I'm in my early (OK, mid) 40s, and I still remember when the government (then headed by President Jimmy Carter) bailed out the Chrysler Corporation. I was a "'tween" at the time, and even I wondered why anyone would bother. Back then, the big Chrysler models were the Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon twins, which were ugly knockoffs of the Volkswagen Rabbit and/or the Chevrolet Chevette. Can you imagine knocking off the piece of crap that was the Chevette?
But in the seventies, almost all of Chrysler's products were knockoffs of other cars. Even the flagship Chrysler New Yorker was a smaller, crappier version of the Lincoln Town Car. But after the bailout, Lee Iacocca steered the company in a new direction, one where Chrysler was the company being copied. The Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager/Chrysler Town & Country were basically the first minivan (if you forget the VW Micro Bus). But internally, Chrysler still copied itself. In that last example, you can see that Chrysler's three different divisions often treated one product as different trim levels, with Plymouth the entry level, Dodge the middle, and Chrysler the top.
Eventually, Plymouth was docked at the shore, and petered out with the "niche" vehicle, the Prowler. After years of mediocrity, Dodge actually began to be cool, and Chrysler's image was tweaked as well. When they ditched the "penta-star"--which had become synonymous with crap--and changed back to their old "wax seal" logo, their image began to change. And when some designer put wings around that logo, they very likely accidentally completely changed the design scheme for the whole division. Every Chrysler has those wings now, and while it may be starting to age, I still like it. And I never look at a Chrysler product anymore and think, "piece of crap."
Along the way, Chrysler scooped up American Motors Corp. as it was dying, mostly to pluck out the Jeep division. For a few years, "Eagle" lived on as a division, stretching out the death of AMC. But Eagle was as unnecessary as Plymouth, and disappeared. Jeep has been (at least from a design and brand-stretching perspective) a success. Until recently, they wouldn't even put Jeep Wranglers on sale, because they didn't ever need to. Chrysler wasn't responsible for the square headlights on their first Wrangler, which was dreamed up by AMC. But their ten-year run of the next Wrangler brought it back to its CJ glory, making me drool until I finally bought one. Several Jeeps have been born under Chrysler, some great (Grand Cherokee), some not (first Liberty looked like the product of a mating between a Kia and a frog).
So, it would be sad to see Chrysler die after such a stunning rebirth, and sustained second life. But as we learned with the death of Plymouth and AMC, we absorb the news and get used to it. And Jeep--as it has through several previous owners--would survive the mayhem.
[Excerpt]
Obama Administration Seeks to Keep Chrysler Out of Bankruptcy
The Obama administration's autos task force adviser Ron Bloom told Chrysler stakeholders this morning that they are working to strike a deal to avoid putting the company into bankruptcy. . .
Read more at: Washington Post
