Challenger has smooth launch
Challenger has smooth launch
Chrysler's retro muscle car heads for dealerships
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
BRAMPTON, Ontario -- About 1,000 exuberant autoworkers here cheered Thursday's production launch of the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8, as Chrysler LLC executives touted the retro-styled muscle car as the least expensive manufacturing startup in the company's history.
Challengers rolling off the Brampton Assembly Plant's line will hit dealer showrooms next week -- and leave quickly -- as all of the roughly 7,000 unit production run have been sold through pre-orders.
"We haven't seen this kind of hype for a vehicle since we launched the first (Dodge) Viper," Frank Ewasyshyn, Chrysler executive vice president for manufacturing, told the crowd, which also included Canadian government officials and the media.
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The Hemi-powered coupe, which goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5 seconds, went from the drawing board to the showroom in 21 months. It cost the company $151 million to setup the factory to build the Challenger -- the smallest amount the company has ever spent to launch a single vehicle, Ewasyshyn said.
Cutting costs at Chrysler is a top priority for the company under the direction of Chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli.
Highly flexible manufacturing helped control the Challenger rollout cost. Challengers are built on the same underpinnings and with the same machines as the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans, which are four inches longer than the muscle car.
Many of the pilot production runs were done in Brampton, Ewasyshyn said.
"We never had to shutdown production to launch this car," he said. "We ran pilot Challengers on the same lines as production 300s and Chargers."
Launching new products using existing vehicle platforms and equipment can cut costs by up to 50 percent and speed time to market, said Gerald Meyers, a University of Michigan business professor and former head of American Motor Co.
"Japanese automakers build in this type of flexibility as a matter of course," he said. "We are seeing the Americans do it now, especially as they move toward global platforms."
Officials from the Canadian Auto Workers union used the event to rally workers as contract talks get under way.
Jerry Dias, assistant to CAW President Buzz Hargrove, said that talks with Chrysler will start next week. A Chrysler spokeswoman said no such time table has been set.
A Ford Motor Co. deal with the CAW was ratified May 4.
That deal didn't result in the same hourly wage savings Detroit's Big Three automakers achieved in last year's contract with the United Auto Workers union, and were thought to be seeking in Canada.
"The pattern has been established," Dias said. "We fully expect that Chrysler will accept that pattern."
He said the launch of the much-anticipated Challenger doesn't affect negotiations, and that Chrysler already has committed to future products for the Brampton plant.
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