Find Reviews by Make:
41 Comments on “Bailout Watch 494: 19 Days to Chrysler C11 > C7...”
Read all comments
Latest Car Reviews view all
Latest Product Reviews view all
Recent Comments
- Lou_BC: @Carlson Fan – My ’68 has 2.75:1 rear end. It buries the speedo needle. It came stock with the...
- theflyersfan: Inside the Chicago Loop and up Lakeshore Drive rivals any great city in the world. The beauty of the...
- A Scientist: When I was a teenager in the mid 90’s you could have one of these rolling s-boxes for a case of...
- Mike Beranek: You should expand your knowledge base, clearly it’s insufficient. The race isn’t in...
- Mike Beranek: ^^THIS^^ Chicago is FOX’s whipping boy because it makes Illinois a progressive bastion in the...
Car Reviews By Make view all
New Car Research
Who We Are
- Tim Healey
Managing Editor - Matt Posky
News and Social Media Contributor - Timothy Cain
Sales Analyst - Murilee Martin
Junkyard Finds Author - Matthew Guy
Contributor - Chris Tonn
Contributor
- Adam Tonge
- Bozi Tatarevic
- Corey Lewis
- Jo Borras
- Mark Baruth
- Ronnie Schreiber
Damn, so that’s what leadership, determination, and direction sounds like!
(we could use some of this today)
No wonder he pulled the company out of the gutter with straight shootin’ like that.
It’s a bit funny hearing him saying that their new Lancer GTS would compete with BMW and Merc, but all the same I remember as a teenager a classmate’s family had an new orange Lancer GTS and it always caught my eye when I walked by.
Hey, this is off my YouTube account! :)
On the topic though, this is what America needs again, a honest, straight talking CEO like Iacocca. The auto industry has seen enough mumbling, bumbling idiots like Wagoner to last a lifetime.
so, in 1984 they were on the right path and went so horribly wrong since 20 years ago…
Pretty progressive to press fuel economy at that time. Too bad they didn’t develop anything since then.
He was an engineer first. Plain and simple.
I have such mixed feelings about this. One hand, Chrysler makes such crappy cars, and has NOTHING in the pipeline to save themselves with. They squandered so much, not just taxpayer money. Decades of crap products, and poor treatment of customers. Shitty dealer dealers.
BUT, I live in Warren. The upcoming Chapter 7 will be devistating around here. Friends and family will hurt. Michigan will likely be overwhelmed with unemployment.
With the exception of changing companies,Iaccoca’s career path reminds one of the career path of a Japanese auto CEO. Much like a Japanese auto CEO, he started as an junior engineer and worked his way up to be president of Ford division by age 40. Not bad.
As much as I liked that ad, I have to question that if ads like this aired today, would they be taken seriously or laughed off as hubris? I think they would most likely be lampooned and assailed on blogs, websites and by the anti-car crowd that exists within the MSM and political arenas. Do any of us here actually believe a Lancer/LeBaron GTS was ever in the same ballpark as BMW or Mercedes regardless of price point? Not hardly; as such I think these ads would get slaughtered today. I could see Mulally or Lutz doing an ad like this but could you imagine how TTAC alone would just savage the Lutz ads? Pullllease.
I agree with Stu Sidoti, that ad doesn’t impress me at all.
You’ve got a gloating Iacocca using out-of-date cliches, comparing a Dodge to a Mercedes, quoting some lame recall statistic that no one knows/cares about, and showing a computer image of some vaporware (Dodge Shadow?) that “will beat the imports in the future”. At least GM commercials in the 80s were fun.
How is this Chrysler ad any better than the “Surprised?” commercials that GM does today?
Where have you gone, Lee Iacocca?
I owned an 85 Lebaron GTS for 12 years (2.2 5-speed), having bought it used in 1988. It was never in the same class as a BMW or Mercedes, but it was an economical and durable car with great utility just the same, and I was sorry to part with it at 206,528 miles.
I noticed he referred to the Caravan as a “wagon”. How about that! I’ve owned two of those “wagons” (96, 98), and they’ve been pretty good.
Notice what’s not in the ad – any Dodge trucks. Chevy and Ford were killing their trucks, anyway.
For the most part, he was showcasing the vehicles people needed and wanted at that time (but I take exception with the dreadful Dynasty). No muscle cars, no trucks, no SUVs (which hadn’t been invented, anyway). Chrysler was saved by the K-car and its derivatives (not vaporware Volts or niche Camaros here).
But sadly, they have certainly lost their way. As much as I’d like Fiat to be their savior, I doubt it.
I don’t think Americans are that gullibe today…That idiotic MSM con-crap worked 30 years ago but I doubt it would work today.
Terrible ad. The Ford/GM ads of the time were a helluva lot better.
