A Brief History
On March 9, 1987, Chrysler Corporation, then maker of Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth cars and trucks, announced the absorption of American Motors under the Chrysler banner. American Motors itself was formed in 1954 when Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motor Car Company merged.
Digging Deeper
Try to follow this corporate puzzle when also in 1954, Packard merged with Studebaker, forming Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Meanwhile, Kaiser Motors and Willys-Overland, makers of the Jeep brand, had merged in 1953 to create Kaiser Jeep. Then in 1970, American Motors bought up Kaiser Jeep.
American Motors stumbled along until being acquired by Chrysler in 1987, while Chrysler itself lost its American identity in 1998 when it was bought by Daimler-Benz. That marriage lasted until 2007 when Chrysler was dumped, and then bought by Fiat in 2014. By 2021, Chrysler was transformed again by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles with Peugeot to form the multi-national Stellantis. What will be next for Chrysler?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Parissien, Steven. The Life of the Automobile: The Complete History of the Motor Car. Thomas Dunne Books, 2014.
Weiss, H. Eugene. Chrysler, Ford, Durant and Sloan: Founding Giants of the American Automotive Industry. McFarland & Company, 2003.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by ajay_suresh of The Chrysler World Headquarters and Technology Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan, headquarters of Stellantis North America, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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