San Jose Assembly was a

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

manufacturing site in

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

, outside of San Jose in what is now the town of Milpitas. It was the automaker's primary factory in that region from 1955 to 1983, replacing the Richmond Assembly facility. Numerous vehicles were produced at the plant including the Ford Falcon, Ford Maverick and

Ford Mustang The Ford Mustang is a series of American Car, automobiles manufactured by Ford Motor Company, Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its Ford Mustang (seventh ...

. It was also the West Coast manufacturing location of the Ford Fairlane,

Ford Torino The Ford Torino is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company, Ford for the North American market between 1968 and 1976. It was a competitor in the mid-size car, intermediate market segment and essentially a twin to the Mercury Monte ...

, Ford Pinto, Ford Escort and the short lived Edsel Ranger and Edsel Pacer. Mercury products such as the Mustang-based

Cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

, Montego,

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

Bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

Capri Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...

and the

Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

were also assembled there.

Ford F-series The Ford F-Series is a series of light-duty trucks marketed and manufactured by Ford Motor Company since model year 1948 as a range of full-sized pickup trucks — positioned between Ford's Ford Ranger (T6), Ranger and Ford Super Duty, ...

trucks were produced there, from shortly after the inception of the plant until its closure in 1983.

History

Personnel and equipment were transferred from Richmond to San Jose starting February 23, 1955. The last truckload of equipment was scheduled to depart Richmond on February 26, 1955, with most of the transfer work performed by Ford employees working overtime. It was one of only three locations where Ford manufactured the Mustang; the other sites were Dearborn Assembly and Edison Assembly. It was one of the first plants in the nation to which the term "automation" was applied because most of the assembly line was interlinked and did not depend on human control. The plant closed in 1983, citing competition from Japanese imports and the building reopened as a mall in 1994, the Great Mall of the Bay Area. Four of the access roads to the mall are named after Ford vehicles built at the factory: Fairlane Drive, Falcon Drive, Mustang Drive, and Comet Drive.

References

External links

Ford Milpitas
* {{Ford factories Ford factories Former motor vehicle assembly plants Motor vehicle assembly plants in California Buildings and structures in Milpitas, California Companies based in Milpitas, California Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1955 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1983 1955 establishments in California 1983 disestablishments in California Defunct manufacturing companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area

History

See also

References

External links