The one millionth Ford Mustang has officially rolled off the line at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant. This comes as the 49th anniversary of Mustang production begins.
According to a press release from Ford, Raj Nair, the group Vice President for Global Product Development, rolled out in a ruby red 2014 Mustang convertible. He was driven by Ed Salna, a 27-year veteran of the plant. Salna started working a year before the plant produced its first car.
“The team here at Flat Rock Assembly has built an outstanding reputation for quality while producing one million Mustangs over the last nine years, and we expect that to continue for many years to come,” said Nair in the press release.
But the millionth Mustang isn’t the only big story rolling off the line. Ford recently announced in a press release it’s investing $555 million in the plant, which will feature a “state-of-the-art, fully flexible body shop and an upgraded paint shop with an environmentally friendly 3-Wet paint process.”
The Flat Rock plant began production in 1987. It opened under the name Mazda Motor Manufacturing USA, and started out building the Mazda MX-6. It was renamed AutoAlliance International in 1992 when Ford purchased a 50 percent share in the plant.
Since opening, the plant has produced the Mazda MX-6, Mazda 626, Mazda 6, Mercury Cougar and Ford Probe. Later this year, the Flat Rock Assembly Plant will start building the Ford Fusion sedan.
Along with the new body shop, Ford is also adding 1,400 jobs, requiring a second shift. These new jobs will help support Fusion production. This bumps the total number of people employed at the Flat Rock plant to roughly 2,900.
People interested in applying for one of those jobs can do so on the Ford website. The Flat Rock Assembly Plant is located at 1 International Dr, off of Gibraltar Road.