2008)
Remember that its not just gas-hogs, but anything overly expensive (you know, that whole economic down-turn). Don't forget, Chrysler started selling its own smaller alternative to the Caravan in the Journey.
Jared 8:20PM (6/30/2008)
While minivans get better mileage than SUVs, that is damning them with faint praise. They still weigh more than 4000 lbs and have large cross-sectional areas (and thus lots of aerodynamic drag). The result is that their mileage is not great.
With gas rising above $4 and no end in sight, most people aren't buying vehicles that get 22 mpg.
Lots of folks with 2 kids bought minivans so that the kids would have lots of room and they would have a 3rd row in case they were car-pooling with the kids' friends or the in-laws were town. Those same folks are now choosing a compact sedan instead. They are buying no bigger than they need on an everyday basis, rather than buying large for occasional use. So sales of SUVs and minivans have tanked.
Aprime 8:51PM (6/30/2008)
The Journey's doing pretty f'ing well in Canada, I don't know about South of the border.
jon 6:39PM (6/30/2008)
as a st. louisan myself this is bad news for our city, 1500 out of work... just a year ago we were all rejoicing as chrysler announced a 1.1 billion dollar expansion to that particular plant which would push us back up to the #3 top auto town in the nation (a title we lost when the ford explorer plant shut down a few years ago) ive always been proud of my city, we were a silent juggernaut in the world of business and manufacturing, with companies based here you would think were in cities like new york or chicago, but now with the possible loss of Anheuser busch beer and this plant idling, things are grim
on another note, i was pretty sure that they would be building that VW minivan at the st. louis plant... now where will it be built?
its strange, the truth is most normal american people wont know that the VW minivan is actually a chrysler in disguise, however, VW goes after such a different crowd that i dont think it counts as a competitor no matter how you look at it.
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azzo45 7:25PM (6/30/2008)
jon: IMO, the VW looked like it spent more $$$ for their headlights & tail lights... had the Golf/ Jetta /Passat/ Audi quality in the "guts" of the headlights. VW has a good look in the face of their cars.
G-meister: How is the smaller Journey better for someone with a family? Its smaller, uses the same V6 engine, & gets about same mileage. With Chrysler discounting everything or offering inexpensive leases... the difference between the Journey & a Caravan would be VERY small. JMO.
JA 6:53PM (7/06/2008)
The VW minivan is already being built at Chrysler's Windsor Assembly plant - has been for a couple of months
jon 6:41PM (6/30/2008)
as a st. louisan this really sucks...
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Will 7:03PM (6/30/2008)
The plant closure is October, not December.
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bob 7:39PM (6/30/2008)
Really, have you looked at the new Grand Caravan? They took a car that was not that bad to look at and turned it into a box on wheels.
Not sure what they were thinking. If people wanted a boxtruck, they would buy one. They should start by undoing the the design of this aztek wanabe...
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azzo45 7:45PM (6/30/2008)
I agree they squared off the van... but comparing it to the fu-gly Aztek? Come on, the Pontiac had nasty cladding ,an ugly cartoon face, & a high faced rear end that looked like a city garbage truck.