Chrysler temporarily closing four plants in February
Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, LLC.


The Detroit Free Press is reporting the Chrysler LLC will close four of its assembly plants from February 9-13 due to "economic conditions". The four plants to be idled are in Brampton, Ontario; Sterling Heights, MI.; Belvidere, IL and Detroit. The Brampton plant builds the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger, while Sterling Heights Assembly handles the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring. The plant in Belvidere builds the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass and Patriot, and the Detroit plant builds just the Viper. These four, along with the rest of Chrysler's assembly plants, were also idled from December 19th through January 19th during an extended shut down period over the holiday break. Apparently they weren't shut down long enough, as falling sales as rising inventory are still hurting the company. Last month, Chrysler LLC sales were down 54.8% by volume compared to January 2008. More temporary plant closings would not be surprising, as Chrysler reportedly reviews its production schedule on a weekly basis.

 

It sounds to me that you folks with cars on order need to find dealer inventory that closely matches your order and try to buy a Challenger.

 

January 31st was the last day for the dealership where I bought my car. It re-opened the next day as a used car dealership. It had sold five Challengers last year. Three SRT's and two R/T's. I hated to see the dealership close, I will have to go at least 15 miles to the nearest dealership for warranty work. There are two others around twenty miles from here. The health of some of those are questionable. Sad times to be Chrysler fanatic. I hope they get turned around.

 

I'm not surprised at Brampton's closing. Obviously, not many 300s or Chargers are being sold. I still don't understand, though, why the production of Challengers apparently is being held down and all the screwing around is being done about whether the Challenger is covered by employee pricing or not. You would think that if your company is basically going down the tubes and you have one product that's popular, you'd be cranking out that product by the thousands. [&:]

 

RoswellGrey, in my case all of the SRT8 Challengers in my area are sellling for $52K.

I just refuse to pay that much. Also with all jobs being on the line. I am waiting until 4th quarter of 2009 to make a decision.

 

The way things are going for Dodge those of us with Challengers they may become collecter cars before we even get our cars broke in. I hope it gets better soon for Dodge

 

same here , all srt's are 50-55k , EPP is non existant in big cities etc ...

 

That just blows my mind. What a difference depending upon where you live.

 

It's a shame those that have cars on order are still waiting for them...there's so many on lots now it might be better to just find the one close or exactly how you want it and get it. That's what I did...my dealer wanted me to order one I told him why? There's one out there for me somewhere and sure enough I found one and the price was right, although I had to go out of state to get one but it's worth it! I've only had the car for 35 days and put over 3000 miles on it already...yea I love this car!

 

That's what I ended up doing. This was all before plant closures. I had an '09 SRT on order and while I had a VIN and it was built, neither Chrysler or my dealer could locate the car. So with the car's showing far too high a price here locally, I found mine for MSRP in Salt Lake with only $500 to ship it here to WA. Better yet, I got an '08 rather than an '09 and it cost me less as the '09's were a higher price. It's been near three months now of joy, when the weather is right.