Every year at the Pebble Beach Concurs D’Elegance, they select a few marques to feature in their own special classes. Often, they’re legendary names like Pierce-Arrow or Bentley or Adler or Saturn. Sometimes they choose a brand to commemorate something, like how they did this year for Chrysler, in honor of their centennial. This is a huge honor, and pretty much any brand should feel the warmth and glow of such an accolade, and, ideally, would be able to leverage that to their brand’s current lineup. At least, that’s how it should be.
But that’s not the case with Chrysler. That’s because Chrysler is very literally a shell of its former self, void not just of glory and cultural impact, but also of cars themselves, since modern Chrysler’s lineup is just one car, and that car is a minivan.
Oh, sure, they claim they have three cars, but it’s really just one minivan, in three trim levels:
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with minivans, or even the Pacifica, which is a genuinely good minivan! At least it was, nine and a half years ago, when I drove it last, during the release event Chrysler held. That’s the current Chrysler lineup, everybody. One solitary minivan that’s just about a decade old.
Up until 2023, they had two cars, the other being the still-handsome Chrysler 300, which, at the time of its retirement, was 19 years old. Well, there was an update in 2011, but it wasn’t exactly a new car by any stretch. Still, at least the 300 had some presence and style, even if it was an aging survivor of the Daimler-Chrysler years. But it’s been gone for two years now.
So, as you may imagine, as we walked along the manicured grass of Pebble Beach, being pushed aside by wealthy people, their expensively-lotion’d palms feeling warm and smooth against your face as they shove, it was hard not to look at these jewels from Chrysler’s past, all shiny and arrayed beautifully on the green, and not compare them to the state of Chrysler as it stands today.
In fact, David and I did just that, and committed it to video:
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Maybe it feels like we’re being cruel, but the sad truth is that I feel like I had forgotten about Chrysler until I was confronted with cars like this beautiful butter-colored Airflow:
Back when it came out in 1934, the Airflow was revolutionary. It was the first full-sized American car to really use a streamlined design, and, while not a full unibody, did use some unibody elements in its construction. It was a revolution technically and in design, and also upheld Chrysler’s high standards of luxury. It was also something of a colossal failure, but a noble one, as its focus on aerodynamics would be proven correct in pretty much all modern cars.
It was a risk, a bold, interesting risk, and the sort of thing that I cannot imagine modern Chrysler doing.
I saw Chrysler Imperials, which reminded me that once Chrysler was a rival to the most prominent luxury makes in America, Cadillac and Lincoln, and could go head-to-head with European contenders when it came to pure luxury. Chrysler briefly spun off Imperial into its own brand, but it was always known to be part of Chrysler.
Chrysler had so many luxurious options back in the day: the LeBarons and New Yorkers, massive barges of air-conditioning and comfort that telegraphed your power and status for a five-block radius, penetrating the poured concrete of buildings.
The cars chosen for Pebble included a number of stunning mid-century Chrysler show cars, like the Ghia-designed car that would eventually become the Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia, the D’Elegance:
…and this similar Ghia design, the Chrysler Special:
Beautiful cars! Beautiful Chryslers. And Chrysler of the past would sometimes actually realize in production form bold designs like this, even into fairly recent times. Remember, the Chrysler Crossfire wasn’t so very long ago, being introduced in 2004, and it was a bold styling exercise:
And that small, two-seat sportscar with dramatic, sorta-retro, sorta-not styling existed alongside sensible and comfortable minivans and sedans and wagons and other cars.
Chrysler was always an up-market brand, but one that had the breadth and reach and ability to cover a pretty huge spectrum of car types and niches.
So, what happened to Chrysler? It’s absolutely seen some rough times, almost going out of business in the 1980s, but it clawed its way back, and even if the cars it was producing then weren’t exactly stellar – because, let’s be honest, they weren’t – Chrysler at least still seemed to try, to have some fight left in it, and was willing to do what it took to make the best of the K-Car-based hand it was dealt, and try to emphasize technology like turbochargers and Texas Instruments voice-synthesis chips to make their New Yorkers talk to you, trying to convince you that doors were jars.
Chrysler didn’t give up, is my point here, and even when times were tough they knew who they were – or at least who they wanted to be – and they did all they could to achieve that.
But now? Chrysler feels like it’s given up. It feels like a company glumly plopping out a nearly ten-year-old minivan, without much real hope or ideas for the future. Oh, sure, they had that Halcyon concept car last year, but that really just made the brand feel more lost, and have you heard anything about it since then? Plans for production of even some kind of watered-down production version? No, you haven’t.
