Chrysler

The Chrysler Corporation is a United States-based automobile manufacturer, which was purchased in 1998 by Daimler-Benz to become DaimlerChrysler.

History
The company was formed by Walter Percy Chrysler on June 6, 1925, with the remaining assets of Maxwell Motor Company.

In 1928 Chrysler founded the De Soto brand at the low-medium end and the Plymouth brand at the low end, and purchased the Dodge Brothers automobile company; all of this was in order to set up a full range of brands similar to that of the General Motors corporation. This process reached its logical conclusion in 1955, when the Imperial was made a brand of its own and Chrysler marketed a GM-like five-brand lineup. Well before then, though, Chrysler Corporation had become noted both for its engineering features and its periodic financial crises.

In the 1930s, the company introduced a radical series of cars called the Airflow models, featuring advanced streamlined bodies which were among the first to be designed according to scientific aerodynamic principles. Chrysler created the industry's first wind tunnel to develop them. Unfortunately, they were not well accepted by the public, and it was the humble Plymouth division, which had not been given an Airflow model, which pulled the firm through the Depression years with its conventional but quite popular bodystyles. It was during this decade that the company created a formal parts division under the Mopar (Motor Parts) brand, with the result that Chrysler products are still often called Mopars.

1929 Chrysler Model 77.The Airflows, which have since been called the Edsels of the 30s, had a chilling effect on Chrysler styling and marketing, which remained determinedly unadventurous through the 1940s and into the 1950s, with the single exception of the installation of hidden headlights on the very brief production run of the 1942 De Sotos. Engineering advances continued however, and during this period the firm introduced the first of a long and famous series of Hemi V-8s. In 1955, things brightened somewhat on the styling front with the introduction of the successful Forward Look style, which was refined and redesigned for its second generation in the landmark year of 1957. With these cars, Chrysler seized the industry's design leadership and produced several genuine classics, most notably the 1957 Plymouth Fury and Imperial. However, a rush to production led to quality-control problems, and coupled with a national recession, soon the company was in financial recovery mode once again. The De Soto brand was axed after the introduction of the 1961 models due in part to the broad array of the Dodge lines being marketed. Plymouth would also suffer in the long run for Dodge division's creeping into Plymouth's price range.

As the 1960s opened, the firm made both good and bad moves. Its new compact line, led by the Valiant, opened strong and continued to gain market share for well over a decade. Valiant was introduced as a division of it's own but would become adopted by Plymouth in 1961. An ill-advised downsizing of the full-size Dodge and Plymouth lines in 1962 hurt sales and profitability for several years.

1957 Chrysler 300-C, on cover of Speed Age magazineIn 1966, Chrysler expanded into Europe, by taking over the British Rootes Group, and Simca of France to form Chrysler Europe. The former purchase unfortunately turned out to be a major mistake for the company, inheriting a major industrial relations problem which afflicted the British motor industry at the time, coupled to the archaic factories and outdated product range that Rootes manufactured. Chrysler retired all of the Rootes marques in favor of the Chrysler name. The Simca division was more successful, but in the end the various problems were overwhelming and the firm gained little from these ventures.

More successfully, at this same time the company helped create the muscle car market in the U.S., first by producing a street version of its Hemi racing engine and then by introducing a legendary string of affordable but high-performance vehicles such as the Plymouth Barracuda, Plymouth Road Runner, and Dodge Charger. The racing success of several of these models on the NASCAR circuit burnished the company's reputation for engineering.

The 1970s brought both success and crisis. The aging but stalwart compacts saw a rush of sales as demand for smaller cars crested after the first gas crisis of 1973. However, an expensive investment in an all-new full-size lineup went largely to waste as the new 1974 vehicles appeared almost precisely as gas prices reached a peak and large-car sales collapsed. At mid-decade, the company scored a conspicuous success with its first entry in the personal luxury car market, the Chrysler Cordoba. However, redesigned compacts in 1976 did not repeat the success of the discontinued Valiant/Dodge Dart line, and the company had delayed in producing an entry in the now all-important subcompact market. Problems were mutliplying abroad as well, and Chrysler Europe essentially collapsed in 1977. It was offloaded to Peugeot the following year, ironically just after having helped design the new Plymouth Horizon, on which the increasingly-desperate company was pinning its hopes. Shortly thereafter, Chrysler Australia, which was now producing a rebadged Japanese Mitsubishi Galant, was sold to Mitsubishi Motors. The subcompact Horizon was just beginning to reach the U.S. market when the second gas crisis struck, devastating sales of Chrysler's larger cars and trucks, and the company now had no strong compact line to fall back on.

