Chrysler through the years

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April 30, 2009

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Thu Apr 30, 2009, 09:10 PM EDT

• 1937 — Chrysler establishes the automaker’s first manufacturing operation in Kokomo when the former Haynes Automobile plant on Home Avenue is converted to build manual transmissions.

• 1955 — Kokomo Transmission Plant construction begins and the 800,000-square-foot facility is completed in 1956. The plant covers approximately 67 acres.

• 1965 — Kokomo Casting Plant is built. The original building is 400,000 square feet, and is expanded in 1969, 1986, 1995 and 1997, boosting manufacturing space to 625,000 square feet.

• 1985 — Construction begins on a 482,000-square-foot KTP expansion to assemble Chrysler’s first four-speed, electronically controlled automatic transmission.

• 1991 — Construction begins at Chrysler Transmission Plant on a $150 million, 150,000-square-foot expansion to build a new front-wheel drive, four-speed automatic transmission.

• 1997 — Chrysler announces it will spend $477 million to update equipment at KTP and Kokomo Casting Plant.

• 1998 — Indiana Transmission Plant I is completed, with approximately 1.2 million square feet. The total investment initially was around $1 billion. The merger between Chrysler and German-owned Daimler-Benz is finalized.

• 2001 — DaimlerChrysler announces a $455 million expansion of ITP, which eventually took form as Indiana Transmission Plant II, a free-standing, 600,000-square-foot plant.

• 2003 — DaimlerChrysler announces $500 million investment in new manufacturing equipment to Kokomo Casting and Indiana Transmission plants. ITP II opens, and total current hourly and salaried employment at DaimlerChrysler’s four Kokomo plants is 7,725.

• 2007 — Cerberus Capital Management purchases Chrysler Group from DaimlerChrysler, turning it into Chrysler LLC, but this move comes months after German manufacturer Getrag and DaimlerChrysler signed a memorandum of understanding to develop and produce dual-clutch transmissions for DCX operations in North America.

• September 2008 — Work at the 80 percent complete Getrag plant in Tipton County halts, and in early October, Chrysler files a lawsuit against Getrag and Getrag Transmission Manufacturing LLC, accusing the two companies of breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation in their ability to get financing for the project.

• November 2008 — Getrag Transmission Manufacturing files for bankruptcy protection in U.S Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Michigan, and announces it is canceling the Tipton project.

• December 2008 — Chrysler LLC receives $4 billion in government loans to continue operations.

• Jan. 20, 2009 — Chrysler LLC announces it will attempt a merger with Italian automaker Fiat SpA, as lawmakers warn Chrysler cannot survive as a standalone company.

• March 30, 2009 — President Barack Obama rejects Chrysler’s long-term viability plan and gives the automaker 30 days to finalize a deal with Fiat and hammer out labor concessions, or face bankruptcy.

• April 29, 2009 — With the local Chrysler work force down to about 4,500 workers, the three UAW locals representing the rank-and-file workers agree to massive concessions in a bid to stave off bankruptcy.

• April 30, 2009 — Chrysler LLC files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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