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  • William Maley
    William Maley

    By William Maley •

    Chrysler Puts A Halt On Cherokee Production *UPDATED

    William Maley

    Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

    September 23, 2013

    In a surprising move today, Chrysler has halted Cherokee production at its Toledo, Ohio plant.

    “We have been producing vehicles since the end of June and have now built the critical number of vehicles we need to stock dealerships once containment is released. We will temporarily idle the second shift so as not to put additional strain on our logistics partners to get these vehicles into the hands of customers as quickly and efficiently as possible upon release,” said Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson in a statement this afternoon.

    Chrysler has idled 500 workers from the second shift and is expected to last two weeks. Other workers are being assigned to perform lengthy test drives of Cherokees.

    Bruce Baumhower, president of United Auto Workers Local 12 told reporters that Cherokee is ready to go, but Chrysler is being very cautious.

    "There's not a problem with the vehicle. The unusual thing on this launch, you've got a brand-new engine. It's never been used before. You've got a brand-new nine-speed transmission. You've got a brand-new torque converter. We're putting all those three things together and we want to make sure we get it perfect before they get released to the dealers."

    *UPDATE* The Detroit News has learned from workers at the plant that the reason for the production stoppage is due to over 1,000 Cherokees still having problems with the nine-speed automatic transmission.

    Source: The Detroit News, Toledo Blade

    William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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    Drew Dowdell

    "We ran out of places to park them" doesn't wash with me.... Sorry Serg...



    "There's not a problem with the vehicle. The unusual thing on this launch, you've got a brand-new engine. It's never been used before. You've got a brand-new nine-speed transmission. You've got a brand-new torque converter. We're putting all those three things together and we want to make sure we get it perfect before they get released to the dealers."

    The time to get it perfect is before you build 9,000 of them.

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    G. David Felt

    WARNING, WARNING, WARNING

    New Engine, New Torque Converter, New Transmission = hold off on shipping till we trash on it and figure out the breakage points since we did not QA it well enough.

    That on top of an UGLY front end.

    I suspect this Love it or Hate it Cherokee will eventually do well. Best for them to delay getting it into the showroom to make sure they have no other issues as the powertrain I see as blowing up in their face if it has to be recalled after only a few months on the road.

    Have those 500 Idle employees drive the first 500 and really make them work to see what lasts and what does not.

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    William Maley

    Wow, more than a little late to start focusing on the powertrain quality. Sounds like a badly botched project to me.

    I don't think its a botched project. Chrysler has been dealing with nine-speed automatic problems since the summer.

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