Iacocca is best known for his leadership during the development of Chrysler’s lineup of minivans in the early 1980s, but he was involved with a great number of car programs, including during his time at Ford.
Few figures in the history of the automotive industry of the second half of the 20th century had been credited with initiating the creation of as many vehicles as Lee Iacocca, who died earlier this week at age 94. And few auto industry titans had been credited with initiating the programs of so many diverse vehicles, spanning several decades.
Iacocca is best remembered for the following major hits: the 1967 Ford Mustang from his time at Ford, the Chrysler minivans of the early 1980s that kick-started the minivan segment in North America, and the K-car range that spanned several brands and was credited with bringing Chrysler back from the brink.
Iacocca’s tenure at Ford, despite his involvement with the Mustang program, is not as fondly remembered for some of the vehicles with whose programs he was involved: the Ford Pinto, part of an attempt by Ford to introduce smaller, less thirsty cars during the oil embargo, remains one of the symbols of the Malaise Era.
Iacocca was, of course, chairman of Chrysler when the Dodge Caravan, Plymouth Voyager and Chrysler Town & Country were launched by a still-struggling Chrysler Corporation, and he also oversaw the purchase of Jeep from the Renault-AMC alliance, snatching AMC’s prize for Chrysler itself — one of Chrysler’s most enduring strategic moves — a success that has well outlived the decade of K-car dominance that revitalized Chrysler.
Speaking of the Chrysler K architecture, the platform and its derivatives accounted for bewildering number of sedans, coupes, station wagons and minivans, to the point that even in 2019 it’s difficult to go through an entire day in America without seeing a K-car of some sort. The Chrysler LeBaron, Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant, Dodge 400, Plymouth Caravelle are just some of the classic K-cars, before we get into the E variants of the K platform that included the Chrysler New Yorker.
Iacocca is best remembered at Ford for his involvement with the Mustang program.
The K-car S version of the platform gave North America and other regions the three minivans under the Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth badges, but the K platform in its various modifications also extended to H-body cars like the Dodge Lancer.
Speaking of minivans, just days before his death Chrysler announced that the Voyager nameplate, launched during the 1984 batch of minivans as a Plymouth Voyager, would make a comeback as a version of the current Chrysler Pacifica.
Today, the Iacocca name is still synonymous with Chrysler, even quite literally: company lore has it that a mnemonic device used by Chrysler employees to avoid misspelling his name went “I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation Always.”
Have you or your family owned a vehicle created during Iacocca’s tenure at Ford or Chrysler, or from a vehicle program which he is credited with leading?
Let us know in the comments below.
Car Mr. Montalban persuade you to give the Chrysler LeBaron wagon a try?
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