Word: lacocca
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...Ford, lacocca dazzled buyers with the elan of a three-card monte dealer by spinning off the Mustang and Continental Mark series from existing chassis combinations. Now he is trying to do the same thing with virtually an entire line of cars. The $5,900 Dodge and Plymouth 1981-model K-cars begat the $8,100 1982 Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge 400, the $12,300 Chrysler LeBaron convertible (see box) and the 1983 Chrysler E Class and Dodge 600, which sell for $9,000 to $12,000. By stretching the K-car, he produced the luxury Chrysler New Yorker...
...some luster on the rest of the car line as well as to reach relatively small but profitable markets where other carmakers are not competing. Later this year Chrysler will introduce the ultimate in elongated K-cars, the roomy five-passenger Chrysler Executive Sedan and a seven-passenger limousine. lacocca has also ordered...
While he has been restructuring the corporation, lacocca has never stopped scrutinizing new model designs. A little while ago, he took one look at a mock-up of a 1986 subcompact, then curtly told the stylists that the front grille and bumper made them look like "Dodg'em cars." The lights burned late in the styling studios for weeks thereafter. lacocca is unrepentant. Says he: "The guys who have it tough in this company are the product guy and the marketing guy because I grew up in those areas and think that I know more than they'll ever know...
...staggering. But almost anyone in Chrysler's finance department can tick off where the money will come from. Part of the total, some $823 million, was spent last year, and another $2.5 billion or so is in annual budgets through 1986. A large chunk is in hand in lacocca's $900 million cash kitty. And he is counting on generating the rest from profits and cash flow over the next four years. It is not a scenario that can withstand unpleasant surprises. Says Alan Webber, a former transportation-department aide who is now a senior research associate at Harvard...
...sell the new models, lacocca has greatly strengthened another weak link: Chrysler's dealer base. After losing about 1,000 outlets out of 4,800 during 1979 and 1980, he succeeded in signing up roughly 300 new showrooms last year alone. Equally important, more of the dealers are making a profit: 80% in 1982, in contrast to only...