Chrysler LLC

▪ American company

      American automotive company first incorporated in 1925 and reorganized as Chrysler LLC in 2007. It was for many years the third largest (after General Motors Corporation and the Ford Motor Company) of the “Big Three” automakers in the United States.

History

      Chrysler's origins lie in the Maxwell Motor Company, Inc. (first formed in 1913). The first Maxwell car was made in 1904 by Jonathan Maxwell and Benjamin Briscoe, who in 1909 joined the short-lived United States Motor Company. With the collapse of this combine in 1913, Maxwell continued on alone until the postwar recession, when Walter P. Chrysler (Chrysler, Walter P) was brought in to revitalize the company (1920). In 1922 the Maxwell company took over Chalmers Motor Car Co. (founded 1908). In the following year Chrysler bought control, and in 1924 he produced the first car to bear his name, the six-cylinder Chrysler “70.” In 1925 Maxwell Motor became the Chrysler Corporation, with Chrysler as president. With the purchase of Dodge Brothers, Inc. (founded 1914), in 1928, the Chrysler Corporation became a major presence in the American automotive industry.

      In the 1950s Chrysler began absorbing other companies in and out of the automotive industry. In 1966–67 it acquired control of Simca in France, Rootes Motors Ltd. in Britain, and Barreiros Diesel in Spain—which were renamed Chrysler France, Chrysler United Kingdom, and Chrysler España, respectively. In 1979 these were sold to PSA Peugeot-Citroën (PSA Peugeot Citroën SA) in exchange for minority shares in Peugeot-Citroën. In 1970 Mitsubishi Motors Corporation of Japan began producing subcompact cars sold in the United States under the Chrysler name; the following year Chrysler began buying shares in Mitsubishi, eventually acquiring 24 percent of the Japanese automaker before selling all of its stock in the early 1990s. In 1984 Chrysler introduced the minivan, a family-oriented vehicle that became one of the company's most popular vehicles. Three years later Chrysler purchased an Italian company, Nuova Automobili F. Lamborghini (founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini), maker of expensive, high-performance sports cars, and American Motors Corporation (founded in 1954 through the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company), maker of the Jeep four-wheel-drive vehicles. From 1985 to 1989 Chrysler formed joint-venture companies with Mitsubishi and with Renault (France) to manufacture small cars.

      In serious financial straits during the 1970s, the Chrysler Corporation sought and acquired U.S. government-secured loans in 1980; under the leadership of Lee A. Iacocca (Iacocca, Lee), the company repaid the loans in 1983. By the late 1990s Chrysler was the third largest automaker in the United States (after General Motors and Ford), specializing in cars built for middle-income buyers. In May 1998 Chrysler Corporation and Daimler-Benz (Daimler AG) announced plans to merge, with Daimler-Benz (see Daimler AG) acquiring the U.S. automaker for more than $35 billion in a stock swap. Shareholders from each company approved the deal in September, and the merger was completed on Nov. 12, 1998; shares in the newly formed DaimlerChrysler AG began trading on stock exchanges later that month. After a poor performance in 2001, the Chrysler Group posted profits for several years, owing in part to strong sales for new models such as the Dodge Magnum. In 2006, however, Chrysler posted a loss of $1.5 billion, precipitating the sale of the Chrysler Group to the U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in 2007. The new firm was named Chrysler LLC.

      In December 2008 Pres. George W. Bush (Bush, George W.) announced an emergency financial rescue plan to aid the “Big Three” automakers—Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford—to prevent the collapse of the country's struggling auto industry. The plan made immediately available $13.4 billion in government loans from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), a $700 billion fund approved by Congress to aid the financial industry in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. The loans would allow the auto companies to continue operating through March 2009, when they were required to demonstrate “financial viability” or return the money. An additional stipulation required the companies to undergo restructuring. The money was initially made available to General Motors and Chrysler; Ford claimed to possess adequate funds to continue operations and thus did not apply for government relief. In January 2009 Chrysler and the Italian automaker Fiat SpA announced that Fiat would acquire a 35 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for fuel-efficiency technology and the reorganization of a Chrysler plant at which one or more Fiat vehicles would be manufactured for sale in the United States. The agreement also included an option for Fiat to increase its stake in Chrysler to as much as 55 percent.

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