Jeep considers production in China

[arbilab]

A corporate denial plus a dollar will get you a free coffee refill at Denny's.

November 2000 at Dell rumors of layoffs were running rampant. The company denied them. In February, they happened. The survivors (me) were told "that's all, if you're still here you're here to stay". In May myself and 5000 others who had been told the same thing were sent home.

So no, a corporate blog is not a horse's mouth. More like the other end.

 

[jamiel]

Take off the tinfoil hat...C'mon....the Jeep plants here and Toledo are working 3 shifts a day and coining money for Chrysler. They're looking to extend the brand into China (where they began production in 1984 in a joint venture) more so than importation will allow. All big auto is in China in a big way (VW/Toyota/GM) or want to be (Ford/Chrysler/Fiat). As stated upthread: a solely import strategy is not appropriate for big markets anywhere in the world...if a country/region can support a full plant's worth of production (minimum 100k units/year) they are going to get a plant. You then import to supplement that plant's production (broaden the lineup). Only place GM produces but really doesn't do any importing is Uzbekistan, where we've got a plant and there are really really bad duties...Chevrolet has the highest market share anywhere in the world there (80%, I believe).

 

[cleanteamofny]

Romney

Humm...., why would the not tell the truth?
Because people refuse to get the real truth but love to tell lies and make others believe in them!
SMH

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[hydralique]

Looks like some of the Chinese Jeep story has roots in a bunch of misleading ads by the Romney campaign who have kept running them even after a denial by none other than Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. 

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/bogus-jeep-china-ad-romney-draws-fire-obama-203642902.html

 

[davey7]

The 500's were not selling well, agreed. The Mini is uber-ubiquitous in Chicago, replacing the Jetta as the car of choice of the dreaded LP Trixie. My 'hood is collegey and full of Prius'.

 

[yogitunes]

You mis-understood me...we DO ship across the pond...its just they have rules against any new foreign car being driven on their streets until its 2 years old.....My nephew is stationed in China, and bought a 2010 car, he can't wait for the New Year so he can drive it....

My father worked for Jeep when they were made by AMC......he was also a mechanic for them in WWII.....a JEEP like any other SUV will not simply Roll Over with out the aid of a Driver who does not have it under control and know its limitations of such vehicle, not to mention handling characteristics.....This is my second Jeep Grand Cherokee, after owning a CJ-7 and an AMC Eagle.....and have been capable of raising one, if not two wheels off the ground, and never rolling either vehicle over!....Instructions are right on the sunvisor of how these vehicles will react different than a regular car......when one drives careless, and doesn't know how to handle such vehicle, accidents happen!

 

[wayupnorth]

It looks like that supposed Jeep production in China has something to do with all new vehicles sold there have to have a place that makes them in that country. And Jeep wants to tap into it, just like Ford and GM have. They are spending money on the factory to pick up the increased production in this country and supposidly have absolutely no plans to import anything. I saw both sides did not like that comment.

 

[Iowegian]

Wow, a good spirited thread.

The only reason we recognize "Jeep" as a brand name is because of a government procurement contract for a light utility military vehicle ca. 1938. The Bantam Motor Company had the best design, but Kaiser Motors and Ford were selected to build Bantam's design, because the government had concerns about how Bantam could make production targets. Kaiser Motors got the post-WWII rights to the Jeep and Kaiser Motors eventually got absorbed into American Motors, which eventually went to Chrysler. Chrysler, of course, went broke in the early 1980s, but Lee Iacocca convinced the House and Senate to bail them out.

That's not to say that Ford gave up on the military light utility vehicle market. In the 1960s, Ford had the M-151, which, if a reasonable person could actually believe, was a more dangerous vehicle than the old WWII MB Jeep. There were more servicemen killed in motor vehicle accidents with the M-151 than any military vehicle ever built.

I'm sure that Mitt "Gordon Gecko" Romney knows that, since his dad ran American Motors. But all is fair in presidential elections, and Mitt can claim whatever it takes to try to win the Presidency, and establish wards and tithing in middle America.

All good stories come to an end, and Ford sold their M-151 chassis design to AM General in the early 1970s to build mail trucks for the Postal Service, so no good deed goes unpunished. And AM General became the company that developed the Humvee.

The moral of the story is, there's always lots of money to be made off government contracts.

Some things never change.

 

[carmine]

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to mention that Chrysler is simply getting BACK into producing Jeeps in China.

China requires 50% partnerships with a Chinese company to sell in China, and places restrictive tariffs on US Imports. Chrysler will either have to build them in China, or loose the market entirely.

If either of these politicians were honest with the American people, they would insist on FAIR trade, not one-way giveaways of the American market. BTW, the same thing is killing US appliance manufacturers.

There is much more to be read about trade policy here:

http://www.fairimage.org/worldtradepolicies.htm

 

[qsd-dan]

If either of these politicians were honest with the American people, they would insist on FAIR trade, not one-way giveaways of the American market. BTW, the same thing is killing US appliance manufacturers.

 

[sudsmaster]

Left handed lug nuts

My '64 Plymouth Valiant has those left hand threaded lug nuts/studs on the passenger side of the car. I understand the engineering theory was that in braking, a left handed nut will tend to tighten rather than loosen. However I also understand that with proper torquing, it's not an issue with right hand threaded lug nuts anyway.

The left hand lug nuts however did cause me a problem. Back in the 70's I brought the car into Sears for a set of tires. They had hired a young woman mechanic - not that her gender was an issue for me. However I was observing the yellow line that keeps customers out of the work bays, when I observed her struggling to remove the lug nuts on the passenger side of the car. She was about 50 ft away. I remember yelling at the top of my lungs, "Left hand threads!!!" but she kept on turning up the torque on her air wrench and going at it. I should have gone over there and educated her, but eventually she realized the problem and got the lug nuts off.

Only problem was, about a few weeks later the studs on the wheels on that side of the car started breaking off. I wound up having to take the brake drums off and having new left hand threaded lug studs installed. I have never taken any of my cars back to Sears for any work.

When I had the studs replaced, the parts/machine shop mentioned that it could be a good time to change over to right hand threads on all wheels. I declined, figuring it would be better to keep the car authentic to the original. As long as I did my own work!