Tough question: What do you do when Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep are going bankrupt in 19 days, the only car you like on the entire US market that you can afford is the Trail-Rated Jeep Patriot, and you’re not going to be able to buy a car until 2011?
I guess I’ll have to go for a Suzuki SX4. Can I has tow package and low-range gear and good fuel economy, pretty pretty please?
Watching that ad, I kept saying “who chopped off the noses of all those cars?”
Very square front ends. Automotively speaking, I don’t miss the 80’s one bit.
The cars from this era were more impressive styling wise. It’s hard to believe, but was it not 11 years ago Chrysler set the world standard for design?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy2_TVXqnNc
I don’t want to say they’ve lost their way as much as they had it raped from them. But I think Daimler should be responsible for 50% of the cost to ‘fix’ Chrysler.
No different from Bob Lutz. Completely full of crap, but people like him because he says it with gusto.
Come on, you’d never hear Lutz, Wagoner, Nardelli or any of the like saying something like: “When you’ve been kicked in the head like we have, you learn pretty quick to put first things first, and in the car business product comes first.”
In this day and age, “kicked in the head” becomes “experienced the realities of a highly competitive marketplace” and “product comes first” becomes “we’re building better cars that more people want to drive than ever before”
Does saying it in a commercial change the actual quality of the cars, no of course not. It stands to reason that the neglect of “product comes first” for all these decades is why these car companies are in the trouble they are.
Wow.
Regardless of anything else, if his words had just been heard, heeded and believed, none of the American car makers would be in the pile of dung they’re in today.
What he says, hell, it sounds like a plan!
It is to weep. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
I still have a ’85 Caravan, with the “big” Mitsubishi 4. It serves two purposes: I go to folk festivals and camp with it (and the gear stays there, like a storage shed), and it serves as the backup car when our primary car is in the shop. I put 200 miles a year on it.
It starts, it runs and every time I drive it, I’m amazed by what a comfortable if unexciting ride it is. Yeah, the heater control cable rusted solid, the AC is long gone, the auto tranny has a bad bearing whose filings chewed a seal so it leaks a bit. But boy is it paid for. And the best thing: it’s old enough that it qualifies for display car insurance…so I pay half of what I do for the collision in the other cars. Which gets around the hassle of having a spare car: the insurance expense. Oh, and it has a Bermuda Bell.
Every year my wife tells me I should take it to the mechanic to get it looked over, and I just grin. It goes there, but just for the inspection.
Thanks, Lee, you done good.
Lee Iacocca, the man who greenlighted the Ford Pinto.
I do not blame Mr. Iacocca for the Pinto affair. Placing the gas tank in the wrong place seems to be a Ford tradition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5xrI85oU7I
Here you can listen to Mr. Iacocca smiling and joking while he advocates and celebrates the use of Force to restrict the access of consumers to japanese cars:
(Yes: Force. That is what a federally mandated trade restriction is. This was the real confidence of Mr. Iacocca in his own product).
The video (from Mr. Iacocca commentaries) was recorded in 1991. Seems that “Beating the japanese at their own game” was not so easy as Lido predicted in 1984.
I wish Mr. Iacocca a very, very long and healthy life. Among other reasons because I wish him to see what´s going to happen with Chrysler.
Anyone knows that car in the VDU that “will beat the japanese at their own game”?.
Both the factory and the studio in the ad are fake.
When this ad was airing, you have to realize that these cars were a quantum leap over the previous generation of Chryco cars; multitudes of reskinned Valiants with slant-sixes and 318 V8’s.
Mr. Iacoca’s ‘salesmanship’ and Chrysler’s unappealing and crappy cars continues to remind me why I never owned one of their cars in 52 years of automobile ownership.
When this ad was airing, you have to realize that these cars were a quantum leap over the previous generation of Chryco cars; multitudes of reskinned Valiants with slant-sixes and 318 V8’s../
The K platform was leaps and bounds over their predecessors – the Aspen/Volare. About the only thing that didn’t break on the A/V was that slant six or 318. Early K’s were not too reliable, but once the became fuel injected, they were much better. Our ’81 K was put to sleep at only 113,000 miles because I was not willing to do the third head gasket. I was amazed at how many I saw in the scrapyard with near perfect bodies and relatively low mileage. These were the early ones – those with the outline K on the trunk and glovebox door. The 84 stretch K (the New Yorker pictured in the beginning of the ad on the rack) with its heavy mix of Mitsubishi parts was without question the most problematic car our family ever owned. However, I had stumbled on an 87 Reliant for next to nothing when I was looking for a commuter/work/mountain bike car because I did not want to rack up miles and dirt on my Lincoln LSC. I hesitantly bought the Reliant, figuring that I at least had plenty of experience working on them. What a difference a few more years meant. Repairs were so far and few between, that I forgot to change the oil sometimes. It finally did blow a head gasket, but at 253,xxx miles, who cared? Donated the car with the original, untouched auto transmission and that was that. Took awhile, but Lee did come through, at least in reliability. Now about that poor fitting hood…
The Car in the VDU that Iacocca claims will beat the Japanese at their own game is the Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance.
