Chrysler once handed its entire European business to Peugeot for a single dollar
Walter Chrysler built his company in 1925 from a failing carmaker, and within about a decade it was America's second-biggest seller. Since then it has pioneered hydraulic brakes and transistor radios, nearly gone bust twice, and passed through German, private equity, Italian and finally French-Italian ownership as part of Stellantis.
Walter Chrysler had been hired in the early 1920s to rescue the struggling Maxwell-Chalmers company, and on June 6, 1925, Maxwell was reorganised under his name. His Chrysler Six of January 1924 offered features most cars lacked, including an oil filter and full pressure lubrication, and early models brought the first practical mass-produced four-wheel hydraulic brakes and rubber 'Floating Power' engine mounts. A ridged wheel rim that stopped flat tyres flying off was later copied across the industry. By 1936 the firm ranked second in US sales, a spot it kept until 1949.
Borrowing the brand ladder he had seen at General Motors while at Buick, Chrysler created Plymouth for budget buyers and DeSoto for the middle market in 1928, and bought Dodge the same year. Innovation continued: with Philco it announced the first all-transistor car radio in 1955, a $150 option on the 1956 Imperial. Its 1958 electronic fuel injection went less well. Only around 35 cars got it, and unhappy owners had all but one converted back to carburettors. In 1960 it became the first of the Big Three to adopt unibody construction for its passenger cars.
The hard times came in waves. Chrysler assembled Simca, Rootes and Barreiros into Chrysler Europe in 1967, then sold it to PSA Peugeot Citroen in 1978 for a nominal $1. Near bankruptcy in the late 1970s, it survived on $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees, and Lee Iacocca was credited with the 1980s recovery. Buying American Motors in 1987 brought in the profitable Jeep brand.
A 1998 merger with Daimler-Benz upset investors, and in 2007 Chrysler went to Cerberus Capital Management. The 2008 to 2010 industry crisis pushed it into Chapter 11 on April 30, 2009; it emerged that June, defaulted on over $4 billion of debt, and repaid Washington early in May 2011, though taxpayers lost $1.3 billion. Fiat took full control in January 2014, and since 17 January 2021 the company, headquartered in Auburn Hills, has belonged to Stellantis.
Source: Chrysler