Chrysler once actually tried things, bold things, difficult things. They made the PT Cruiser, a retro design that was just fun, because fun is fun, and it was pretty affordable, too. They had their series of cab-forward “Cloud Cars” that tried some interesting styling and packaging concepts, they had minivans, of course, and also two different four-seat convertibles and a two-seat convertible, all at once! That’s an impressive and interesting selection of vehicles!
And now? One minivan.
Modern Chrysler feels like it’s just killing time until Stellantis decides to pull the plug. And maybe, before I went to Pebble Beach, I could have been okay with that grim outcome, because I’d hardly given Chrysler any thought.
But now that I’m reminded of what they once were, how they once reacted to the times, the sorts of cars they once made, the image they held of themselves, now that all of that has been percolating in my gelatinous mind, now I’m kind of pissed.
This beautiful array of classic Chryslers was both a celebration of a brand hitting the century mark and a wake-up call to that very brand. Chrysler, I hope you had some people walking the green at Pebble this year. I hope they looked at all of those incredible cars. And I hope they felt a pain in the pit of their stomachs, a pain that I hope turns into some kind of resolve to smack around some people at Stellantis and remind them that Chrysler is worth saving.
Don’t go down this easy, Chrysler. Jam that one aging minivan of yours into gear and get your assess moving again. It’s time. Wake up.
I wasn’t even there, but I already want to start punching anyone in a straw hat.
Two punches if they’re wearing a blazer.
Y so angry?
Regardless, your hand’s going to be in some pain. You’d better take some ibuprofen with you.
A lot of old guys wear straw hats because they’re fighting or avoiding skin cancer. Just sayin….
Having lived in Monterey for a year after visiting several times as a kid, the California central coast gets surprisingly hot and humid in August out on the fairways.
It’s a good thing general admission to the Pebble Beach Concours is nearly $600.
Had a 99 Dodge Stratus 5 sp manual sedan. I remember it fondly due to its outstanding overall design. Incredible space inside and the trunk, with a full sized spare too. Comfy seats, low cowl and belt line, great dash. So so shifter, pedal feel, moxie, but good mpg, with a back end that was fun in the slush. Quite good looking with the cab forward design. Problem was the so so engine and Chrysler parts quality. They were on the right track in the 90’s, the sell out to MB killed that trend. A shame.
Chrysler = Jaguar
I’ve said this time and time again here, but I think the biggest problem with Chrysler is that tons of products that should have been Chryslers, were actually something else, usually a Jeep. Grand Wagoneer, high trim Grand Cherokee Ls, and Wagoneer S all would fit in the Chrysler portfolio so much better than Jeep. FCA / Stellantis cannibalized their own sales for the benefit of (mostly) Jeep at the expense of Chrysler and Dodge – I think it artificially made Jeep look more successful than it was and made the others look worse. They are starting to see that in sales too, Jeep has fallen off quite a bit and it’s entered a weird place in the market. Some of them are off roady, some of them are luxury-ish, some of them are just plain economy SUVs with 7 slats in the grille. I’m not really sure what Jeep is supposed to be anymore. Also, as meh of a EV it is, I think the Charger EV would have been much better received if it was a Chrysler.
I know a lot of Walter Chrysler’s money was made before he even created Chrysler Corp, but it’s crazy that the company was once successful, that the owner of it was able to finance the building of a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan all on his own dime.
Now they make a minivan.
“Chrysler feels like it’s given up”
No… Chrysler didn’t give up. The problem is Dodge and Chrysler are owned by European companies with European management that doesn’t know the history of these brands… let alone what to do with these brands going forward.
Hell… Even Mergio Sarchionne didn’t understand that ‘Dodge’ and ‘Trucks’ go hand-in-hand… and that goes right back to the 1920s.
Splitting Ram off into a separate brand was stupid and this should be reversed. But the Europeans in charge don’t/won’t understand why this is the case.
The Chrysler ship really sailed in ’98 with the “merger of equals” and was truly Caesar’d by that divorce and the subsequent Great Recession. To me (at least the past 40+ years) they have always been a ‘lightning in a bottle’ brand of dire straits and redemption stories as the smallest of the Big 3 trying to punch above their weight. I read somewhere that the Neon was Gen X’s neo-Beetle and it’s a really fair statement for the Lutz(?) quote of picking all three between cheap, fast, or good phrase and the ’90s era. They could never really juggle the evolving market and the positions they put their brands in.
