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Waymo will buy up to 62k Chrysler Minivans


Anthony

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http://www.autonews.com/article/20180531/RETAIL01/180539962/fca-waymo-chrysler-pacifica-hybrid-fleet

 

 

Google affiliate Waymo will purchase up to 62,000 additional Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans from FCA US starting later this year to begin a national expansion of the company's public driverless ride-hailing fleet, the two companies said Thursday.

 

 

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Surprised they went with them, given how unreliable FCA products are.

 

FCA minivans have very good reliability. Chrysler Pacifica was the most trouble free minivan in J.D. Power's 2017 IQS for initial quality. Dodge Grand Caravan was #2. http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2017-us-initial-quality-study-iqs

 

In J.D. Power 2018 VDS for 3 year old vehicles, Chrysler Town and Country was ranked second highest after Honda Odyssey for dependability. http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/jd-power-2018-us-vehicle-dependability-study

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Surprised they went with them, given how unreliable FCA products are.

 

FCA minivans have very good reliability. Chrysler Pacifica was the most trouble free minivan in J.D. Power's 2017 IQS for initial quality. Dodge Grand Caravan was #2. http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2017-us-initial-quality-study-iqs

 

In J.D. Power 2018 VDS for 3 year old vehicles, Chrysler Town and Country was ranked second highest after Honda Odyssey for dependability. http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/jd-power-2018-us-vehicle-dependability-study

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Is that all you know how to do is harp on FCA's unreliability?

Didn't realize I was on a Mopar forum.

 

They have made some of the most unreliable vehicles for years and years now and has lead to us bailing Chrysler out TWICE. No reason they should have not gone the way of all the other brands in American automotive history.

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Didn't realize I was on a Mopar forum.

 

They have made some of the most unreliable vehicles for years and years now and has lead to us bailing Chrysler out TWICE. No reason they should have not gone the way of all the other brands in American automotive history.

 

Doesn't have to be a Mopar forum to get tired of you constantly posting about their poor quality. And as rperez mentioned, I think the minivans have a decent quality reputation as of late. Seriously, add something constructive instead of just bashing the brand for quality in nearly every single post.

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Ford does have many vans, just no good passenger vans and none of them are hybrids...yet anyway. Ford is also less likely to be interested in such a partnership even if I think they have products Waymo could use. Ford certainly doesn't want their cars running into pedestrians because of some terrible 3rd party company. Ford's Transit Connect should have the technology platform for autonomous systems but Ford really can't make them to THAT scale, they only import maybe 5,000 Connects a month at most. I know Ford is developing autonomous vehicles but we don't really know what form factor they will take, that's one thing they haven't talked about at all. I assume it will be one of their new utilities or cargo vans, perhaps a Next-Gen Transit Connect. Either way they are suppose too be built at FlatRock.

 

As for the quality of FCA products, I think it's wildly inconsistent but nothing is relatively 'bad' anymore.

Edited by Assimilator
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not a word about Transit Connect, which is what BORG Assimilator was referring to.

He said he assumed itd be a Transit Connect or Transit-based. His other comment meant that whatever they build (whatever vehicle form it will be) will be made at Flat Rock.

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He said he assumed itd be a Transit Connect or Transit-based. His other comment meant that whatever they build (whatever vehicle form it will be) will be made at Flat Rock.

Well yeah, they have been clear about that. There is a completely new building involved.

 

I still say if they want to build anything taller than a sedan there they will have to do some pretty major renovations to the building itself. When Mazda designed that plant in the late 80s it was never intended to build anything but coupes/sedans.

Edited by fuzzymoomoo
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Ford does have many vans, just no good passenger vans and none of them are hybrids...yet anyway. Ford is also less likely to be interested in such a partnership even if I think they have products Waymo could use. Ford certainly doesn't want their cars running into pedestrians because of some terrible 3rd party company. Ford's Transit Connect should have the technology platform for autonomous systems but Ford really can't make them to THAT scale, they only import maybe 5,000 Connects a month at most. I know Ford is developing autonomous vehicles but we don't really know what form factor they will take, that's one thing they haven't talked about at all. I assume it will be one of their new utilities or cargo vans, perhaps a Next-Gen Transit Connect. Either way they are suppose too be built at FlatRock.

 

As for the quality of FCA products, I think it's wildly inconsistent but nothing is relatively 'bad' anymore.

 

I'm pretty sure Ford's "Uber mobile" will be an EV based on the E1 architecture. That new facility at Flat Rock is supposed to be home to MACH 1 and the autonomous driving car so I assume there is a high degree of similarity between the two.

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I'm pretty sure Ford's "Uber mobile" will be an EV based on the E1 architecture. That new facility at Flat Rock is supposed to be home to MACH 1 and the autonomous driving car so I assume there is a high degree of similarity between the two.

Mach 1 and the rest of the electric only lineup was shifted to Mexico.
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FCA minivans have very good reliability. Chrysler Pacifica was the most trouble free minivan in J.D. Power's 2017 IQS for initial quality. Dodge Grand Caravan was #2. http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2017-us-initial-quality-study-iqs

 

In J.D. Power 2018 VDS for 3 year old vehicles, Chrysler Town and Country was ranked second highest after Honda Odyssey for dependability. http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/jd-power-2018-us-vehicle-dependability-study

The minivan to FCA is much like the F-150 to Ford.

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Mach 1 and the rest of the electric only lineup was shifted to Mexico.

 

There is conflicting reports on that. But let's assume this is the case... that MACH 1 will be build in Mexico.

 

That means Ford has other plans for Flat Rock 2. I don't buy that Ford will need a whole new factory at Flat Rock to build just tens of thousands of "Uber mobile" when it is generally accepted that the optimum capacity is a minimum of 250k. That means the AV is probably based on an existing vehicle that Ford will also produce at this plant. Remember that thread where we were speculating where Ford will shift all the products at various plants and I made a post but said "TBD Transit Connect"? I think we just connected all the dots :)

 

AV = based on Transit Connect, which will land in Flat Rock 2 (probably given AV volume by itself is too low to justify a new plant)

 

MACH 1 = based on E1, which will land in Hermosilo (perhaps)

Edited by bzcat
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There is conflicting reports on that. But let's assume this is the case... that MACH 1 will be build in Mexico.

 

That means Ford has other plans for Flat Rock 2. I don't buy that Ford will need a whole new factory at Flat Rock to build just tens of thousands of "Uber mobile" when it is generally accepted that the optimum capacity is a minimum of 250k. That means the AV is probably based on an existing vehicle that Ford will also produce at this plant. Remember that thread where we were speculating where Ford will shift all the products at various plants and I made a post but said "TBD Transit Connect"? I think we just connected all the dots :)

 

AV = based on Transit Connect, which will land in Flat Rock 2 (probably given AV volume by itself is too low to justify a new plant)

 

MACH 1 = based on E1, which will land in Hermosilo (perhaps)

I took a ride by there on my bike the other day since Ive been off. The new building is really small. Too small to be a full blown Assembly plant. Way too far away from the main plant too. Talking to a few people leads me to think its mostly R&D for the autonomous program, and maybe a test facility.
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