Friday, August 23, 2013

History Of The US Automotive Industry - Chrysler

By Turner Fred


Chrysler history all began way back in the year 1908 when Walter P. Chrysler began his business by taking part at a Chicago auto show. He was thirty three years old and was employed by the railways. But, automobiles was his true love and when he saw a white colored Locomobile he fell for it and went into debt just so that he could own it. Then followed many months of tinkering about this car and it was only later that he learned how to drive this car.

In another four years, Chrysler turned his obsession for automobiles into a career. As a production manager for Buick he worked hard and rose to become the president as well as General Manager of a GM division. This was his first serious involvement with automobiles. He then, after having quit his previous job in 1920, took to resuscitating an unsuccessful Willys Overland company and repeated this job with another firm called Maxwell Chalmers. Four years down the line (1924) he was successful in launching his first car that bore his name. These names and nameplates are now solidify entrenched as part of classic automobile & early auto industry lore.

It only took three more years for Chrysler to accomplish a great success during the time which he had purchased out Maxwell that became the stepping stone in making the well-known car manufacturing company called Chrysler. He created both DeSoto and Plymouth automobiles, as well as the the Dodge & Chrysler branded automobiles that are now part of not only a domestic US American conglomerate but also a world wide global auto producer.

It only needed just about five more years before Chrysler became an integrated automobile manufacturer and in fact was a major milestone in the Chrysler history timeline. He was then big and confident enough to take on two of the most known automobile brands: GM and Ford. Even so, his innovative design, the 1934 Airflow, did not market as much money as the other car designs did, but the company managed to survive the Great Depression. During World War II, the company didn't have a choice but to change plans and switched to manufacturing military vehicles.

The next major landmark in Chrysler history was the introduction of Hemi V8 engine which took place in 1951. Since then, Chrysler has led the way in developing new technologies from scratch and this has always helped the company in being able to mass produce high quality cars. Since then the company has seen its fair share of ups and downs; there is however no denying that whatever vicissitudes the company has faced, it has always managed to produce right cars and at the right times.




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