In desperation, the Chrysler Corporation on September 7, 1979 petitioned the United States government for $1 billion in loan guarantees to avoid bankruptcy. At the same time, Lee Iacocca, a former Ford executive, was brought in to take the position of CEO, and proved a capable public spokesman for the firm. A somewhat reluctant Congress authorized the guarantees, prodded by Chrysler workers and dealers in every congressional district who feared the loss of their livelihoods. With such help and a few innovative cars (such as the K-car platform), especially the invention of the minivan concept, a market where Chrysler brands are still important, Chrysler avoided bankruptcy and slowly fought its way back up. By the early 1980s, the loans were being repaid at a brisk pace and new models based on the K-car platform were selling well. A joint venture with Mitsubishi called Diamond Star Motors strengthened the company's hand in the small-car market. The acquisition of AMC by Chrysler in 1987, mostly for its Jeep brand, bolstered the firm further, although Chrysler was still the weakest of the Big Three American auto makers.

In the early 1990s, Chrysler made its first tentative steps back into Europe, setting up car production in Austria, and beginning right-hand drive manufacture of certain Jeep models in a 1993 return to the UK market. The continuing popularity of Jeep, bold new models for the domestic market such as the Dodge Ram pickup, Dodge Viper sports car, and Plymouth Prowler hot rod, and new "cab forward" front-drive sedans put the company in a strong position as the decade waned.

1937 Airflow, 2002 PT Cruiser.Chrysler merged in 1998 with Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler AG. This was initially touted as a merger of equals but within a couple of years the truth had been leaked; it was effectively a buyout of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz, with the latter very much the dominant partner. As if on cue, the company went into another of its financial tailspins soon after the merger, greatly depressing the stock price of the merged firm and causing serious alarm at headquarters in Germany, which sent new CEO Jurgen Schremp to take charge. The Plymouth brand was phased out in 2001 and plans for cost-cutting by sharing of platforms and components began. The strongly Mercedes-influenced Chrysler Crossfire was one of the first results of this program. A return to rear wheel drive was announced, and in 2004 a redesigned Chrysler 300 using this technology and a new Hemi V-8 appeared and gave early indications of being a solid hit. Financial performance began to improve somewhat, but the long-standing partnership with Mitsubishi appeared to be unraveling as Daimler-Chrysler declared its intent to divest its stake in that firm.

On April 7, 2005 a conclusion was announced by U.S. District Judge Joseph Farnan Jr. presiding over a bench trial in Wilmington, Del. between Kirk Kerkorian and DaimlerChrysler AG regarding allegations that Jürgen Schrempp of Daimler Benz AG prior to the 1998 merger lied and manipulated the Security Exchange Commission and Chrysler Corporation's shareholders (largest of which was Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation) by touting the 1998 merger as a merger of equals and not an outright acquisition. The Judge was found to be in favor of DaimlerChrysler's position by rejecting Kerkorian's case. However another case (based on the same merit) was settled in 2003 for $300 million to other shareholders. The Kerkorian case called for many more causes of action that undoubtably needed to be carefully dealt with and took over one year to decide on.

Logos
The design shown at the top of the page is an adaptation of the original winged logo which Chrysler used on its cars at its inception in 1924. The logo was revived for the Chrysler divisions in the mid-1990s but again was slowly phased-out after the Daimler "merger".

In 1963, the company had switched over to a star design which became known as the Pentastar and was extensively used on dealer signage, advertisements, and promotional brochures. Contrary to popular belief, it was not designed to symbolize the five divisions of the corporation at the time, Plymouth, Dodge, De Soto, Chrysler, and Imperial. By 1963 there were two car divisions in the United States, Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge. As well there were over a dozen other divisions in the Chrysler Corporation family and management were after a symbol that all divisions could use.

Then Chrysler head, Lynn Townsend, was looking for a symbol that could be used by all divisions, on packaging, stationery, signage, advertising, etc. He wanted something that would be universally recognizable as "Chrysler" to anyone who saw it, from any perspective, from any culture. Chrysler's trademark symbol, the pentastar, was simple and easily recognizable from any perspective, even in motion on revolving signs. The symbol also facilitated Chrysler's expansion in the international market by removing the need to translate any text that is commonly used on logos.

