Founder Walter P. Chrysler was called the "greatest doctor of sick automobile companies" the world had ever known. He saved Buick for General Motors, then rode to the rescue of Willy-Overland, Maxwell, Chalmers and Dodge before starting his eponymous company in 1925.
In the 1950s, when sales plunged because of stodgy styling, Chrysler put the portfolio in the hands of a young designer named Virgil Exner, whose "Forward Look" rejuvenated the company and sent sales soaring.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s -- around the time Chairman Lee Iacocca asked for and received a $1.5-billion government bailout to stave off bankruptcy -- Chrysler's product boffins created the front-wheel-drive K-cars and minivans, which became huge hits.
Facing yet another sales collapse in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chrysler developed the LH sedans, the so-called "cab-forward" cars, as well as the Ram truck, Jeep Grand Cherokee and ferocious Dodge Viper sports car. Again, sales soared. Even as recently as 2003, Chrysler -- while it was saddled by a disadvantageous merger with German carmaker Daimler -- launched the 300C sedan, another box-office smash.
This oscillation between adversity and prosperity has happened so regularly that it seems to be part of the corporate metabolism, a reflex. How such a neurotic tendency to let things get out of hand becomes ingrained into a huge organization over decades is something of a mystery, the stuff of management textbooks.
But it does seem to be that "when things get tough, we do engage harder," says Quigley. "We get even more creative and more inventive, and management does empower us."
But of course, he says, smiling, "that's the same management that gets us into these messes."
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Producing electric
The public will get a good look at Chrysler's electric-car plans today when it reveals two new "production-intent" vehicles at Detroit's North American International Auto Show: a plug-in hybrid version of the Jeep Patriot compact utility, and a pure electric vehicle, called the Circuit, based on the British sports car Lotus Europa.
These join three ENVI prototypes unveiled last year: a plug-in hybrid Chrysler minivan and Jeep Wrangler, and another electrified Lotus, similar to the Tesla Roadster. Chrysler has committed to bringing at least one advanced electric vehicle to the market next year.
"These are not concept vehicles," says Quigley. "We can't afford that anymore. These are intended for production."
