Wixom Assembly Plant


The Ford Wixom Assembly Plant was a Ford Motor Company manufacturing facility in Wixom, Michigan, with production reaching 6,648,806 over fifty years, 1957-2007.

History

As one of Ford's largest and oldest manufacturing sites, Wixom opened April 15, 1957, and was ultimately expanded to 4.7 million square feet, replacing the former Lincoln Motor Company Plant at 6200 West Warren Avenue. The first car manufactured August 1, 1957 was the Lincoln Capri, and the last car produced was a white chocolate Lincoln Town Car which rolled off the line at 12:55pm on May 31, 2007.
The plant primarily manufactured Lincoln cars as well as the Ford Thunderbird — along with the Lincoln Town Car and the Ford GT. Production of the Lincoln LS ended in early April 2006 and production of the Ford GT stopped on September 21, leaving the Town Car as the plant's final Ford Motor Company product.
Wixom was the most profitable plant in the industry during the 1980s when Cadillac downsized its lineup and lost ground to Lincoln. Due to Lincoln's falling sales, Ford announced on January 23, 2006 it would sell the Wixom plant in 2007 as part of its The Way Forward. Some analysts argued that the plant might not be closed. A report in The Oakland Press said "the fate of the Wixom plant, however, will depend on the shape of Ford's future product plan, which seems to be currently in flux." Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm, reportedly offered $115 million in tax cuts to keep the plant open. The plant was closed in 2007, and by mid-June 2008, while Ford was able to find buyers for other idled plants, Wixom remained unsold until 2008 purchase by General Motors.
Several alternative energy uses were announced, but none came to fruition. In 2012, Ford began demolishing the plant. The next year the Baidas family, owners and operators of General RV Center, sought and were awarded mixed use zoning permits in an area nearby of the Wixom property. In 2014 the family broke ground on 33 acres near the Wixom property to build a new corporate headquarters and RV Dealership. A Menards outlet has also been built on the site.

Products