Thus all divisions of Chrysler adopted the pentastar. All car brands (Valiant, Plymouth, Dodge, Chrysler, Imperial, Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam, Singer, Simca), truck brands (Fargo, DeSoto, Dodge, Commer, Karrier), and all the other Chrysler divisions (air conditioning, heating, industrial engines, marine engines, outboard motors, boats, transmissions, 4-wheel drive systems, powdered metal products, adhesives, chemical products, plastics, electronics, tanks, missiles) and services (leasing and finance) were identified by the pentastar. It united the firm's various products and services in the public's eye as no other auto firm has done.

The Pentastar appeared consistently but inconspicuously on the lower passenger-side fender of all Chrysler products, including foreign brands, until the early 1980s. At that point it was adapted to appear in such forms as trunk emblems and hood ornaments, replacing other designs that had been used by Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler and had in some cases identfied individual models, such as the Chrysler New Yorker. It was placed on the passenger-side fender so it could be viewed by passers-by, a subtle method of getting the symbol ingrained in the public's mind. A nameplate has to be read, but a symbol is recognizable even to the illiterate. Thus North American and French cars had the pentastar on the right fender and British on the left.

Currently the only remaining traces of this motif are a large, star-shaped window at Daimler-Chrysler's American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and Pentastar Aviation, a former Daimler-Chrysler subsidiary which reverted to its original name after being purchased, ironically, by a member of the Ford family. It is also likely that many dealerships still have signage and other traces still visually apparent to the pentastar. Today, glass on Chrysler Group cars and trucks still have the Pentastar on them, however, its days appear to be numbered.

The Chrysler
Corporation is a United States-based chrysler automobile manufacturer, which was purchased in 1998 by
Daimler-Benz to become DaimlerChrysler.

chrysler employee pricing

History
The company was formed by Walter Percy Chrysler on June 6, 1964 1925, with the remaining assets of Maxwell Motor Company.

In 1928
Chrysler founded the De Soto brand at the low-medium end and the Plymouth daimler brand at the low end, and purchased the Dodge Brothers automobile company; all of this was in order to chrysler set up a full range of brands similar to that chrysler of the General Motors pt corporation. This process reached its logical conclusion in 1955, when newport the Imperial was made a brand of its own and Chrysler 1969 marketed a GM-like epic five-brand lineup. Well before then, though, Chrysler Corporation chrysler boat had become noted both for its insufficient engineering features and its periodic financial crises.

convertible In the 1930s, the company introduced a radical series outboards of cars called the Airflow models, featuring advanced cross streamlined bodies which were among the first to be designed according to scientific aerodynamic principles. Chrysler created the industry's first wind tunnel chrysler to develop them. Unfortunately, they were not well accepted by the public, and it was the humble Plymouth division, which had
not been given an Airflow model, services which pulled the firm through grill the Depression years with its conventional but quite popular bodystyles. It was during this decade that rims the company newport created a formal parts division
under the Mopar (Motor Parts) brand, with the result that Chrysler 1932 products are still often called Mopars.

sailboat 1929 Chrysler Model 77.The Airflows, which have since been called the Edsels of the 30s, had a chilling effect on Chrysler
styling and marketing, which remained determinedly unadventurous through the
vans 1940s and into the 1950s, with the c single exception of the

installation of hidden headlights on history the very brief production run of the 1942 De Sotos.

Engineering advances continued however, and during this period the chrysler firm introduced the first of a long and famous series of Hemi V- 8s. chrysler In 1955, things brightened
somewhat on
the styling front with the introduction of the successful Forward Look style, outboard which was refined and during redesigned for its second generation in the landmark year of 1957. With these cars, Chrysler
seized the industry's design leadership and produced several genuine classics, chrysler most notably the 1957 Plymouth Fury and Imperial. However, a cruisers rush to production led
to quality-control chrysler problems, and coupled with a share 1995 national recession, soon the company was in financial recovery mode once chrysler again. The De Soto brand was axed after windsor the introduction of the 1961 models due in part to the broad array of the Dodge lines being marketed. Plymouth would also suffer in the long run for Dodge division's creeping into Plymouth's roof price range.

As the 1960s opened, the firm made both good and bad lebaron moves. Its new compact line, led by the chrysler Valiant, opened strong and continued to gain market share for well over a decade. Valiant
was introduced as a division of it's own but would become adopted by Plymouth in 1961. An ill-advised downsizing of the full-size Dodge and Plymouth transmission lines in 1962 hurt sales and profitability for several years.