“I read somewhere that the Neon was Gen X’s neo-Beetle”
Pretty sure that would have been the New Beetle.
The New Beetle was not affordable and truly purchased by Boomers (the real nostalgia buyers who had the money to buy this, PT Cruiser, Thunderbird, and SSR). The Neon was cheap and cheerful, plus peppy and sprite.
I dunno. To my recollection the Neon was just another small car like a Saturn, Civic, Cobalt, Focus or any of its competitors whereas the OG Beetle was rather unique in its style, its technology, its marketing and its history. It also helped that the Bug had been on the US market for 20 years by the time the Summer of Love rolled around so there were plenty of hand me downs and cheap used cars for hippies of modest means. They were simpler to fix and easier on gas than many other cars which also appealed to those hippies.
I’m not of that generation so I can’t say how strong the allure of the Neon was for the yutes of the 90’s and naughts but as a GenXer I’m not seeing it. Maybe its a regional thing, I’m in California and out here Japanese cars are much more prevelant.
Until the Cummins straight 6, Dodge’s hand-in-hand was….. minivans, rusty cars, and going even older, muscle cars.
Even after the Cummins engines were put into HD trucks, it took a style change for Dodge to become a known truck brand. Fairly certain in the old days even Jeep sold more trucks then Dodge at certain points.
If Dodge had the equivalent Ram sales throughout its first 60-ish years building trucks, Chrysler would still be independent. Like AMC in general, Dodge trucks were an almost ran for the entire time they were built.
FWIU the Airflow concept showed off at CES 2022 was production-ready but canceled because reasons.
Very, very well said. Somebody needs to grab Chrysler by its lapels – well, its shirt front, I guess, since it hasn’t a worn a suit in years – and say, “What’s the matter with you? Frank Sinatra used to sell your cars. For God’s sake, Frank Sinatra! Get it together, baby. You can be great again.”
I have not heard one good reason why Chrysler can’t design a full size SUV off the Ram 1500 and mix it up with the Navigator and the Escalade. I’d love to see what they come up with. But then, I’d love to see them come up with absolutely anything. To quote Dr. Evil, throw me a frickin’ bone here
“Somebody needs to grab
ChryslerSTELLANTIS by its lapels – well, its shirt front, I guess, since it hasn’t a worn a suit in years – and say, “What’s the matter with you? Frank Sinatra used to sell Chryslers. For God’s sake, Frank Sinatra! Get it together, baby. You can be great again if you just start getting Chrysler (as well as Dodge) some competitive product.”There.. fixed it for accuracy.
Wait a minute – how did you do a strike-through? I have zero formatting options when I reply.
If I could post a pic, I would. When I reply, at the bottom of where I type, I see buttons for Bold, Italic and Underline. And to the right of Underline is
strike through.Not sure why you don’t see what I see.
Are you on a portable device? I get options on my PC that don’t exist on my tablet.
Sadly I feel the same, basically pre-2000 Chrysler to me at least they had a variety of models with more upscale interiors, but after Daimler they were gutted like the rest of Chrysler, the Crossfire was basically an SLK, the PT Cruiser was supposed to be a Plymouth, the Chrysler Prowler WAS a Plymouth. The 300 was the last Chrysler that I think felt Chrysler-y but even it started fairly chintzy inside until Fiat-Chrysler updated it.
I feel like instead of the Charger EV they should’ve had that as a Chrysler New Yorker or even keep the coupe body and call it a Cordoba, skip the Fratzonic junk, make it cushy, and kept the price and nobody would’ve cared it can’t do a burnout. Just have the Hurricane powered Charger.
I fully agree that the EV needs to be de-fratzonicized, gain a set of rear doors and be a 300 or New Yorker. Honestly, the entire LB platform needs to be a Chrysler, it’s too refined and too expensive not to be. Same goes for the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, but we’re not ready for that conversation yet.
Stelantis has run its American brands as if it were a private equity firm: buy on leverage, extract as much cash as possible while starving the acquisition of development and funding, then dump the acquisition after sucking it dry. See Sears and Kmart for examples of this strategy. It truly is sad, and could have been avoided.
