Chrysler idling Ram plant it just reopened
One week after Chrysler announced that it was re-opening seven of its plants, one truck plant is being put back on the shelf. Automotive News reports that the Fenton, MO Dodge Ram 1500 plant will close on July 10, yet the facility will still reopen on June 29.
After the July 10 re-shutdown, the plant will remain closed "contingent upon volumes." In other words, Chrysler already has 68,000 Rams sitting on dealer lots -- a 115 day supply. The Missouri plant is already scheduled for ultimate closure sometime in the third quarter, and since July 10 officially qualifies as being in the third quarter, we've got the feeling the Fenton plant isn't coming back. The 1,200 UAW workers in Fenton will receive buyout package offers and, in some cases, the opportunity to transfer to other plants.
Gallery: Review: 2009 Dodge Ram
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Frank 9:08AM (6/25/2009)
Two neighbors down the street from me have bought them. The first got a silver one with a toneau cover about 3 months ago and the other one got a dark red one just last week. They are both sweet looking!
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JRS200x 9:12AM (6/25/2009)
Yeah.. They are awesome trucks. By far the best looking truck on the market IMO.
Sorry to hear this though for the workers in MO, hopefully most can get a transfer.
Joe 9:24AM (6/25/2009)
They might look good, but they're totally incapable of doing the same amount of work or be of the same utility as a F-150, Silverado, or Sierra. The only trucks that the Ram are better than are the Titan and the Tundra.
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Farmboy 9:34AM (6/25/2009)
I agree. Ram to me right now, is mostly hype. The truck looks good but looks aren't everything in this case. I don't drive trucks cuz they look pretty, I drive them because they work.
John S 9:51AM (6/25/2009)
I disagree. The Ram is a light-duty truck, and as a light-duty truck it is perfectly capable. If you really using an F-150 to tow 11,000 lbs, you are out of your mind. Buy an HD truck (F250 etc).
For the work the Ram 1500 is built to do, it is the absolutely perfect truck.
Frank 10:47AM (6/25/2009)
I concur. I would pull a 5,000+ lb. trailer all day long with this (and look good doing it). If you're going to pull 10,000+ lbs. you better have a an F-250 or 350, or a GM or Dodge 2500 or 3500.
It says the workers will get a severance. does anyone know how much?
Joe 11:07AM (6/25/2009)
You're correct about it being a light duty truck, but for all intents and purposes, light duty trucks have moved into a higher segment, and now the "compact" trucks are filling the old F-150/1500 role, as quarter-ton pickups. Full-size pickups are now 1/2 ton, and fill the old F-250/2500 role, and so on.
I'd never tow the full 11,000 lb with a F-150, but it's load capacity is also significantly higher, it handles better under load, and it has standard trailer sway control.
Joe 11:09AM (6/25/2009)
...and by "compact" pickups, I mean Dakota, Tacoma, et al.
Tricky dicky 11:42AM (6/25/2009)
+1 john S the truck suits my needs the best. I am not going to overload it or use it as a work truck. For pure work I would go with a diesel.
Now lying on the internet, yeah, I need an f150 to haul 10k pounds daily uphill both ways.
Allen 9:51AM (6/25/2009)
Sounds like a poorly thought out decision to me. Dodge is essentially sold out of Quad Cab Rams, all that are available are crew cabs and standard cabs. The Quad Cab is the most desirable configuration, Chrysler needs to keep the plant open for a few weeks and build nothing but quad cabs to boost dealer inventories.
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Justin 10:26AM (6/25/2009)
Warren builds the Quad Cab and Crew Cab Models, the St. Louis plant builds Crew Cabs with the Ram Box, some Quad Cabs, and the Regular Cab.
When Chrysler shuts down for changeover (July 10th-July 27th) the equipment needed to build Regular Cabs and the Ram Box Crew Cabs will be transferred to Warren.
Maverick128 10:11AM (6/25/2009)
It's sad what's happened here in St. Louis. We lost the Ford plant. The GM plant doesn't do anything. Now we're losing the Chrysler plant. We were the home of the Corvette for almost 30 years!
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MajorGeek 10:16AM (6/25/2009)
Ill keep my 09 F150. Better looking, reliability and fuel mileage. I can't figure out why the nose on the new Ram leans forward, into the wind. My old Ram regular cab with a Hemi averaged 11.5 MPG. My F150 quad cab gets 15.4 rock bottom. Almost 18 highway.
Of course they have to idle the plants, you can watch them speed up and slow down with the gas prices. People have short attention spans.
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Frank 10:53AM (6/25/2009)
Well, I can uderstand reliability and fuel mileage (although we won't know about reliability until some time has passed). But better looking? I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me the Ford has a hideous nose. The last one was really nice. Don't know why they couldn't have modified it a little instead of what they did.
MajorGeek 11:05AM (6/25/2009)
Agreed. F150 has a proven track record was what I should have said. I personally like the look of the nose, I have the Platinum edition and prefer the bigger bulky nose myself. I like the Ram looks, I have owned 2 or 3 Rams and a few Dakotas, just found the quality and build to be lousy.
jon 11:08AM (6/25/2009)
a sad day for st. louisans... before recession and all the auto crisis' St. Louis was on its way to becoming the #2 auto city in the nation behind Detroit- some had even predicted we would overtake Detroit, but a this point we're just lucky to be holding on to anything...
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Richard S. 11:32AM (6/25/2009)
A Quad Cab Ram would make it a great every-day practical vehicle for many people. The only issue would be fuel economy. Would fitting a 6 cylinder TDI diesel, provide enough torque for everyday driving while giving mid-size -car fuel economy?
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kal326 1:30PM (6/25/2009)
Why would they incur the expense of starting a factory back up for 10 business days if they don't shut down July 3rd for 4th of July holiday? Even if the place ran 24/7 straight through that's still only 12 days of production. Seems like a bit of a waste if you have other facilities that are capable of producing the same models and are online or are going online and staying online.
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NicksGarage 12:59PM (6/29/2009)
Probably as with the other plants that were shut down, there are vehicles on the line that need to be completed, they can clear out the parts and vehicles and get them out of there. I know people who placed orders for cars before the shut down and some of those were in the middle of being built. Not sure I'd want one that was half built and then continued by people who know they're losing their jobs.
sharonmahurin 2:27PM (7/04/2009)
They do have other plants capable of taking over for the Fenton plant--in Mexico.
The last truck rolled of the line in Fenton on July 2 and workers began packing everything up to sent to the plant in Mexico.
A nice thank you to the American taxpayers who bailed their butts out with millions of dollars in stimulus money intented to preserve and create jobs for the American worker. Well our hard earned tax dollars just went south.
Chrysler wants to build them in Mexico--they can sell them in Mexico. I'll never buy another Chrysler product.