by Gary S. Vasilash > Editor-In-Chief
There must be something about Turkey
and Class 1 cargo vans. Consider the
2015 Ram ProMaster City. It is, says
Mike Cairns, director, Ram Truck
Engineering, produced in Bursa,
Turkey, by TofaŞ. TofaŞ is a joint-
venture company, one with equal
ownership by FCA and Koç Holding,
a Turkish company. Cairns points
out that the TofaŞ Bursa plant, which
has been building a number of Fiat
vehicles for several years, is an FCA
World Class Manufacturing-gold level
manufacturing operation.
And you may recall the Ford Transit
Connect, which was introduced in the
U.S. in 2009 (although its pedigree went
Introducing the
Ram ProMaster
City
An urban tool for tradespeople
and a capable wagon for people
who want plenty of space.
back to 2001 in European markets),
another Class 1 van. It was produced
in Kocaeli, Turkey, by Ford Otosan, a
joint venture between Ford and . . . Koç
Holding.
For the Ram ProMaster City, there was
an investment at TofaŞ on the order of
$360-million to prep the plant to make
the van.
The Ram ProMaster City is a vehicle
that is known as the Fiat Doblò in
Europe. But this isn't simply a case
of Ram taking an existing product
from the Fiat portfolio and slapping a
badge on it. Rather, it is a vehicle that
was developed with the knowledge
that there would be a North American
version. Designers from Auburn
Hills, for example, worked with their
counterparts in Centro Stile Fiat on
developing the instrument panel design
for the vehicle.
But there were other issues, Cairns
notes, that needed to be addressed
for the North American product.
For example, they had to adjust the
suspension of the vehicle, increase the
ride high, to handle the vertical loads
associated with roads in places like
Michigan. "Vertical loads" is a nice way
of describing the sort of jolts associated
with road surfaces that are pocked like
the Moon.
p The 2015 Ram ProMaster
City was developed for both
transporting goods and people.
It is the North American version
of the Fiat Doblò, but modifed
to meet both regulatory and
functional requirements.
AD&P; > February 2015 > FEATURE > Introducing the Ram ProMaster City > Gary S. Vasilash > gsv@autofeldguide.com
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