June 1: Chrysler - what's in a name?

Maybe I'm jumping the gun on this. Maybe I should wait until next week. The rumour the other day was that FCA, the Fiat/Chrysler combo would be announcing today that the Chrysler name would be going down in history or would, at the very least, be consigned to history. A bit of back story...... a short while ago it was announced that the Chrysler car line, as it was, would be reduced to just one car, the 300. Today or very shortly, the word is that  it will be announced that even the 300 would be dropped, leaving the only Chrysler branded vehicle being the successful Pacifica van. The latter could easily become a top of the line Grand Caravan (a no brainer). Alternatively the 300 sales could be confined to North America before being shown the door. Time will tell.

Chrysler. Another famous name going into the dumpster that is being pulled by an suv.

Chrysler. What a history. Let's look at a few of the cars that stand out for me, starting with the Airflows from the mid 1930's........

   
They look fine now, but taken in context of 1934 they were style wise way ahead of their time and subsequently the good old car buying public was not ready for them. Nice try.

Jumping ahead to the early '50's Chrysler became famous for their beautiful concept cars, that invariably came out of Italy. Maybe they should have built one or two of these beauts........

  
Further along in the '50's, the powerhouse Chrysler 300C was introduced. It might have been the first real muscle car and it cleaned up on the NASCAR circuit, back when the cars were raced pretty much as they came off the showroom floor........

 
 
And these were followed up by a string of letter cars (D,E,F, etc) that defined the brand and change hands today for big money between collectors........

Moving into the 1960's, Chrysler worked long and hard on a turbine powered car. They even made fifty and loaned them out to "normal" people, so they could get quick real world feedback. I remember one came to the dealer in my little city. I stood behind it as it was unloaded and very nearly got burned, such was the heat coming from its exhausts. One of the drawbacks to a turbine.

Nice idea and it got Chrysler lots of publicity as an engineering focused brand.

Moving along, not much happened that was good and in an effort to reinvent themselves, the cab forward models of the early '90's were brought to market. I had one. Tons of room for a kind of mid-sized car........

.....and quite good looking. Problems? Absolutely. The A/C usually broke, along with the transmission. Glad I only had mine for just over a year. A good friend took over my lease and had nothing but problems. Low mileage, since it was always in the shop. Nice way to try to make a comeback.

Into the 2000's and Chrysler had another resurgence with the gangster/rapper 300. Make it black with deep tinted windows and this thing gave off a threatening vibe........

Mine was done up this way. Was there any movie at the time, that didn't use the 300C, whenever the bad guys drove up? Everyone wanted one. I even used to see this car in Europe in greater numbers than any other American vehicle.

But that was then and this is now. Chrysler has basically left the 300 alone for thirteen years and in the car business that is an eternity. Probably is with any product. Meanwhile suvs have breached the sedans' castle walls and have slayed most of these four door formerly stalwart models. The horror!

Which brings us back to today and the rumoured announcement. At today's ride and drive in Italy for all FCA products, there was no mention of Chrysler. Nothing. Will it stay or will it go? I'm putting my bet on the latter.

Until next time......