Bramalea - A new factory for a new car
When Renault took stock of AMC after acquiring 46.4 % of the company, it became evident that the old factories in which their cars were built would not allow economical building of cars. The Kenosha (Wisconsin) factory, which dated to 1902, was too ineffecient due to its layout, and the Brampton (Ontario) factory was not large enough to allow a volume high enough to get the cost down to a competitive level (let alone the Jeep factory in Toledo, parts of which had dirt floors). While the Alliance and Encore could be built for a while in the Kenosha factory, the program which led to the Premier required a new factory. After searching for a suitable site, one was found in Ontario, not at all far from the existing factory in Brampton; the new site would be known as Bramalea. One of the factors which led to the selection of a site in Canada was the favorable exchange rate between the American and Canadian dollars, which further reduced the cost of producing cars.
Bramalea was a clean-sheet factory, which incorporated every new advance in production techniques. The factory was designed in the shape of a capital 'E', with numerous loading docks; this facilitated "just in time" delivery of parts and material. Numerous robots were installed to ensure the most accurate assembly of the cars.
As well, the most advanced methods were used for things such as the installation of the doors and rustproofing the cars. In addition, an up-to date system of applying the paint to the cars was used; unfortunately, as on so many cars of the period, the metallic paints had a tendancy to oxidize and fleck off.
The Bramalea plant is one of the newest in the Chrysler system (only the St. Louis minivan and Detroit Grand Cherokee plants are newer), and is the sole source of all the LH cars: Dodge Intrepid, Chrysler Concorde, Chrysler LHS, and the Chrysler 300M, which was to have been the next-generation Eagle Vision.