Icon of auto industry helped launch Mustang, save Chrysler
Lee Iacocca, the automobile industry executive who helped launch the Mustang at Ford and save Chrysler from bankruptcy, and whose cunning, ingenuity and swagger made him one of the most successful salesmen of his generation, died Tuesday at his home in the Bel Air area of Los Angeles. He was 94.
The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his daughter Lia Iacocca Assad.
For a vast swath of the American public, Iacocca was the face, the voice and the symbol of the car business in Detroit at its most resourceful and industrious. Iacocca, an immigrant’s son who rose to a vice presidency at Ford at 36, first gained broad renown in 1964, when he helped take the company to a new level of stylishness and panache with the Mustang sports car.
Iacocca’s career continued to skyrocket. He became company president, only to be fired in 1978 by Henry Ford II, the grandson and namesake of the auto company’s founder, in what was often chalked up to a clash of egos and personalities.
Almost immediately, Iacocca rebounded as chairman of Chrysler. He was credited with saving the company from bankruptcy by persuading Congress in 1980 to approve federal loan guarantees of up to $1.5 billion.
Chrysler, which had been the straggler among Detroit’s Big Three, came roaring back as Iacocca closed factories, dismissed tens of thousands of employees, slashed executive salaries, persuaded suppliers to accept delayed payments and wrung concessions from labor unions. He cut his own salary to $1 a year.
In addition, he boosted sales by introducing the fuel-efficient K-car line and the minivan, which would lead the auto industry in sales for years. He restored profitability in what has been described as the biggest individual corporate save in U.S. business history. Under Iacocca, the company paid back its loans — $1.2 billion and interest — in 1983, seven years before they were due.
“We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back,” a beaming Iacocca said at a news conference.
At a time when the country was shifting out of a period of economic malaise, Iacocca seemed a straight-shooting leader brimming with self-confidence. Media coverage portrayed Iacocca as an industry savior, and he added to his allure through aggressively cocksure TV commercials promoting Chrysler cars — and, in the process, himself.
As the advertisements began airing in late 1980, few could forget the image of the 6-foot-1 Iacocca, with aviator glasses perched atop his nose, pacing the floor of a Chrysler assembly-line factory, shaking a finger at the camera and declaring, “If you can find a better car, buy it!”
In the mid-1980s, he ranked behind only President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II in a Galluppoll list of the world’s most respected men.
A bona fide celebrity, Iacocca socialized with Frank Sinatra, roused thousands of high school students to their feet at commencement speeches, led fundraising efforts to refurbish the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and was feted like a rock star at political gatherings.
Lido Anthony Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 15, 1924. His parents, Nicola and Antoinette, had immigrated to the United States from Italy.
His father was an entrepreneur who ran a variety of businesses, including a car rental agency and movie theaters.
The family was wealthy for a few years before the Great Depression, but Nicola Iacocca lost all his money in the stock market crash of 1929.
Iacocca’s first wife, Mary McCleary, died in 1983. Iacocca’s later marriages, to advertising executive Peggy Johnson and restaurateur Darrien Earle, ended in divorce. Survivors include two daughters, a sister and eight grandchildren.