Arbitrage
My buddy, a former GM engineer, and I were talking today about buying the Pontiac name and building cars, but when PE is done with this name it’s going to be much cheaper, so suddenly I have an idea for a TheAutopians GoFundMe project…
I love reading your pieces, Jason, but this one was really special and reads like you couldn’t type fast enough to let out your passion. I think I read it all the way through holding my breath.
Ditto, this piece was extremely passionate and captivating even by Torch standards.
The K cars get a horrible bad rap, but they weren’t all bad. The Chrysler New Yoker and LeBaron actually had really good attention to details in the interior. They were like 3/4 sized luxo-barges. There was a good dozen years when you could buy one of these Chryslers for $2500 with 45k and owned by one retiree owner.
The K derivatives could be pretty sweet – the Laser and Daytona are still pretty cool.
I prefer the Mike Ehrmantraut edition. My dad had one, a white 1985 with a sumptuous navy blue leather interior.
Cheers Jason, and way to stick the landing!!
PT Cruiser, sure, but don’t forget the Plymouth Prowler, a production car by a major automaker that featured…an open wheel design.
Yeah I know the lack of the right engine/transmission let us down, but we should take a moment to appreciate the crazy cool of that suspension. It’s right up there in my book with GM’s decision to sell a mid engined 2 seater in the 80s.
I would do some very questionable things for a Chrysler Howler, if they had brought it to market.
Will Chrysler even be around in 2027? Sad !
I really like the Crossfire. Yeah, I know it was based on a Merc, but that doesn’t change my opinion of it.
Also, in that second-to-last pic, it appears there is a 300 wagon/estate on the far left. Naturally, they all have Euro plates attached, because fuck the USA, apparently. Which reminds me, Dodge should bring back the Magnum.
Europe had a Chrysler version of the Magnum. It was not offered here, and since the Magnum wasn’t appreciated, there wasn’t much reason to offer a more expensive version. Europeans are more attuned to the idea of a luxury estate. Americans are only interested if it has 12″ of ground clearance.
I’m sure that Christine Feuell is going to save the day. She’s only been at the helm for 4 years now. Any day now… /s
I grew up in a Chrysler family and I feel that sadness too. Dad had a 74 Dart Sport, an 80 Cordoba, and an 87 Fifth Av for his last three cars. I learned to drive on the Cordoba and then owned a 70 Newport, a 76 Monaco, and a 79 Diplomat. I later co-owned my wife’s 97 Intrepid.
The Intrepid did have some issues, and by the time we traded it Cerberus was in charge and the product started to suck compared to Japanese competitors. I wrote them off and haven’t looked back.
That was a rather bittersweet trip down memory lane. I seem to remember reading that once the Chrysler engineers discovered most cars at the time were more aerodynamic moving backwards than forwards, they went and reversed the body on a vehicle in order to drive around town as a “teaser” that were working on something new.
Time to bring back the 300 with a hybrid system and the Hemi. Call it the “300HH”. Make sure it can smoke tires, yet maintain cabin silence. Maybe I can talk The Old Man into buying one.
They even followed up the K-car success with some popular cars being discussed in the peak 90’s comments like the Concorde, Neon, and Cirrus.
At one point my 6’5″ uncle was putting 45-50k miles a year on his cars and loved the first gen Intrepid / Concorde so much he had his worn out beater handed down to my cousin, a current daily driver, two “future” daily drivers in reserve.
Except Chrysler never really competed with Lincoln or Cadillac.
Chrysler was competitive with Buick and high-range Mercurys.
Imperial was the Lincoln/Cadillac competitor.
Imperial was only a Chrysler model at the very beginning and the very end.
What happened to Chrysler?
The same thing that happened to Mercury and Buick (and Oldsmobile…)
Calling the minivan 3 models really isn’t much different from the 1970’s when the same big sedans/coupes were sold as Newport, New Yorker and 300.
> the same big sedans/coupes were sold as Newport, New Yorker and 300.
That’s true, but those three lines offered 4-door hardtops and post sedans, the same for 2-door cars. Plus convertibles and 6/9 passenger wagons. So that’s effectively 7 models as opposed to today’s three.
I addition, I believe that for many years there was a stripper on the New Yorker chassis called the Saratoga. For many of those years the Newport was a smaller car on the large Dodge chassis. I think the 300 used that chassis also.
Newport and New Yorker replaced Saratoga and Windsor.
You realize that “the very beginning” accounts for almost half the time the nameplate existed right? The Imperial was a Chrysler from ’26-54. Then it was a standalone brand from ’55-83, and a Chrysler again from ’90-93.
