Chrysler Works Overtime Saturdays

[Bluecon]

"Workers at the plants that make some of the vehicles that the Chrysler Group is having the hardest time selling were scheduled to be hard at work Saturday, earning overtime to build more.

 

The OT might make their paychecks a little bigger, but workers at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit and across the river at Windsor Assembly say it worries them that they continue to build more vehicles just like those that already crowd storage areas near their plants.

 

Jefferson North builds the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Commander. Windsor builds the Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country."

 

 

 

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...1014/BUSINESS01

Edited November 6, 2006 by Bluecon

[Michael Reynolds]

Hmm.

 

I could see if they were attempting to keep their workers from going idle, but OT?

 

Hmmm

[Mark B. Morrow]

Jefferson North builds the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Commander. Windsor builds the Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country.

 

Sales of the Jeep Commander, which was new last year, were up in October with the help of incentives of as much as $8,000, but they continue to fill inventories, dealers say. The Power Information Network reports that Commanders that sold in October sat on dealer lots for an average of 157 days -- more than five months -- before the sale.

 

Grand Cherokees averaged 120 days on dealer lots before selling. The Grand Caravan averaged 133 days, the Pacifica, 142 and the Town & Country 117.

 

Chrysler acknowledged that the two plants are among those running on overtime. The other plants running overtime make the brisk-selling new Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Compass and Dodge Caliber.

 

Production schedules, Chrysler spokeswoman Michele Tinson said, are not based solely on demand but also are influenced by estimates of future demand

 

 

With $8k in incentives and 157 days on the lot before sale, you would think "future demand isn't going to be a problem.

 

The combined cost of overtime production with the "fire sale of the '06s that Bluecon is predicting, Q4 '06 and Q1 '07 aren't going to be pretty.

 

Watch out Dr. Z Heads vill roll in der Fatherland.

[range]

I read this article this morning and could not believe it, well actually I could.

 

This is simply incredible, and the height of stupidity. Makes you wonder what metrics they are trying to achieve.

[bec5150]

When's the contract up at their plant? Perhaps stockpiling in preparation for a strike next year?

[RichardJensen]

When's the contract up at their plant? Perhaps stockpiling in preparation for a strike next year?

Well if that's what they're doing, they can kiss their reliability ratings good bye.

 

Ask any saleman about 'Lot Rot' sometime.

 

Bad things happen to cars that sit for months. Bad bad things. Has Chrysler got people moving those 50,000 unordered '06s around, starting them from time to time, and so forth? Probably not.

[range]

Well if that's what they're doing, they can kiss their reliability ratings good bye.

 

Ask any saleman about 'Lot Rot' sometime.

 

Bad things happen to cars that sit for months. Bad bad things. Has Chrysler got people moving those 50,000 unordered '06s around, starting them from time to time, and so forth? Probably not.

 

I've heard about that "lot rot" phenomena. Is there a rule of thumb for how long it takes before lot rot may become an issue?

[Bluecon]

Buddy of mine bought an LS thet sat on the lot for more than 2 years. Got a great deal and it runs fine except for some tranny problem.

[RichardJensen]

Buddy of mine bought an LS thet sat on the lot for more than 2 years. Got a great deal and it runs fine except for some tranny problem.

Conscientious dealers will start vehicles, and drive them around the block (sometimes). If this is done, 'lot rot' is not a problem.

 

What happens is rubber dries out, electronics go on the fritz, weird odors sometimes appear out of nowhere. Your vehicle is meant to be driven.... There was a mention in passing in an FCN article a while back. Not worth the time to dig it up.

[2005Explorer]

This is interesting. Have they finally sold all of the remaining 2006 models and now are trying to fill their inventory back up? I could have swore I read somewhere in just the past few days they still have a huge number of 2006 models still sitting around. Also, this seems to go against the earlier news they were reducing production to bring inventory back in line.

 

Ford has made some bad moves over the past few years, but at least when Explorer sales fell they responded by closing a factory and reducing output, when Grand Cherokee sales fall...DCX responds by building more? Huh...maybe someone has the answer, I sure don't. It seems like you would want to keep production in line with demand so you can actually sell the vehicles for a profit.

 

Couldn't this backfire? How do they expect to move all of these vehicles?

Edited November 18, 2006 by 2005Explorer

[630land]

"8000 rebate"? On a one year old model? Oh yeah Chrysler is really "on the move", LOL!

 

They can only sell with huge reabate, cuz the Mopar heads will NOT buy without a rebate. They been doing that since 1975, Mopars HAVE to have rebates or no sale!!! The cycle will never end, until Damiler unloads them, and Toyota snapps the Jeep name.

Edited November 20, 2006 by 630land