 More on the End of Jeep Parkway, and 2007 Build Dates |
The Toledo Blade had two articles about the end of Parkway. The first article was an editorial praising the workers who put 11 million Jeeps together at the Parkway facility:
TO THE tens of thousands of workers who turned out 11 million cars and trucks there for more than nine decades, the closing of the Jeep Parkway plant this week will seem like the loss of an old friend.
Sadness abounds for the passing not only of the familiar West Toledo factory with its trademark brick smokestacks but also for the demise of a rich slice of American culture embodied in what once seemed like an unending stream of good-paying industrial jobs.
We may never see their like again on the same grand economic scale, but Toledo still has its Jeep, in spirit as well as steel, sheet metal, and rubber.
Despite all the changes, one of the automotive world’s most famous brand names remains inextricably linked to the city that gave it birth. Its legacy lives on in the five-year-old Toledo North assembly plant and the adjacent complex due to be opened next month on Chrysler Drive.
The second article reports that the last vehicle has been built at Parkway yesterday, painted at Parkway today, and will be finished at the Stickney facility tomorrow. It also reports dates of production for both the 4 door and 2 door models:
The last of nearly 970,000 Wranglers made since the icon was last redesigned in 1997 was built at Parkway yesterday, will be painted red there today, and will be finished tomorrow at Stickney, where Mr. Laucks works.
Meanwhile, production of the redesigned Wrangler begins with four-door Unlimited models on July 17 after Mr. Laucks and others return from Toledo Jeep’s traditional two-week summer shutdown. The first finished vehicle is to be done July 24.
“I worked my new job over there for a couple of days — it’s exciting,” Mr. Laucks told The Blade yesterday.
He predicted the latest incarnation of the World War II icon will “sell a lot better.”
And the dates for the 2 door:
Production of two-door Wranglers is to begin Aug. 28, and the complex will add a second shift Sept. 25, Ms. Sidoti said.
Everything looks on track for the 2007 Wranglers, with the 4 door model entering first as the last of the 2006 2 door models leave dealer's lots.
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