I can’t say I was surprised to read this story. I don’t want to turn this into some kind of rant against the auto bailouts; I wholeheartedly supported them, as our local economy depends on the auto industry. But I’m sure that Fiat is doing more than just “mulling” moving production of Chrysler’s cars to Italy. They’re planning on it.
My prediction is: 5 years from now, all design work will be done in Italy. They’ll be in the middle of transferring engineering work to Europe, and there will be at least one or two Chrysler or Dodge cars built in europe, with the promise of more to follow as production runs wind down.
If you read the article, they’re talking about transferring production of a model that already shares a common platform with an Alfa Romeo model already being produced in Italy.
That makes sense. Setting up entire production lines in Italy to replace ones in the US doesn’t.
Especially anything related to the Dodge light truck line. This is a lucrative product line that pretty much only has a market in North America. It only makes sense to keep design and production here where there are deeper resource pools to draw from. IE Ford and Chevy talent and suppliers as well as Chrysler’s own.
Yeah, but that’s part of the scam. The 2014 Jeep Liberty is going to be based on a Fiat platform, and there’s talk of basing other Chrysler/Dodge products on Fiat platforms. Sure, it doesn’t make sense to build most of Chrysler’s current lineup in Europe, but if the cars are essentially just rebadged Fiats and Alfa Romeos and whatnot, then why not…
There’s no way Jeep or Dodge trucks would move from the US. As mentioned above, this is the biggest (if not only) market for those vehicles.
That said, Fiat has already stopped using a lot of Chrysler facilities in Detroit. There are some empty buildings sitting around there because more operations are taking place in Italy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dart (mentioned in the article) and other small cars move production to Italy if, indeed, they share Fiat platforms.
On the contrary, I think Fiat moved a Maserati SUV production to the US because it would share an existing Chrysler platform. It seems like they’re really trying to do what makes the most sense.
I don’t think you realize what design and engineering resources Chrysler has in Auburn Hills. Thinking that they’ll just abandon CTC is lunacy. Chrysler is pretty much building at capacity in North America. Their European plants are woefully underutilized right now, and at great cost. The whole point of common platforms and “world class manufacturing” is so they have the flexibility to address capacity and demand as the markets ebb and flow.
why you think this translates into a wholesale abandonment of North America is beyond my comprehension.
Uh, there’s more than “talk” about basing other CJD products on Fiat platforms, it’s basically been public knowledge since the Fiat takeover. I’m not sure why you think this is a bad thing or is a “scam.”
I’ve become convinced that the average person doesn’t have the slightest clue what a “re-badge” is. The Pontiac G5 was a re-badge. The Dodge Dart is 90% or so removed from the Giuletta it’s descended from. That is not a rebadge by any definition.
I guess scam was too strong a word. Still, what I see happening is more and more Chrysler vehicles are going to be based on Fiat platforms. Design work can be done pretty much anywhere, so why not move it to Turin, and help out the Italian economy? (That’s what the bigwigs in Fiat will be thinking, at any rate.) At that point, it makes sense to do the engineering in Italy (or Europe at least), so they’ll move the engineering out of the US.
And so it goes. Maybe it’ll never make sense to move the Ram pickup trucks and full-sized SUV’s out of the US, but with the European economy in the shitter for the forseeable future, the idea of importing more cars to the US has got to be a pretty attractive one.
because the goal is not to “help out the Italian economy.” It is to “make vehicles as profitably as possible.” Economic woes included, it’s still more expensive to build in Italy than it is in North America right now. The key right now is Fiat loses far more money puttering along barely-utilized capacity in Italy (and myriad reasons they can’t just shutter plants) so filling in the gaps with additional production of Chrysler cars makes financial sense.
What leads you to this conclusion? I’d wager that what they’re thinking is more along the lines of “how can we stop losing money?”
Ok, you’re just making up stuff that sounds good to you. not even Pete DeLorenzo is as far afield as you are. By your logic, since the new Fusion is on the global EUCD4 platform like the Mondeo, Ford should just build them all in Genk and St. Petersburg, and just shutter Hermosillo and Flat Rock.