THE TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS GENIUS OF WALTER CHRYSLER
Savvy businessman a machinist who had a penchant for turning failing companies around, as Jil McIntosh explains.
As automobile companies found their footing in the early days, executives sometimes worked for companies that would later become rivals. That was the case with Buick’s president, Walter Chrysler, a man who, in turn, built his company out of one he saved.
Chrysler’s father moved from his birthplace in Chatham, Ontario to Kansas, where Walter was born in 1875. He apprenticed as a machinist and worked with railway companies. Sent to Chicago in 1908, he attended an auto show and promptly bought a luxury Locomobile touring car. Even before driving it — which he didn’t yet know how to do — he completely disassembled it to see how it worked.
Chrysler also understood business, and he turned around a failing locomotive factory to profitability. One of the factory’s directors also served on the board of General Motors’ finance division, and Chrysler was offered a position as works manager at Buick in 1912. Fascinated with cars, he took the job even though it paid less than he had been earning.
He increased production while lowering costs, and accepted a three-year contract as Buick’s vice-president. As did many others, he frequently clashed with GM president Billy Durant, and left when his contract expired.
In 1920, Chrysler was approached by ailing automaker Willys-Overland. He wasn’t keen on taking on the job and demanded an unprecedented $1 million per year on a two-year contract. When the company agreed to pay it, Chrysler went to work, saving the automaker that would eventually create the Jeep (a brand the Chrysler company would later buy as part of its purchase of American Motors in 1987).
Chrysler then heard from bankers who were trying to save Maxwell-Chalmers, a small automaker based in Detroit. They couldn’t pay anything close to what Willys had, but sweetened the salary with stock options. Since he was now part owner of the factory, Chrysler saw an opportunity to finally make his mark with a car bearing his name.
For 1924, the company continued to sell four-cylinder Maxwell models, but those who wanted something bigger could opt for the all-new, six-cylinder Chrysler 70, named for its top speed of 70 miles per hour (112 km/h). Chrysler had aimed for “affordable luxury” and the new car had a few unusual features, including four-wheel hydraulic brakes and replaceable oil and air filters. For 1926, the Maxwell name would disappear as its four-cylinder cars morphed into the Chrysler Model 58.
Maxwell-Chalmers was reorganized into the Chrysler Corporation on June 26, 1925, based in Highland Park, Michigan. The deal included Maxwell’s factory in Windsor, Ontario, which became Chrysler Corporation of Canada. The company also purchased a factory in Detroit to increase its car body production, and in 1925 sold more than 100,000 vehicles in the U.S., plus 7,857 in Canada.
But Ford and General Motors turned out a combined two-million-plus vehicles that year, most of them lower-priced cars, and Chrysler needed more offerings. In 1928, it introduced DeSoto, a new mid-priced brand, and purchased Dodge. That company had been very successful under its founders, brothers John and Horace Dodge, but faltered and was sold to bankers after both died in 1920.
Dodge also held controlling interest in truck manufacturer Graham Brothers, giving Chrysler entry into the commercial vehicle market as well. To get around Canadian tariffs, it would later add the Fargo, a specially trimmed version of its Dodge truck for the Canadian market. Chrysler rounded out its marques in 1929 by introducing a new, entry-level brand called Plymouth.
With Walter Chrysler’s sharp interest in all things mechanical, the company became known for its engineering innovations. These included vibration-reducing engine mounts and suspension dampers, downdraft carburetors and one-piece curved windshields. But the company seriously misjudged public reaction when it released the 1934 Airflow, an aerodynamic model believed to be the first designed using a wind tunnel. The radical, dramatic styling was too much for most buyers, and while its development laid the groundwork for future wind-cheating designs, it only lasted until 1937.
Walter Chrysler had moved his family to New York during his time at Willys, and always kept a home there. He funnelled his personal wealth into a skyscraper in Manhattan as a business for his sons, and when the Chrysler Building opened in 1930, it was the world’s tallest structure. It featured some automotive inspired design cues, and Chrysler had his personal office in it, but it was never connected to the car company.
He stepped down as company president in 1935, installing K.T. Keller, an engineer he’d known at Buick and had poached some 10 years earlier when Keller was general manager of General Motors of Canada. Chrysler remained the company chairman until his death on August 18, 1940.
His firm would continue to make its mark, introducing the minivan and helping popularize front-wheel drive in the 1980s with cars like the Plymouth Reliant. But times got tough, too: $1.5 billion in government loan guarantees to avoid bankruptcy in 1980, its sale to Daimler in 1998, resale to a private equity firm nine years later, and another bailout before ending up at Fiat. It was quite the trek, starting with a mechanically-minded farm boy from Kansas.