Lee Iacocca dead at 94...Hell of a car guy...

 

Agree, one hell of a great car guy.

 

Interesting personality, more than just a car guy. RIP.

 

And visionary.....an exemplary leader...

 

My dad loved that guy. He was Italian and that made my dad very proud. His commercials for the Chrysler K car sold my dad and we had 3 of them when I was a kid
Rest In Peace Lee and Dad

 

As a Chrysler retiree (retired in 2008 after 31 years of service), I can tell you this indeed is a very sad day. Had the chance to meet Lee on a few occasions . . . he was truly a visionary leader that saved an outstanding company. RIP Lee.

 

His impact on the automotive world can't ever be adequately explained. He was easily as important as Henry Ford ever was. when the Statue of Liberty restoration was going poorly, he stepped and took on an incredibly difficult job and got it done magnificently. His ties to FORD and then a floundering Chrysler, and his saving of both companies is legendary.

I will always remember his commercials for Chrysler, "if you can find a better car than a Chrysler, then buy it."

RIP.

 

My Dad bought a Chrysler based on his personal appearance in Chrysler's advertisements. While at Ford, he supported Shelby in his quest to make the Cobra a world beater in road racing. A lot of "firsts" for Lee.

 

 

Lee Iaccoca was a car salesman first, last and always. He knew his product line, and he knew his customers. Without him, there's a good chance that neither Ford nor Chrysler would still be with us today. RIP, Lee.

 

Many years ago my family owned a home on Nantucket Island, a tony place filled with rich, beautiful and famous people. We no longer own a home there on account of our being insufficiently rich, beautiful and famous.

While on vacation in 1990 I found myself engrossed in Lido’s Autobiography aptly named “Iacocca”. I couldn’t put it down. As a young aspiring automotive historian this was an archeological find chalk full of details that mattered to me. My favorite line went something along the lines of “all of us (in the industry) knew that Chrysler built the best engines and transmissions in the business”. I never forgot that. None of you should either.

By Saturday I finished the book. I couldn’t shake Lee Iacocca from my thoughts. Dropping eggs on padded dash boards, the Mustang, the Lincoln Mk III, the congressional hearings, the board room subterfuge. It swirled around in my head.

That evening my family dined at the Club Car, a tony place filled with rich, beautiful and famous people. As I dined on exotic leafiness and miniscule servings of egregiously expensive meats I was sure I could make out Lido’s voice among the din of conversation between titans of industry and figurines of popular culture. I told my wife, “I’ve got to put that book away – I can hear the guy.” Only 9 years before Lido was the pitchman for the K Car on TV, barking its virtues as would a carnival worker and admonishing all to buy a better car, if you can find one.

Finally I turned around to find Lido seated with others two tables behind and summoned the courage to approach him. I quickly thought of all the things I wanted to say – and how I might say it in the few seconds I likely had.

He looked at me first as if the waiter and then once realizing I was a nuisance treated me as such and that was that.

It wasn’t until I got home that it occurred to me that I might have asked him if I could borrow a set of jumper cables to get my K car started. Opportunities lost, but he is still my hero.

RIP Lido

Danny Plotkin

 

I recall all the outrage when the government "bailed out" Chrysler back in the late seventies. What the government did was guarantee the bank loans by collecting a one-half of one percent premium on the deal. The cash infusion gave Iacocca time to avoid B-K while he worked on the product line. Chrysler paid the loan back early, and the taxpayers made money on the deal! Contrast that to the millions that taxpayers lost on the GM bailout ten years ago.

The K-car was a PoS, but not any worse than a lot of the other junk that Detroit was producing back in that era.

In addition to being the driving force behind the Mustang, Iacocca is the guy who invented the minivan, which is what really turned Chrysler around in the mid-eighties while the rest of the industry played catch-up in this new segment.

One of the dumbest things Henry the Duce every did was fire Iacocca. That's not uncommon when the fast burner threatens the boss because he's too good, but it was probably a blessing in disguise for Iacocca because he would never have become Ford CEO.

He was certainly one of the most effective auto industry executives in the history of the industry and even more colorful than Billy Durant.

I recall he was criticized for his "buy American" campaign because he wore French-manufactured eyeglass frames. - Logo "Aviator". I got a kick out of that because I choose the same frames back in the era (bought three) and still wear them.

I bought his autobiography, "Iacocca", back in the eighties and still have it. It's a great read, and you can probably find a copy in your local library.

Duke

 

Truly a sad day. Another one passing that will be missed. Really liked the way he led the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.

A great career launched because he didn't want to make detail dwgs of clutch springs.

 

A sad day for the Auto Industry for sure. Lee was a man who got things done.
I drove 2 or 3 K cars back in the day, company cars, put 55,000 miles on them and turned it in on the next one, in 1982 I had my first K car with the 2.2L it was a terrible car by today' standard but my last one a 1989 became a nice car with a good running
3.3L V6, much more comfortable and much quieter so Lee was marching Chrysler to improvement.
I sure wish I had purchased Chrysler Stock at $2 back then, one of my customers bought a boatload of Chrysler at $2 and bet on Lee to make him money. It paid off big time for my customer.
RIP

 

Lee Iacocca did not invent the minivan. Hal Sperling, another Ford escapee was the creator of the minivan. Hal had proposed the concept first to Ford management and was turned down. It was Iacocca who recruited Hal Sperling and others from Ford when he made the jump to Chrysler and he did encourage innovate thinking. On a corporate level, Iacocca deserves all the credit, but on a product level, it was Sperling.

Ford II got rid of Iacocca partly because he thought Iacocca was not being deferential to himself and partly because of racism. Ford at that time did not want to consider an outsider as a potential CEO candidate and certainly not an Italian (there was a bit of racism within the Ford family). Ultimately when Ford retired, his sons were not ready so they selected Caldwell, a tried and true conservative finance type. The Ford family have also made poor decisions subsequent to the Iacocca days that could be considered based on prejudice. When Red Poling retired, the Ford Family picked Alex Trotman as CEO (which directly led to the disastrous Jac Nasser) and overlooked Allan Gilmour who would have been a much better choice. Allan Gilmour's problem was being gay and the family could not overlook that.

I spent the majority of my career within the Ford product development world and got a chance to meet many of these people. Ford is a very well run company and the Ford family has had a stabilizing effect on company leadership, but they have had some of their preconceptions lead to significant problems over the years.

 

RIP. Much respect for a truly great man. He had a nice long run and made the most of it.

 

Me too, but I didn't have any "risk capital" back then. I did about a decade later and made a handsome profit on selling the shares I bought when they brought out their new line of mid-size FWD sedans (Dodge Intrepid, etc.) that I knew would be winners.

Duke

 

"Lead, Follow or Get out of the way" I love his philosophy!!

 

I’m glad he decided to famously “dress up the secretary!” RIP.

 

I was working on a US Navy base in Norfolk about the time of the bailout. Nearly all at once, all of the military cars on the base became Chryslers. A "stealth" part of the bailout that occurred at a lot of military facilities apparently. I told myself at the time that I should buy Chrysler stock but like Duke, I was the bread winner working a blue collar job as the head of a one-income family...