Ahhhhh, the Aspen/Volare twins. One exactly like this:
http://images.traderpub.net/img/10/dealer/1374544/90053591_1.jpg
graced our driveway for several years in the mid-eighties.
Say what you want about outdated engineering, but the “slant-six” with the 3 speed Torqueflite was impervious to anything that the driver and Mother Nature could throw at it. Sadly the entire body and frame rusted around the drivetrain, otherwise I would have kept the car a lot longer. It was a veritable tank. If I could find an old Fargo p/u with the slant six and a manual transmission, I would have the perfect towing vehicle. Low-end torque up the ying-yang; more than enough to haul a travel trailer without breaking a sweat. Of course fuel economy would suck, but with the money that would be saved by performing no maintenance at all, you could justify the poor gas mileage.
I don’t think Americans are that gullible today
I do. Americans are more gullible than ever. WE are more impatient than ever and we are in love with cheap goods, for the most part. We live in an age where the masses are are led by what’s on FoxNews and other media outlets. If so and so says it on the news, then it has to be real.
Corolla-1968
Camry-1976
Civic-1972
Accord-1980
That’s how you improve and refine an automobile. The US manufacturers have always failed the patience test for a vehicle. The big three have always done this. My next vehicle? Probably a Camry/Accord/CRV/RAV4. Why? Continued positive evolution of a model.
Simplicity works big three.
Thankfully, the US Army allowed me to spend most of the 80’s in Germany.
At the time, I didn’t think I was missing anything. Twenty years later, I’m positive I didn’t.
As part of America’s Chrysler bailout, our poor MP’s got K-cars. They sure convinced a lot of us to buy Volvos and BMWs.
I always wondered why people bought the K cars. The styling was stodgy, the interiors were blah, the handling questionable, the performance was basic.
Resale was terrible, the cars had rust and assembly issues.
Meanwhile we had Accords, Camrys, and Nissans with legendary reliability, great gas mileage, nice interiors, awesome resale value,etc.
I always wondered why people bought the K cars. The styling was stodgy, the interiors were blah, the handling questionable, the performance was basic.
It takes a long time for consumers to change their habits for expensive products such as cars. At that point, the domestics still ruled the roost, and many car buyers still hadn’t made the move to the imports and future transplants.
Things are different today, and the Iacocca pitching wouldn’t work so well. Iacocca was trying to keep buyers from defecting; today, he’d be trying to win them back after losing them ages ago, while trying to reach buyers who are too young to know or particularly care about Detroit’s supposed Golden Age. Their parents drove imports, they have been driving imports and transplants themselves, and now see no reason to change.
A is A
Iaccoca talks in length in his book Where Have All The Leaders Gone? about this issue.
He says it is very strange that Japanese companies are allowed to sell vehicles in the US with no restrictions while, due to different Japanese trade laws, American companies don’t even have a shot at selling vehicles in Japan.
“He says it is very strange that Japanese companies are allowed to sell vehicles in the US with no restrictions while, due to different Japanese trade laws, American companies don’t even have a shot at selling vehicles in Japan.”
Mutual sanctions help no one.
“I don’t think Americans are that gullible today
I do. Americans are more gullible than ever.”
The broadcast MSM has lost half their customers over the last 10 years mostly because more people are realizing that the broadcast media is just a sucker-trap for the feeble-minded. Too bad the Internet/Google/TTAC was not around 30 years ago…RF would have fun with this Iacocca clown conartistry…Make Lutz look like a genious.
“Beat the Japanese” as he was lobbying the murdering scum on the Potomac to enact import restrictions against them….So Americans would have to pay more money for less car.
It occurs to me that GM and Chrysler are small versions of the American economy.
Too much capacity.. Too little production..
Fewer and fewer people producing, supporting more and more people that aren’t.
So if the “solution” to that particular problem is bankruptcy…
HAPPY EASTER!!
Wow this brings back the memories. Lee was always a great salesman.
It so happens that I was a service writer at a Chrysler dealership during this period and the original K cars were truly craptacular. Outside door handle failures so rampant that we had to order them in bulk. The were delivered in garbage bags 30-40 at a time.
Cutting edge digital dash clocks about 30% DOA. Remember firing up a new Reliant and watching the clock smoke up and melt. Got those in bulk too.
