Faced with shortages of parts and cars, Chrysler is not shutting down three assembly plants for the summer; the company is also keeping all but one of its engine, transmission, and stamping plants open. A single transmission plant, Indiana II in Kokomo, will be shut down for a single week in early July. After facing shortages of V6 engines since the new Pentastar series was unveiled, thanks partly to Cerberus’ decision to tool two plants instead of the originally planned three, Chrysler has reportedly run into delays with production of its new eight and nine speed automatic transmissions, based on ZF designs but, according to some reports, internally modified (at least for the eight speeds). Assembly plants remaining open are both actually-in-Detroit facilities — Jefferson North (2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 2014 Dodge Durango) and Conner Avenue (Viper) — and Toledo North (2014 Jeep Cherokee). Other plants will have one..
View the original, full post