The Chicago plant is a disaster. One of the very few plants to vote down the latest contract.It is interesting, the Explorer roll out was a complete disaster. They did a clean floor revamp of an old assembly line (Chicago) going from front to rear wheel drive, totally new platform, from my reading and conversations with others in the industry. They had to re-work almost every vehicle by hand at Flat Rock (I think?) assembly for months after launch. Not that the Bronco can't have problems, but the Wayne plant is pretty solid I think. Also, the Ranger is not new and no matter what anybody says, the Bronco is definitely a Ranger chassis/powertrain based vehicle, so it should not have as complicated a launch as the Explorer either. They really screwed up the entire process form go. I am not familiar with what issues the Escape is having, but I know that Farley has warranty/reliability issues as #1 priority. On a side note, the I do think Japanese vehicles are on average better quality, but the dealers and customer perception are a huge part of the difference. When the Explorer/Mazda Navajo rolled off the exact same assembly line in the 90s, same workers, parts, everything, the Navajo consistently scored higher in satisfaction, lower in initial defect and overall better reliability.
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