Chrysler welcomes a hero: Iacocca, 83, returns to rally employees and dealers

The US gov't bailout (guaranteed loans?) helped a lot too...

The Minivan saved Chrysler. They started the craze. Even today the Dodge Caravan is a benchmark. (For crappiness IMO, but it keeps the purchase price down and holds a bunch of kids.)

Re: the "hero", I guess they need a super-hero to save the US "domestic" auto industry. Rally the troops ! Woohoo !, were #1 !


Some choice Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca (born October 15, 1924) quotes from wikipedia:

Lee Iacocca - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

is an American businessman most commonly known for his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s,[1] serving as President and CEO from 1978 and additionally as chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992.


Iacocca was involved with the design of several successful Ford automobiles, most notably the Ford Mustang.

He was also the "moving force," as one court put it, behind the notorious Ford Pinto.

After being fired at Ford, Lee was aggressively courted by the Chrysler Corporation, which was on the verge of going out of business (at the time, the company was losing millions due to recalls of the Chrysler F platform vehicles, the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare). Iacocca joined Chrysler and began rebuilding the entire company from the ground up, laying off many workers, selling Chrysler's loss-making European division to Peugeot, and bringing in many former associates from his former company. Also from Ford, Iacocca brought to Chrysler the MiniMax project which turned into a very successful minivan.

In July 2005, Iacocca returned to the airwaves as Chrysler's pitchman,[1] along with stars such as Jason Alexander and Snoop Dogg, to promote Chrysler's "Employee Pricing Plus" program; the ads reprise the "If you can find a better car, buy it" line that was Iacocca's trademark in the 1980s. In return for his services, Iacocca and DaimlerChrysler agreed that his fees, plus a $1 donation per vehicle sold from July 1 through December 31, 2005, would be donated to the Iacocca Foundation for diabetes research.

 

is this supposed to actually do something?
Froley