I was watching the news today and ford was talking about closeing the f-150 plant in Oakville, Ontario, CAN. this is where the lightings and the harley davidson f-150's are built..so what is going to happen to these?...the Oakville plant builds has the best build qualty out of all the f-150 plants and the highest production numbers...why would they close such a profitable plant

 

Thats weird. I wonder what they have planned. I wouldnt worry to much. Lightning & HD sales are way up. They wont stop making these trucks.....

 

I, for one, hope they stop making Lightnings. Our 'limited production vehicles' are not to limited anymore.
If they do shut it down, then there are other issues keeping it from being profitable.

 

like what issues?

 

I couldn't tell you. I do not work for Ford, or have their Profit & Loss statements in front of me. P&L statements that are as large as theirs would scare the ***** out of me anyway . But rest assured if there are issues that cannot be changed, they will shut it down.
I have no experience in mass vehicle production facilities, nor have I seen these plants, but some issues could be;
too expensive to re-tool for new product line, plant too old.
Facility too small, not enough room for expansion. Labor pool too small or too expensive. Federal (Canadian) taxes not favorable. Some other location offering better incentives (read-money, tax breaks..etc.) to move plant,
These are guess's. Usually it is money driven.
As I said before. I hope they stop making the L's

 

this is a big plant..about 1500 people work there and the plant is not that old only 30 years..it would cost more to relocate a plant of that size...and it's a lot cheaper th make them hear in Canada because the canadian dollar is lower that the american dollar..if they retool they have to retool all the f-150 plants.

 

I'm sorry to say this to Redneck Ferrari, but "I hope they stop making lightning puckup trucks" "WTF????"
I hope your kidding about that, because Lightning trucks
are known everywhere, and are one of FORD's greatest acheivements!!!
If the prduction is too limited or is discontinued the Aftermarket products will also be limited or discontinued.
Besides the F-150 is one if not the biggest money maker for FORD!!!
Long Live the Lightning!!!

 

First, the HDs are made at Kansas City now, only the '00 model was made at OTP.
Ontario is the smallest of the plants making the F-150, they only run one shift and 1500 employees is a pretty small plant as Assy plants go (Kentucky Truck has about 6,000 I think)
The plant isn't profitable to run just one shift at, they'll be consolidating the production to Norfolk and Kansas City (BTW, the best plant for quality is Norfolk, and then Kansas City, OTP is the worst of the three, but there's not much difference between any of them and KC is about the same I hear, Norfolk has the reputation of being the best, they supposedly have the best paint shop of any Ford Assy Plant)
I suspect the L will be run at KC, but I don't have any inside knowledge about that, just a gut feel.

G

 

Kansas City is a pretty good assumption. But they are in the
process of building one hell of a truck assembly plant in the
Rouge complex in Detroit. This is my guess.

Marc

 

Bring it back to the motor city

--Joe

 

I was afraid of that. Thought I had mis-heard the reporter. Well, they only had 3yrs of Gen1 and now ('99-'02) 4yrs of Gen2. If they do close the plant ( won't close till Sep '03 due to Union Contract) they proably won't move the Lightning, it will stop for the Gen2. The timing of the 'possible' closing would put it right about the time for redesign, so tool the new plant for new design then wait a few years, bring back Lightning in new design. Maybe around 2007-2010. Imagine that, have #2010 built in 2010.
Anyway, I wouldn't be hurt so much if they stop the production run of Gen2. I agree, this is the baddest truck ever produced (ok thats way open to opion), but it's also special, limited production and all that. Truth be told I'd like to see Ford get these engine specs in a naturally aspriated engine, no cheating. The supposed Hemi coming out is reported to be about 350HP natural. Imagine that blown.
If you consider the other makers have special cars/trucks too. The vette and viper for instance. But do you see ford designing special cars. 1 kick @ss engine, only 1 model, and sell it for 50k+, no you don't. But look at what else Ford has, namely the Austin Martin Vanquish V12. Now if dodge can put a Viper v10 in a Ram, including powertrain, or Silverado SS with the vette package, why doesn't Ford just put the V12 in the F150, now that'd be crazy fast/powerful. But they don't. They take the production engine (produced nearly 400k/year) and tweak it to make it better.
Let the new design come out, run it a few years, then blow the competion away. The Lightning is 5 years ahead of the competion, and if Ford's cheating by putting a blower on it, then they are really cheating by putting a truck chasis on a Vette/Viper.


Wow! that didn't end up where it started. Sorry for the long post.

 

factory-tech if the Oakville plant was to go on a 2 shift operation that would get rid of jobs in the US ...use some common sence...if Okaville is the worst why are they building the lighting I think you have it backwards...

 

http://www.msnbc.com/news/685947.asp?pne=msn

Part of a larger bad news

 

And now the belt-tightning begins.

 

I just watched the video...can we say where going to mexico to build cars and trucks why would you shut down a plant that produces there top selling f150 this is the companys bread and butter