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Jeep Wrangler production could leave its 70-year home in Toledo

Inside Chrysler Group’s Toledo (Ohio) Assembly Complex
User: Chrysler Group
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Flickr

There's a meeting today at Chrysler Headquarters in Auburn Hills.

It's between the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Sergio Marchionne and some nervous officials from Ohio.

Detroit News Business Columnist Daniel Howes says the concern is Ohio might lose the production of the Jeep Wrangler. 

At an auto show last week, Marchionne suggested that Chrysler may take Wrangler to an all-aluminum, unibody construction. Some expect that will likely shift the model's production from its long-time home in Toledo to Michigan or Illinois.

But Howes says if anything, from what he heard from inside Chrysler, it won't have an impact on employment in Toledo. It has more to do with what vehicle it is that Toledo workers will be building instead. 

"That's an emotional issue for them ... Jeep Wrangler is very iconic for Toledo, and that's why they are fighting so hard," says Howes.

* Listen to our full conversation with Daniel Howes above. 

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