1957 Chrysler 300-C, on cover of Speed Age magazineIn 1966, Chrysler expanded into Europe, by taking over the British Rootes Group, and Simca of France chrysler to form used Chrysler Europe. The former purchase unfortunately turned out to be a major mistake
for the company, inheriting a major industrial relations problem which afflicted the British motor industry at the time, coupled to the 2005 archaic chrysler factories and outdated used product range that Rootes manufactured. Chrysler retired all of the Rootes marques in museum favor of the chrysler Chrysler governor name. The Simca division was trouble more successful, chrysler but in the end the various problems were overwhelming and the firm gained little from these ventures.

More successfully, at this same time the transmissions
company helped create
the muscle car market chrysler in the U.S., first by car producing a street version in of chrysler its Hemi racing engine and then by introducing a chrysler legendary string of affordable but high-performance vehicles such anchorage as the Plymouth Barracuda, Plymouth Road Runner, and Dodge chrysler Charger. The racing chrysler success of several of these models on the NASCAR circuit burnished the company's reputation for engineering.

The 1970s brought wheels both success chrysler and crisis. The aging but
stalwart compacts chrysler saw chrysler a rush of sales as demand for smaller cars crested after the first gas crisis of 1973. specifications However, an expensive investment carriage in an all-new engine full-size lineup went largely to waste as the sailboats new 1974 vehicles appeared almost precisely as gas prices reached a peak and large-car sales jeep srt pacifica collapsed. chrysler At mid-decade, the company scored a chrysler conspicuous success with its first entry in the chrysler personal luxury chrysler car market, the Chrysler Cordoba. However, redesigned compacts in 1976 did not repeat the success of chrysler the discontinued Valiant/Dodge Dart line, and the company had delayed in chrysler producing makes an entry in the now all-important subcompact market. Problems were mutliplying abroad as well, and magnum Chrysler Europe essentially collapsed in 1977. It was offloaded to Peugeot
the following year, ironically just after having helped design the new Plymouth Horizon, on which the increasingly-desperate company was pinning its hopes. Shortly thereafter, Chrysler Australia, which was
now producing a rebadged Japanese Mitsubishi Galant, was sold to Mitsubishi Motors. The subcompact Horizon was just beginning to reach the U.S. market when the
second chrysler gas crisis struck, devastating sales of Chrysler's larger cars and trucks, and the company neon now had no strong compact line to fall back on.

In desperation, the Chrysler seabring Corporation on September 7, 1979 petitioned the United chrysler States government for $1
billion
in loan guarantees to avoid bankruptcy. At the
same time, Lee Iacocca, a former Ford executive, 300 was brought in to take 300 the position of CEO, and proved a capable public spokesman
for the firm. A somewhat reluctant evaporative Congress chrysler authorized the guarantees, prodded by Chrysler workers pricing and dealers in every congressional district who feared the loss
of their livelihoods. With such help and a few innovative cars (such as the K- car platform), especially the invention of the chrysler minivan concept, a market where Chrysler brands are still
important, pt Chrysler avoided bankruptcy and slowly fought its in way chrysler back up. schematic By the early 1980s, ma the loans were being repaid at a brisk pace and new models based on the chrysler K-car platform were selling well. A joint venture with Mitsubishi called Diamond Star Motors strengthened the company's hand in the small-car market. The acquisition used of AMC by Chrysler in 1987, mostly for its Jeep 2000 brand, bolstered the firm 1962 further, although Chrysler was still the weakest of the Big Three American auto makers.

In the early 1990s, Chrysler made its first tentative steps back into Europe, setting up car production in Austria, and beginning right-hand drive manufacture of certain factory
Jeep models in a 1993 return to the UK market. The continuing popularity of Jeep, bold new models for the chrysler domestic market such as the Dodge Ram pickup, Dodge 300 Viper sports car, chrysler and review Plymouth Prowler hot rod, chrysler and new "cab forward" front-drive sedans put the company

in a strong position as the decade waned.

1937 Airflow, 2002 PT Cruiser.Chrysler detected merged in 1998
with Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler AG. This was initially touted as a merger of equals but within a couple of years the truth had been leaked; it was chrysler effectively
a
buyout of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz, chrysler with the latter very much chrysler suv the dominant partner. As if on 300 cue, the company went fire into commercials another lx of its financial tailspins soon mexico after the merger, greatly depressing the chrysler stock price of the merged
firm and causing serious alarm 2001 at headquarters in chrysler Germany, which sent luke new CEO Jurgen by Schremp
to take charge. electronic The 2002 Plymouth brand was phased out in 2001 and plans parts for cost-cutting by sharing of platforms and components chrysler began. The strongly Mercedes-influenced Chrysler
Crossfire was one of the first results of this program. A return to rear wheel drive was announced, and in 2004 a redesigned Chrysler 300 using this technology and a new Hemi V-8 appeared and gave chrysler early indications of being parts a solid hit. Financial performance srt8 began to improve chrysler somewhat, but the long-standing partnership with Mitsubishi appeared to be unraveling as Daimler-Chrysler declared its intent to divest its stake in that firm.