Got one the first LeBaron convertibles and because there was some buzz around this car we put the top down and parked it out front. Tried to put the top up at the end of day and even three guys couldn’t get the header any closer than about 4-5 inches to the top of the windshield. Since Chrysler hadn’t had a vert in many years it took awhile to figure out.
After deliveries walking around the lot, driveway and area in the road where the transporter was parked, picking up brackets, bolts and the other miscellaneous parts that had fallen off the cars.
Good times, good times…
Runfromcheney :
The Car in the VDU that Iacocca claims will beat the Japanese at their own game is the Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance.
I learned to drive in my father’s Sundance and eventually it was handed down to me. That car was indeed reliable. It never broke, never failed to start, not even once. It was a boring and unpleasant car to drive from day 1, but it never needed anything more than normal maintenance in its 14 year life.
My parents replaced the Sundance with a Corolla and besides the Corolla’s vastly superior fuel economy their ownership experience with the two cars has been more or less the same.
I drove a GTS for about 5 years. It quality was mediocre, but it handled like a BMW at moderate speeds. With the possible exception of the Taurus it was the best American mid-sized sedan at the time. Actually, I remember the Pontiac 6000se being a pretty good car during the mid 80s.
Iaccoca talks in length in his book Where Have All The Leaders Gone? about this issue.
He says it is very strange that Japanese companies are allowed to sell vehicles in the US with no restrictions while, due to different Japanese trade laws, American companies don’t even have a shot at selling vehicles in Japan.
If that you said is true:
*Could you please then explain me the very existence of the Toyota Cavalier?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Cavalier#Toyota_Cavalier
* Could you please explain me how (of all car companies) Austin/Rover managed to get a phenomenal success with the Mini in Japan?.
http://austin-rover.co.uk/index.htm?cotm200904f.htm
The Japanese failed to buy (lets say) 1988 Dodge Dynasties, Ford Crown Victorias or Chevrolet Malibus for the same reasons we Europeans failed to do so: Too big, too bouncy, too thirsty.
ALL MARKETS have special difficulties. Have you ever noticed that US emissions and safety regulations acted as trade barriers against non-American cars?:
* The Mini stopped to be sold in the USA due to safety regulations.
*The Citröen SM was prevented to be sold in the USA due to a technicality about bumper height that the car could not comply due to the fact that the height was variable (as it was in other Citröens as the DS, GS, CX and BX, all barred to enter the US market).
* Cars as the MG B were horribly disfigured due to that bumper legislation.
* The Citröen DS and many other cars were disfigured due to an anachronistic US headlamp regulation in force until the 1980s.
Moreover: If you see the video I posted above Mr. Iacocca said that American companies sold 50000 American cars in Japan to 3.5 million japanese cars in the USA.
Oh yes: American companies had a shot at selling American cars in Japan.
esg: It’s Toyota 1968: Corona & Corolla. 1971 Celica, 1980 Corona & Corolla. 1982: Camry.
There was no Camry in 1976.
Honda: 1970:600 1973: Civic 1976: Accord 1978: Prelude
Both were building their customer base, but Honda was moving faster than Toyota.Right under the Big 3’s noses.
GS650G “I always wondered why people bought the K cars. The styling was stodgy, the interiors were blah, the handling questionable, the performance was basic.
Resale was terrible, the cars had rust and assembly issues.“
For the same reasons that I always buy Toyotas and Hondas. If your personal experience with a brand has been good chances are that you will be a repeat buyer. My mom purchased 3 new k-cars or variants An 81 Dodge Aries, a 87 Plymouth Reliant and a 95 Plymouth Acclaim. Aside from the poor build quality of the 81 Aries they were all good cars. They had zero repair or reliability issues. Also they had zero I repeat zero rust but we lived in Florida where that is not an issue. True they were plain dowdy cars but they had good gas mileage they were reliable and they were inexpensive. My mom wanted another Chrysler K-car variant with roll up windows in 2004 but alas none were to be had so she purchased a Toyota Corolla. My family has no complaints against Chrysler based on our experience with my mom’s cars just as I will continue to buy Toyotas and Hondas based on my own experiences. It doesn’t matter what Consumer Reports, JD Powers or any of the experts say. Personal experience is going to continue to be an enormous factor in peoples decision making process in choosing a car.
If you purhase brand xyz car and you feel that the car has been fantastic then chances are that brand xyz will get first dibs on your next car purchase.
Japan requires each and every car being imported be inspected. US requires the OEM certify all cars meeting requirements. Huge diff! Plus, the US OEM’s haven’t figured out how to efficiently build cars for different markets, where the Japanese OEM’s have mastered the process.
The L-Body Omni/Horizons were reliable little beasts with the Trenton Engine and the Manual Trans.
At least in those days America engineered and designed its own cars. Now all we have is excrement.
We are becoming a nation that creates and produces little outside aviation and computers.