Wixom Assembly is to be shuttered.
This marks the second time I have lived in a city with a closing final assembly plant--Flint being the first.
Am I surprised? Not really. Even when that think tank stated Wixom Assembly could be renovated for some new cure-all sedan FoMoCo is thinking about, I knew it was doomed. The plant's almost fifty years old. In the "new" auto industry, that's elderly.
No, the beancounters & computer whizzes have declared this old fart of a plant isn't as flexible as the "new" auto industry demands. We have to have plants that can go from Escapes to Fusions to Five Hundreds in the blink of an eye! The consumers demand it!
Never mind they can't design a car to excite the public like they used to...(in full disclosure, neither can GM)
In 1957, Wixom Assembly opened its doors. It was designed to build Great American Sedans & Station Wagons, three shifts a day, five days a week (sometimes six). In 2006, Wixom Assembly runs barely one shift producing the GT (miniscule volume), the Lincoln LS, and the Lincoln Town Car. The recently-departed Thunderbird was also made there. None one of those products sells well, ergo the plant must go.
I say Wixom Assembly should get back to its roots: GASs & GASWs. Look at Chrysler. They're making money hand over fist with their reincarnation of the GAS. Where's the Ford Galaxy 500 remake? How about that Lincoln Continental concept of a couple years ago? It had suicide doors & a pillarless hardtop, for Chrissake! How can you go wrong with suicide doors & a pillarless hardtop? (Aside from the Feds being safety killjoys, of course.) C'mon guys, you're the only one of the Big Three with a hybrid in production. I hear the kiddies love hybrids. (I'll be damned if I know why...) Slap a hybrid RWD drivetrain in the LS, spruce up that dreadful interior, and voila! Wixom Assembly is back in business.
I will be awaiting your call, Mr. Ford.
Yeah yeah, pie-in-the-sky thinking. Sue me. FoMoCo could use some right about now. GM could too.
This marks the second time I have lived in a city with a closing final assembly plant--Flint being the first.
Am I surprised? Not really. Even when that think tank stated Wixom Assembly could be renovated for some new cure-all sedan FoMoCo is thinking about, I knew it was doomed. The plant's almost fifty years old. In the "new" auto industry, that's elderly.
No, the beancounters & computer whizzes have declared this old fart of a plant isn't as flexible as the "new" auto industry demands. We have to have plants that can go from Escapes to Fusions to Five Hundreds in the blink of an eye! The consumers demand it!
Never mind they can't design a car to excite the public like they used to...(in full disclosure, neither can GM)
In 1957, Wixom Assembly opened its doors. It was designed to build Great American Sedans & Station Wagons, three shifts a day, five days a week (sometimes six). In 2006, Wixom Assembly runs barely one shift producing the GT (miniscule volume), the Lincoln LS, and the Lincoln Town Car. The recently-departed Thunderbird was also made there. None one of those products sells well, ergo the plant must go.
I say Wixom Assembly should get back to its roots: GASs & GASWs. Look at Chrysler. They're making money hand over fist with their reincarnation of the GAS. Where's the Ford Galaxy 500 remake? How about that Lincoln Continental concept of a couple years ago? It had suicide doors & a pillarless hardtop, for Chrissake! How can you go wrong with suicide doors & a pillarless hardtop? (Aside from the Feds being safety killjoys, of course.) C'mon guys, you're the only one of the Big Three with a hybrid in production. I hear the kiddies love hybrids. (I'll be damned if I know why...) Slap a hybrid RWD drivetrain in the LS, spruce up that dreadful interior, and voila! Wixom Assembly is back in business.
I will be awaiting your call, Mr. Ford.
Yeah yeah, pie-in-the-sky thinking. Sue me. FoMoCo could use some right about now. GM could too.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
ugh.
That Lincoln Contentital concept was pretty cool, but yet again concept does not become reality.
One can only wonder how much longer these American giant dinosaurs can compete against the modern effecient Japanese and wonder how long it will be before they are bought out.