Every year, J.D. Power and Associates (Westlake Village, CA) recognizes a handful of automotive assembly plants around the world for their outstanding quality. It honors facilities that produce vehicles with the fewest defects. The winner of the 2007 Platinum Plant Quality Award is Ford’s plant in Wixom, MI. However, the only problem is that Ford management decided to shutter the 50-year-old plant a week before the award was announced!



Every year, J.D. Power and Associates (Westlake Village, CA) recognizes a handful of automotive assembly plants around the world for their outstanding quality. It honors facilities that produce vehicles with the fewest defects.

The winner of the 2007 Platinum Plant Quality Award is Ford’s plant in Wixom, MI. The facility was honored for assembling the Lincoln Town Car with an average of just 35 problems per every 100 vehicles.

However, the only problem is that Ford management decided to shutter the 50-year-old plant a week before the award was announced! So, there’s a prestigious award without a plant to display it in.

Ironically, this was the first time that a North American assembly plant has received the Platinum award in 8 years. Toyota plants in Japan had received the coveted award, which is based solely on defect counts, for 5 years in row.

The Wixom facility ranked higher than BMW’s Regensburg, Germany, plant, which received J.D. Power’s Gold Award. The other runners-up were also in Germany: Mercedes-Benz’s Sindelfingen plant (Silver Award) and Audi’s Neckarsulm plant (Bronze Award).

That certainly is something to be very proud of, especially when you stop to consider that the Wixom plant assembled more than 6 million cars-mostly Lincoln luxury vehicles-since it opened in 1957. Unfortunately, it recently fell victim to Ford’s “Way Forward” plan, which aims to slash operating costs by $5 billion, reduce production capacity and restore the ailing automaker to profitability. Production of the Lincoln Town Car was moved to the company’s St. Thomas, ON, plant.

When was the last time you heard of an award handed out to a plant that no longer exists? It’s a shame that the Wixom assemblers can’t cherish the honor. Instead of closing up effective assembly lines, perhaps Ford should get rid of some ineffective managers at its corporate offices.