That’s 27 years as a Chrysler. 28 years standalone. Then 4 more years as a Chrysler.
An the whole intention was for the Imperial–as a Chrysler–to compete with Lincoln, Cadillac, Packard, Pierce Arrow, and even Duesenberg.
Similar to how Continental was separate from Lincoln for a time.
Even so – despite whatever intent – Imperial was the Cadillac/Lincoln competitor.
Chrysler was not.
Just compare the Chrysler models from the late 60’s thru 70’s:
Newport competed with Mercury Monterey and Buick LeSabre – not Cadillac Calais
New Yorker competed with Park Lane/Marquis and Electra – not Continental or de Ville
300 competed with Marauder and Wildcat – Lincoln and Cadillac didn’t have “Performance” cars.
Cordoba competed with Cougar, Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick Regal – not Mark IV/V or Eldorado (not to mention Buick Riviera)
Meanwhile Imperial competed with Continental and de Ville – While Imperial LeBaron competed with Town Car/Town Coupe and Fleetwood.
Big Chrysler fan here. Well said, Jason!
When you discontinue more products than you launch, this is sort of what happens. FCA under-invested for years, and Stellantis has chosen to dump models and not introduce replacements until several years later, if at all
This always makes me wonder what the executives at Chrysler do all day long…. nothing??
Debate the merits of the Pacifica CrossCab.
BUILD IT! Make or rebadge literally any other car at this point.
I bet you could chop off the back half and make a pickup out of it. Between that and the CrossCab, assuming you get a voyager, plug in, and Pacifica trim out of each, BAM: 9 car line-up.
There are Chrysler executives anymore?
More like a handful of brand-managers which are eternally hamstrung by the executives and accountants of Stellantis.
They are still trying to find more “efficiencies”, which is a bit difficult because any more downsizing of their offerings would result in instant unemployment.
Yeah. I have to imagine their leadership is as hollowed out as their line up.
Sending out resumes.
Some people should be rewarded when they do less.
I think Twain said that.
I reckon all they need to do is rebadge the Peugeot 2008, 3008 and 5008 as Chryslers and voila you have a three SUV lineup that look quite smart and attractive and ought to be competitive. I know there’s the tariff thing, but the secret is the Peugeots aren’t that expensive, but feel quite premium, if Chrysler wants to be the premium brand it won’t really matter that theres a tariff on them as they would probably be priced where they should be.
Meh. Easier to slap those names on more Pacificas.
I can’t believe they haven’t done this. Peugeot currently has hybrid and gasoline ICE versions of all these cars and they are excellent vehicles.
Absolutely agree with this! I was in Ireland earlier this summer and 3008s and 5008s kept catching my eye. They are really attractive and have some great colors including a dark teal which is *chef’s kiss*.
Tariffs aren’t ideal but the alternative at this point is to keep selling minivans to people like my parents who are 75 years old and have been buying Chrysler Corp-DaimlerChrysler-Chrysler LLC-Chrysler Group LLC-Fiat Chrysler Automobiles since the early 90’s because they are creatures of habit and would never consider a Sienna or Carnival.
While i’m only familiar in any way with one of those, and that only by photos, the general premise here is correct. To get back on their feet in a hurry, they need some badge engineering for sure. I agree those would likely be a great start. Slap together a fancy Durango, even if its less fancy than a Grand Wagoneer, do a better job than the freaking Aspen (Garbage Durango with horrible facelift). Offer it at a lower stance than the Durango maybe, with all the engine options. Get back to the real presence that the 300 had.
I mean, the Ram 1500 is RIGHT THERE for a luxury SUV platform.
The Grand Wagoneer is already fully developed on the RAM platform,
just give it a less ugly body, badge it and ship it.
I been tooting this horn for years.
How’d that work out with the Hornet/Tonale?
That’s extraordinarily bad product planning. You can see that the Hornet is an Alfa Romeo underneath, which has two consequences. 1 Alfa is not exactly known for its reliability, enough people know that the Tonale is a rebadged Alfa. 2 it cheapens the Alfa brand. The Tonale is sold in the US. The Peugeot range is not, its an entire unknown to American consumers, also Chrysler should be the Buick of the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram company. Peugeot markets itself in this position outside of Europe, in New Zealand it is sold as a ‘premium’ (not prestige eg BMW Audi etc) brand.
The Hornet, Grand Wagoneer and Daytona should have been Chryslers, or at least should have had Chrysler equivalents.