Detroit vs. Kansas City plants

[Samson16]

Yep a real shame but par for the course with the sort of trade policies we have now. We're going to get worse products and pay more for them.

Not if they upgrade the American plant and raise their standards, or are you saying Americans are too hung over and lazy to build a quality vehicle?

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[Graygoose2021]

We are already paying more, for subpar products. Everything.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Not if they upgrade the American plant and raise their standards, or are you saying Americans are too hung over and lazy to build a quality vehicle?

Problem is the bean counters. Their sole purpose is to try to find every possible way to save a few pennies here and there and it shows with each subsequent year model.

You could have a state of the art facility, the best assembly process, and the best top notch workers on the planet but if the materials used for parts are cheap substandard crap as they are or are becoming the final product is still going to have issues. Regardless of how well they are put together there's only so much you can do with crap parts.

Gone are the days where a cat/truck will last more than 10 years for most people. I mean just look at what's on the road. There's a reason the majority of vehicles both foreign and domestically built on US roads are less than 7-10 years old these days.

 

[HandyAndy2112]

My mistake, I could have sworn it was. I remember the sticker on the windshield stating Michigan. Didn't realize the Dearborn Truck Plant (F150) and Michigan Assembly Plant (Ranger) were separate assembly plants.

Had to look it up to satisfy my curiosity.

I only know because I’m from the area in fact I work at the Ford Rouge Plant where the DTP is located. Michigan Assembly is only about 15 miles away and they make Broncos there now.

 

[gpbst3]

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe some paint colors are only painted at certain plants.

 

[Highway 11]

Not if they upgrade the American plant and raise their standards, or are you saying Americans are too hung over and lazy to build a quality vehicle?

There is something wrong with the labour force, or how it's managed, if you're up to 22% absenteeism. Nothing to do with one's nationality.

 

[Rynokc]

We make the 5.5 bed and 6.5 bed but not the 8ft bed.

 

[Rynokc]

I'm in Paint, but my buddy on the motor line said the 5.0 liter we install now is the Coyote. I thought the Coyote was what went in the Police Interceptors that we make for Police departments and Highway Patrols that are special order and not available to the public. So yes, we do build with the Coyote in KC.

 

[TopOMichXL]

My 2019 RCSB was a Dearborn build, which I liked. I grew up near Telegraph and Michigan, in Dearborn.
I have not seen a regular cab from Dearborn in quite a while. I assume they chose to focus on the Lightning in Dearborn and shifted regular cab production to KC.
My 2024 RCSB is a Kansas City Build. It has more cab noise than my 13th gen, and it came with a damaged roof that needed replacement, but I love it.

 

[miniceptor86]

I am a Operations manager at KCAP. We build Transits and F-150's up to the platinum here, only short beds. We are not equipped for a long bed, or 250's and above. Every 48 seconds a truck comes off the line. It is 17hrs and 36 mins to completely build a truck from frame to finish. It's actually amazing to me that the box and cab split in 2 different places and go different directions but come back together every time. We do the majority of fleet vehicles here and up until last year, every truck we made was already sold. They are supposed to get a new contract with the Forest Service again, had it until 5yrs ago, and then we will go back to everything being sold that we make. Roughly 767 trucks per shift, 1534/day 6 days a week.... Just over 9000 trucks a week. That is why any flat space they can find in KC either has a F-150 or Transit sitting waiting to be shipped......

Edit, we do NOT have the coyote engine, or the Power boost. We do have 2.7 and 3.5 Eco boost and the 5.0liter. XL, STX, XLT, Lariat. We will start making the hybrid F-150s after the 2026 July shutdown when they re-tool for it. If they bring back the Lightning, we could make it here too. We do make fully electric and hybrid Transit's here though.

My ‘14 was a KC truck. At the time word on the street was that plant was the best of the two. Trouble free ten years. My ‘25 is a Dearborn truck.

 

[roadPilot]

Yep. Just another reason why the PB rules the half ton world.

 

[Mt.F150..]

Hoping this will be the Super Bowl match-up!

Is bad bunny showing up at half time?

 

[XLT22]

Not if they upgrade the American plant and raise their standards, or are you saying Americans are too hung over and lazy to build a quality vehicle?

American owned businesses by and large (but not all I'll admit) do not invest to the level of overseas owned businesses into their infrastructure, training, long term product, etc. This is most glaringly obvious in the automotive industry but bleeds over elsewhere as well. There's another conversation to be had as to why this is and why American companies would rather do stock buybacks instead of investing in their business but that's too long of a conversation for here.

 

[Samson16]

American owned businesses by and large (but not all I'll admit) do not invest to the level of overseas owned businesses into their infrastructure, training, long term product, etc. This is most glaringly obvious in the automotive industry but bleeds over elsewhere as well. There's another conversation to be had as to why this is and why American companies would rather do stock buybacks instead of investing in their business but that's too long of a conversation for here.

In your Silverado example, the US plant is worse than the Canadian or Mexican plant. All three are owned and run by the same American company.

Are you saying the particular management at the Fort Wayne plant suck and accept low quality control as a norm? That’s fixable.

If you are saying folks in Indiana can’t make a quality product, I disagree.

 

[XLT22]

In your Silverado example, the US plant is worse than the Canadian or Mexican plant. All three are owned and run by the same American company.

Are you saying the particular management at the Fort Wayne plant suck and accept low quality control as a norm? That’s fixable.

If you are saying folks in Indiana can’t make a quality product, I disagree.

The overly simple answer is it's more profitable to build in Canada and Mexico. Labor cost plays a factor but the bigger issue is companies in the US have to cover health insurance cost which can effectively double the total compensation. Oshawa was actually closed and re-opened with a lot of investment. Honda has also invested quite a bit north of the border and the results are similar. CRVs assembled in Canada are sought after.

Different countries have different cultures around work, safety and so on along with different regulations. It's not unusual for an American company to set up shop in another market and find those operations to be more profitable after a decade than the stuff back home. Even in countries with regulations that would never fly here. My personal opinion is the US government should have been much more aggressive post 2008 crash to turn these big companies onto what the Asian manufacturers do with long term planning over short term results. GM sort of went in that direction but fell off later. Ford never even tried. The joint ventures for EV battery production are a step in the right direction though.

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