In the early 1970s, Chrysler started working on a "magic wagon" -- a completely new passenger van that would fit into a normal garage. It was a daring project for a company that was strapped for cash. This book taps the people who created the minivans, with previously unpublished photos of the original clay models. It is not just a story of a vehicle, but of the people who pushed it through the development process, brought it to life, and refreshed it in the face of intense competition. Engineers, planners, and designers started arguing over alternatives ten years before the first van left the factory. This book dives into the reasons behind their decisions, and some of the ways minivans could have been very different; it also covers electric and CNG minivans, engines and transmissions, concept cars, and the assembly plants. The paperback is generously illustrated with full-color design studies and photos of the final product; the Kindle version has fewer photos, but still covers the original clay models and the concepts. "It's incredibly rare when the auto industry creates an entirely new class of vehicle, and rarer still when that innovation is an unqualified success story, but such was the case with Chrysler and the development of the minivan. "In Mopar Minivans, Zatz uses the people who were there to retell in vivid detail the largely forgotten story of how this innovative people mover evolved into a quintessential piece of American family life for two generations. It's a story that showcases not only how the automotive industry can work at its best, but also the ways that the industry's prevalent groupthink mentality can stifle innovation." -- Larry Vellequette, Automotive News "I am amazed how complete you are, having not been on-site in the front trenches during agreements, disagreements, and, yes, even skirmishes, at times." -- Chrysler employee David Zatz founded Chrysler-focused web site allpar.com; he also holds a Ph.D. in social and organizational psychology from Columbia University, and has been a business consultant for 20 years.

The first comprehensive history of the Chrysler Corporation, this book is intended for readers interested in the history of automobiles and of American business, and for fans and critics of Chrysler’s products. From the Chrysler Six of 1924 to the front-wheel-drive vehicles of the 70s and 80s to the minivan, Chrysler boasts an impressive list of technological "firsts." But even though the company has catered well to a variety of consumers, it has come to the brink of financial ruin more than once in its seventy-five-year history. How Chrysler has achieved monumental success and then managed colossal failure and sharp recovery is explained in Riding the Roller Coaster, a lively, unprecedented look at a major force in the American automobile industry since 1925. Charles Hyde tells the intriguing story behind Chrysler-its products, people, and performance over time-with particular focus on the company's management. He offers a lens through which the reader can view the U.S. auto industry from the perspective of the smallest of the automakers who, along with Ford and General Motors, make up the "Big Three." The book covers Walter P. Chrysler's life and automotive career before 1925, when he founded the Chrysler Corporation, to 1998, when it merged with Daimler-Benz. Chrysler made a late entrance into the industry in 1925 when it emerged from Chalmers and Maxwell, and further grew when it absorbed Dodge Brothers and American Motors Corporation. The author traces this journey, explaining the company's leadership in automotive engineering, its styling successes and failures, its changing management, and its activities from auto racing to defense production to real estate. Throughout, the colorful personalities of its leaders-including Chrysler himself and Lee Iacocca-emerge as strong forces in the company's development, imparting a risk-taking mentality that gave the company its verve.

This book tells fascinating tales, bringing individual days to life with short stories, photographs and illustrations. From the first self-powered vehicles to modern advances in technology, many topics are covered surrounding the turbulent history of the automobile. The births and deaths of automotive innovators, the rise and fall of car companies lost to history, incredible days at the racetrack, relevant inventions, the introduction of some of the greatest cars ever built, and many more true events from around the world are described in their day in This Day in Automotive History.

The story of how Chrysler's minivan team created an automobile that captured the 1995 Motor Trend Car of the Year and other major awards - and reinvented a perilously entrenched corporation in the process - is as dramatic and inspiring a story as any in business today. Brock Yates, one of the most respected writers in the auto world, was given unprecedented access to Chrysler - every planning session, presentation, budget review, test drive, assembly line start-up, and marketing launch. The result is a book that unveils the mysteries of modern car-making, revealing how cars are shaped through countless interlinked decisions ranging from size and power to door configurations, color selections, and innumerable other interconnected details. It also captures the complex process by which the thousands of separate pieces that make up a car are designed, tested, manufactured, and marshaled into place at the exact moment they are needed. For any reader who cares about cars, this is the most intriguing look inside the mysteries of their creation ever written. At the same time, The Critical Path recounts an extraordinary drama of all-too-human managers attempting to make something new, in a new way, inside a corporate culture that resists them at every turn. The story of how Chrysler's minivan platform team kept their commitment to quality, schedule, and budget - with a $3 billion investment and the company's fate palpably in the balance - is as encouraging a tale as has emerged from American business in years. The unprecedented triumph and Chrysler's resultant comeback is a lesson in successful management that will be savored by any reader interested in how great companies make breakthroughproducts.

Paperback: Those 80s Cars is dedicated to enthusiasts of the manufacturers of American owned and branded franchises. These often overlooked cars are now entering classic and collectible status. This is your resource guide of exterior and interior color views with hundreds of pages, over 2,400 images (front, back, profiles, interiors, dashes, seats and a few cut-a-ways), and quotes and stats from the brochures. Includes cars from 1980-1989 from these manufacturers: AMC & Eagle, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet & Geo, Chrysler & Imperial, Dodge, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Merkur, Oldsmobile, Plymouth and Pontiac.

“A definitive account . . . It’s hard to imagine anyone better than Paul Ingrassia to ‘ride shotgun’ on a journey through the sometimes triumphant, often turbulent, history of U.S. automaking. . . . [A] wealth of amusing, astonishing and enlightening nuggets.”—Pittsburgh Tribune-Review This is the epic saga of the American automobile industry’s rise and demise, a compelling story of hubris, missed opportunities, and self-inflicted wounds that culminates with the president of the United States ushering two of Detroit’s Big Three car companies—once proud symbols of prosperity—through bankruptcy. With unprecedented access, Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Ingrassia takes us from factory floors to small-town dealerships to Detroit’s boardrooms to the White House. Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was Detroit’s self-destruction inevitable? Why did Japanese automakers manage American workers better than the American companies themselves did? Complete with a new Afterword providing fresh insights into the continuing upheaval in the auto industry—the travails of Toyota, the revolving-door management and IPO at General Motors, the unexpected progress at Chrysler, and the Obama administration’s stake in Detroit’s recovery—Crash Course addresses a critical question: America bailed out GM, but who will bail out America? With an updated Afterword by the author Praise for Crash Course “In order to understand just how much of a mess it was—not to mention how it got that way and how, if at all, it can be cleaned up—you really need to read Crash Course.”—The Washinton Post “Ingrassia tells Detroit’s story with economy, vigour and restrained fury.”—The Economist “A delightful mix of history and first-person reporting . . . Employing superb storytelling skills, Ingrassia explains in head-shaking detail the elements of a wholly avoidable collision.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)