Chrysler's Savior: A History Of The K-Car

A New Captain On A Sinking Ship

Chrysler struggled through the mid-70s to meet the new regulations brought in to combat the embargo and limited fuel supplies. As the smallest of the Big Three, Chrysler had the least capital to put into restructuring their product line. Consumers wanted smaller vehicles and imports were taking massive shares of that emerging market while Chrysler fell behind. Their European segment was bleeding money and owed billions in debts while Chrysler America wasn’t doing much better. By 1978, Chrysler was facing bankruptcy, and they brought on a new President, Lee Iacocca, former President of Ford, who had a history of reinvigorating stale companies. Iacocca’s first task would be to cut as much fat from the company as possible.