Lil4X

I read Lee Iaccoca's biography about 20 years ago about the time he left Chrysler. The corporate father of the Mustang while at Ford, Iaccoca came to the rescue of Chrysler, and became the father of the K-car, the transitional vehicle that brought MoPar into the twentieth century.

His stories of the manufacturing techniques he discovered at Chrysler when he arrived were right out of the 1930's. 2 X 4's were kept on the assembly line to pry doors into line, dozens of "fixes" were applied on the line, rather than engineered into the design, inventory control was almost non-existent, and it was not uncommon for cars to be turned down on final inspection, then find their way to market anyway. This is the way it was done in the thirties, and nearly forty years later the old greybeards that controlled the company still maintained that culture.

Chrysler products went through a long season of change under Iaccoca, beginning with the K-car and the dozens of platforms that evolved from it. They began with a simple car they could produce profitably, one that was the equal of both domestics and imports of its day, although that day rapidly went into sunset. Subsequent generations of cars got better as Chrysler Corp re-learned the automotive trade. It took a few generations of products, but they finally became competitive.

By the mid-80's they were producing a workmanlike vehicle. I rented a Plymouth Caravelle for a few weeks in California, and I recall it as a pleasant, if generic automobile - a far cry from the last Aspen I had in the company fleet some five years earlier. The Caravelle was often mistaken for a Mercedes (!!!), thanks to its upright grill, silver-gray flanks, and restrained trim. I made a couple of runs through the Kern River canyon with it, staying close on the tail of a local vintage Porsche parade on one occasion. I was surprised at its solid construction and the very credible ride/handling it delivered, despite being saddled with a grossly underpowered I4 and a 3-speed autobox. For a commuter car, or a budget family sedan, it was nicely done, if a bit unimaginative. It was for me the pinnacle of the "stretched K" that eventually produced the somewhat overwrought Dynasty and Imperial on roughly the same platform.

My uncle had one of the early Turbo-4 Imperials, and while the interior in Bordello Red reminded one of a New Orleans brothel with its overstuffed furniture and female "copilot" who intoned, "headlights . . . on", "Fas-ten SEAT belt" at every opportunity with all of the enthusiasm of Marvin, "Hitchhiker's" terminally depressed android. It could be forgiven if only because that Turbo transformed the car with something approximating V8 performance. Above 3500 rpm, it could actually deliver something resembling a shove in the backside when the throttle was dropped. I recall thinking at the time that by slicing about six hundred pounds of extraneous glop off of the car, taking the marshmallow out of the suspension, and doing a little tuning to bring on the boost in a bit earlier, this thing could replace a small V8 in a lot of people's sport sedan inventory. They did, it did . . . and its spiritual heirs at VW and Audi continue to do so.

Over the years Chrysler engineering has occasionally proven capable of producing flashes of brilliance. Here's hoping they continue. Maybe they need something like a new generation of K-car . . . or another Iaccoca.

LexISguy

Dont forget the Yugo

oohpapi44

iTrader: (1)

Couldn't picture the Caravelle to save my life, the Dodge Diplomat is what I remember.... wow memories:

1983

1986 Dash

mmarshall

You probably had a new, or almost-new Caravelle, Bob. The K-Car line, granted, was lighter and more fuel-efficient than the line of RWD cars from the 70s that they replaced, but they were no better-built (I owned two of them...a Reliant and a Lebaron, and had to dump them both after a year). The K-cars, of course, lacked the excellent, and fabulously durable, Chrysler slant-six engines, because that engine was never adapted to FWD.

My experience with K-cars was the same as most people I know who owned them (and Pat Goss of Motorweek said the same thing). They had flimsy trim/hardware, leaked fluids, became rattletraps within a few thousand miles, and sometimes parts fell right off.

Lee Iacocca, however, did a masterful job, on TV, of B.S/slick-talking and selling these cars, though.....you sure can't fault him for that.

But as poorly-built as the K-Cars were, the competing GM X-body compacts were even worse, overall, despite their more durable bodywork and hardware.

tex2670

I'll never forget him, acting as his own pichman, telling me to "Buy American" standing in front of a Mitsubishi-built Dodge Stealth. And the public ate it up.