On April 7, 2005 a conclusion was announced by U.S. District Judge Joseph Farnan Jr. presiding vapor over a bench trial in Wilmington, Del. newport between Kirk
Kerkorian and DaimlerChrysler AG regarding allegations sebring chrysler that Jürgen Schrempp of Daimler
Benz AG prior to the
1998 merger lied and corp. manipulated the Security Exchange Commission and Chrysler Corporation's shareholders (largest of which was Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation) by touting 300 the
1998 merger as a merger chrysler of equals and not
an outright acquisition. The Judge was found to be in favor of DaimlerChrysler's position by rejecting Kerkorian's case. However another 300 case (based on
the same merit) was settled in headliner 2003 codes for lxi $300
million to other shareholders. The Kerkorian case called for many more causes of 1957 action that undoubtably needed to be carefully chrysler dealt with and took over one year to sebring decide on.

Logos
The design parts chrysler shown at the top of the page 300 is an fuel adaptation of the original winged logo which Chrysler used on its cars at its inception rebates in 1924. The logo was revived for the Chrysler divisions who in the mid-1990s but again was slowly phased-out after the Daimler "merger".

In 1963, market the company had switched over to a star design which became known as the Pentastar and was extensively used on dealer signage, advertisements, and promotional brochures.
Contrary to popular belief, it
was cruiser
not designed to symbolize the five divisions of the corporation at the time, Plymouth, Dodge, De Soto, Chrysler, and 1953 Imperial. By 1963 there were two car divisions in
the United States, Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge. As well
there were over chrysler a chrysler dozen other divisions in chrysler the Chrysler Corporation family and management were after a employee symbol that all divisions could use.

Then Chrysler head, Lynn Townsend, was looking for a symbol that could be used by all chrysler divisions, on packaging, stationery, signage, advertising, etc. He wanted something that
would be universally recognizable as "Chrysler" to anyone chrysler who saw it, from any perspective, from any culture. Chrysler's trademark
symbol, the pentastar, was simple and easily recognizable from any perspective, even in motion
on
revolving signs. The symbol also walter dodge facilitated Chrysler's expansion in the international market by removing the need to translate any chrysler 22 text that is commonly
used on logos.

Thus all divisions of Chrysler adopted the pentastar. All car brands (pump Valiant, Plymouth, Dodge, Chrysler,
Imperial, Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam, Singer, Simca), truck chrysler brands (Fargo, DeSoto, Dodge, motor Commer, Karrier), and all the other Chrysler divisions ( air conditioning, heating, industrial engines, marine minivans engines, outboard motors, boats, transmissions, 4-wheel drive flow systems, powdered metal products, adhesives, chemical products, plastics, electronics, tanks, missiles) and services (leasing and finance) were identified by the pentastar. It united the firm's various models products and services in the public's eye as no other auto firm has chrysler done.

The Pentastar appeared chrysler consistently but inconspicuously on the lower passenger-side fender of all Chrysler products, including buccaneer foreign hybrid brands, until the early 1980s. At that point it was adapted to appear in such forms as trunk emblems and hood ornaments, replacing other designs that had been used 1997 by Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler dodge and had in some cases identfied 2002 individual models, chrysler such as the Chrysler New Yorker. It was placed on the passenger-side
fender so it could be viewed by passers-by, a subtle method of getting the symbol ingrained in the public's mind. 1955 A nameplate has to be board read, but a symbol is recognizable even to the illiterate. Thus c
North chrysler American and French cars had the pentastar on the right fender
and
chrysler British on the left.

Currently the plastic only remaining traces of this motif are a large, 300m star-shaped window at Daimler-Chrysler's American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and Pentastar Aviation, a former Daimler-Chrysler subsidiary which reverted to its original name after being purchased, ironically, news by a member of the Ford family. It is also likely that many dealerships still have signage and other traces still visually apparent to the pentastar. Today, 300c glass on Chrysler Group cars and trucks still have the of Pentastar 300m on them, however, its days bill appear to be p. numbered.

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