Dodge Grand Caravan Gets a Date With Death; Plant to Shed 1,500 Jobs

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

It’s not unexpected, but it still comes as a blow. The impending loss of the Dodge Grand Caravan stands to sadden lovers of the industry’s longest running, most inflation-resistant minivan, but it’s a truly bitter pill for workers at Fiat Chrysler’s Windsor Assembly Plant.

As reported yesterday by Canada’s Financial Post, the Grand Caravan — darling of Lee Iacocca, chariot to young soccer players for decades — will cease production at the end of May.

The Windsor, Ontario plant will shed its third shift on June 29th, leading to the layoff of 1,500 workers. Like the Grand Caravan itself, those jobs were running on borrowed time.

After years of rumors and speculation, last year’s reveal of the downmarket Chrysler Voyager signalled that the aging Grand Caravan’s demise was both near and unavoidable. FCA originally planned to axe the third shift last September, but fate (read: an uptick in sales) intervened.

“We worked to prevent this shift loss with the full understanding of the devastating affect [sic] that this would have on our membership,” Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy said in a statement. “Now we will ensure that these workers receive the support that they need in this process as we continue to fight for new product for Windsor Assembly with the goal of preserving and increasing these good paying auto manufacturing jobs.”

FCA spokeswoman Lou Ann Gosselin told FP, “The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority and will offer retirement packages to eligible employees.”

The shift cut will surely factor into collective bargaining talks scheduled to kick off this summer between FCA and autoworkers’ union Unifor. Declining Canadian production volume is an ongoing trend as demands for fresh product increasingly fall on deaf ears in Detroit. Last year saw the end of vehicle production at General Motors’ Oshawa, Ontario plant.

While the Windsor plant has gained a new product, it’s simply a variant of the existing Chrysler Pacifica minivan. As Tim Cain told you recently, the minivan segment is not a growth segment. Not by a long shot.

Elsewhere in Ontario, FCA’s Brampton plant stands to lose the Chrysler 300 before long as sales of the company’s ancient crop of rear-drive throwbacks slowly dwindle. With FCA’s product pipeline already notoriously unpredictable, and with the automaker poised to merge with France’s PSA Group, the near future looks rocky for FCA’s Canuck workers. Fingers are no doubt crossed in the hopes that brighter days lie ahead.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 40 comments
  • PentastarPride PentastarPride on Feb 28, 2020

    Sad times but I guess people get antsy about cars/platforms sticking around longer than a couple years. I personally like the refreshed RT minivans over the CUSW Pacifica/Voyager, especially the Town and Country. I've always maintained that Pacifica should have went to a CUV which, undeniably, Chrysler needs. It's good that some heritage remains by way of the Voyager name.

    • See 1 previous
    • Dal20402 Dal20402 on Feb 28, 2020

      @highdesertcat The $3K premium for the 2020 Launch Edition with AWD also includes some feature content. Chrysler hasn't released 2021 pricing yet. We'll see what the actual premium for the AWD system only is when they do. Toyota charges about $1400 and I don't think Chrysler can get away with charging that much more.

  • BoltEVJay BoltEVJay on Feb 29, 2020

    Good riddance to that pile. Too bad people are losing their jobs over it.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
Next