Word: carli
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...trademark Chrysler brainstorm. Since Japanese automakers were raising their prices in the U.S., why not fill the gap they were leaving with a domestic subcompact that would sell for less than $6,000? Practically overnight, the No. 3 automaker put together a bargain intended to give U.S. car buyers a pleasant form of sticker shock. The automaker slashed the price of its front-wheel-drive Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni by $710 and tossed in options worth $684 for free. Chrysler calculated that it could still make a profit, partly because it had long since paid off the costs...
Chrysler's efficiency is widely admired, but some Wall Street analysts think the company should have a clearer long-term strategy for car development. The main complaint is that Chrysler still bases many of its autos on the same K-car chassis it first used in 1981, and evidently intends to keep doing so until the early 1990s. While that prevents Chrysler from making dramatic engineering changes, the continuity enables the company to keep costs low and quality high. Most of Chrysler's 1986 models were indeed carryover designs from the previous season, but this year the automaker came...
...weak point in Chrysler's lineup has been a relative lack of large, high- powered vehicles, which have become hot items during the current economic expansion. In the early 1980s the automaker specialized in small, economical cars, but the markups on those models are slight compared with the margins on more expensive vehicles. "In the auto business, luxury and profits have become synonymous," says James Alexandre, who follows the industry for the investment firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. To help fill its luxury niche, Chrysler is gradually buying control of the Italian automaker Maserati. The first jointly produced car, priced...
...young crowd. It comes with age -- you slow down a step like the ballplayers." But Iacocca sees no reason why he should necessarily retire at 65, and none of his subordinates wants the job of telling him it is time to pack it in. And why would any car nut want to? As one automotive trade paper put it, the good old days...
...Hanson, 43, was a housewife in Anaheim, Calif., when her marriage of 19 years ended in divorce in 1985. With no skills and little savings, Hanson lost her four-bedroom house to foreclosure. Shelter workers discovered her last January in a campground, where she had been living in a car with her three children for eight months. "My life simply fell apart," Hanson said. "I lost everything. Why, I even had a microwave oven...