Chrysler muscle car to be built in Brampton
TheStar.com - Business - Chrysler muscle car to be built in Brampton

February 13, 2007
Gary Norris
Canadian Press

DaimlerChrysler Canada has confirmed that the new Dodge Challenger muscle car will be assembled at its Brampton plant west of Toronto.

Production of the two-door sports coupe is to begin in the spring of 2008 as the Challenger is added to the plant's existing production of Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger sedans and Dodge Magnum station wagons.

Tuesday's announcement came the day before the Chrysler Group was to present an industrial restructuring which reports have said could cost 10,000.

The Challenger is not expected to be a high-volume product but its addition to the lineup could help keep the plant continuing to operate on a three-shift basis.

The Challenger, presented as a concept car just over a year ago at the Detroit Auto Show, will do battle in the marketplace against the long-established Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro, which General Motors has said will be made in Oshawa, and be in showrooms by 2009.

Chrysler said last summer it would build the Challenger but had not confirmed the assembly site, although Brampton was seen as the logical choice because the vehicle shares its basic rear-wheel-drive architecture with the 300, Charger and Magnum.

Production will begin barely two years after the presentation of the concept, and Brampton will be the first Chrysler Group plant assembling four separate models.

"Quickly bringing desirable new products such as the Dodge Challenger to market is critical to keeping our plants humming and our dealerships busy," stated

DaimlerChrysler Canada CEO Reid Bigland.

Chrysler's other Canadian assembly complex, in Windsor, Ont., produces Dodge and Chrysler minivans and the Chrysler Pacifica crossover.

DaimlerChrysler credited the choice of Ontario as the source of the Challenger partly to the provincial government's "strong support for the Brampton assembly plant through its contribution to the plant-wide third shift training program that was essential to the successful launch of the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Magnum."

Chrysler says it has seen "passionate response" to the Challenger, and 20,000 potential customers have asked for more information about the car, which will be available with the company's trademark hemi V-8 engine.



Bill Bagozzi, a concept car tech, prepares DaimlerChrysler's new-old 2008 Challenger for its media debut. The sports car will be built at DaimlerChrysler's Brampton plant, the automaker confirmed Tuesday, Feb. 13.

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