IS-SV

I ignored it.

SLegacy99

Ha, I do buy American. My Subaru was built by Americans. I laugh at the old farts that I work with who claim that they are doing Americans good buy buying Focuses, etc. ...the Focus is made in Mexico.

Lil4X

As the demand for automobiles has spread even into the mega-nations of the third world, it's becoming difficult to say a particular vehicle is "American", or "Japanese". Components come from many nations, and are integrated more or less well into an international vehicle. We may have to draw a distinction between where the car was designed and where it was actually manufactured.

Back in '72, when I bought my much beloved Opel, it was sold as a "German" car but mine was manufactured in Belgium. The electrical system was Bosch (Germany and Sweden), the tires (Goodyear) were made in France, as were the original spark plugs. The transmission and rear axle were German, but showed considerable Ford influence. Other components came from all over Europe, as this was the beginning of the "Pan-European" car. The car was sold in the US by GM, notably by Buick dealers, who at the time had no competing small car on their lots.

A friend, looking under the hood of my Opel, pronounced it the "UN of automotive manufacturing", with at least six European countries represented by national tags - Denmark, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and several Nordic countries . . . I think the only one missing was the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Surprisingly it all components worked well together - except for the US component, sales and service. That part lived down to my expectations.

DustinV

One of my friends, a diehard and completely biased Cadillac supporter, once told me:

"The Cadillac Allante gave the Benz 500SL the fright of its life."



Didn't the Allante have a weak 200 horsepower V8 under the bonnet? And didn't the 500SL of that same time period sport a 300+ horsepower V8? Shouldn't the Allante be scared?

toy4two

This new US Congressional Bill "Cash for Clunkers" says you get $xxxx if you purchase a domestic automobile, great, so that means I can buy a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry right?

Lil4X

The Allante was never intended to be a performance car, it was designed to be a luxury roadster, a gentleman's express, rather than a stoplight champion. Comparisons to the SL were inevitable, although the baby Caddy sold for about $30K less than the Teutonic tank. Of course, "baby" was an often, if inaccurately applied, moniker to the Allante - it was far and away the most expensive car in your Cadillac dealer's showroom.

The Allante and the Buick Reatta were primarily GM experiments in "hand-building" premium luxury autos. The Allante body was fabricated by Pininfarina in Italy and flown to the US aboard bespoke Boeing 747's about 50 at a time for final assembly in GM's Hamtramck plant. While the Reatta was a totally domestic product assembled from the GM parts bin on a special body and frame by small groups of workers, the Allante was a try at international sourcing of a complete automobile.

Both tended to land at the upper end of the price spectrum and while good efforts, they were a clean miss of their market targets. Who among luxury car buyers would save a few thousand to purchase a car with no known cache'? Especially at the upper end of the market, bloodlines count for something. Obviously Hamtramck's Italian cousin remained something of a mutt.

As the miles rolled by, both the Allante and Reatta began to show the effects of hand assembly and rather spotty quality control. They were rather hasty cobblings of entirely new platforms that were never fully sorted before being brought to market. That might be forgivable in a cheaper, high-volume car, but by the time the factory has sufficient experience to turn out a quality low volume product, the years have slipped away and your reputation is shot. Allowing the public to do your beta testing is never a good idea, and when you pay nearly sixty-large for the privilege of being the guinea pig, it is rather upsetting, don't ya know . . .

tex2670

The Allante could have had 1000 hp--that statement still would not have been close to true.

IS-SV

I agree, it would just be 1000hp junk.

mmarshall

This was also true of one of the Allante's main American-badged competitors.....the Chrysler Maserati TC. Parts and platforms were shuffled back and forth between Italian and American plants.


The Allante and Reatta, for the most past, were no better or worse, quality-wise, than most of the rest of the junk that GM produced during the 1980's. The 1980's were the period, don't forget, that millions of customers formerly loyal to American nameplate-cars finally gave them up and switched to Japanese brands (and, of course, I was one of them).

rsantiago

I honestly wonder if there's really any hope for American car companies for 20 years of their mistakes.