I have less than twenty minutes before I have to run to the airport to pick up Stephanie and her mom. So what can I say very quickly about one of the biggest legends (and egos) that the car business ever produced?
Here goes:
He was a master salesman, and as any good salesman, he knew what his customers wanted. Note: not needed, but wanted. That’s the single biggest kernel of Lee’s approach to the business. And one that the changing priorities of Americans eventually caught up with him, as it turned out that what Americans really wanted was extremely reliable, durable and well-made cars. As made by the Japanese. But I’m getting ahead of myself; I have more than 90 seconds, but that does encapsulate the story in one sentence.
The longer version: He intuitively knew that Americans were largely dominated by fads and automotive passions. The dominant fad/passion in the 50s and early 60s was sports cars. They were impractical, but that’s what folks saw as being cool, desirable, and a way to break out of the humdrum of boring sedans. Sports cars were to the automotive scene what the beatniks were to the cultural scene. We wanted a part of that life, because it sure looked a lot more exciting than driving a sedan to the factory every day. And as this picture makes all-too obvious, sports car fever infected even middle-aged Americans.
But they were invariably better off financially, so that they could indulge their hobby, as the Missus was not likely to be driving the MGA to the Safeway on Monday morning.
It was Chevrolet, which already had the only genuine sports car, that saw the opening. Their 1960.5 Monza coupe brought sports car flair and feel to the masses. By 1961, it was a certified major hit; 282k Corvairs were sold in 1961, the majority Monzas. That’s equivalent of some 550-600k in today’s market. That would make it the best selling passenger car, by a huge margin.
Lee saw the Monza for what it was, and wanted in. he pivoted Ford towards sport and performance.
He had the Plain Jane Falcon transformed into the Mustang, and hoped that he could sell 100-150k per year. 680k 1965 Mustangs were eagerly snapped up during its extended first year. He must have thought he was dreaming. Who could have imagined? And it was the Mustang that killed the Corvair, not Ralph Nader.
The pony car fad turned out to be a very short-lived one; by 1971 it was washed up, and the Mustang barely cracked 100k by 1972. But Lee didn’t have to wait for its decline to come up with his real knock-out punch: the brougham. In 1965 already, he launched the Ford LTD, which launched the Great Brougham Epoch. Just like with the Mustang, he wasn’t the first: the trend had been there for some time, and was gathering momentum; Lee just kicked on its afterburners.
And the 1968 Mark III cemented Ford’s dominance of the Brougham Epoch, upstaging the 1967 Eldorado, which was still trying to probe the outer edges of design. Not the Mark III, and just about every bigger Ford (and later Chrysler) thereafter for way too long: the Iacocca formula was cast, and Lee would be highly resistant to letting it go, even thirty years later.
Henry Ford II claimed he fired Lee in 1978 because he just didn’t like him. Maybe it was because HF had somewhat higher expectations than having his name on what we dubbed “The Most Malaise Car Ever” (1975 Granada). But then Ford was about to fall off a cliff, thanks largely because the Iacocca formula was the wrong thing at the time of the second energy crisis as well as fatigue. Ford had a near-brush with bankruptcy after Lee left, and then reinvented itself in the aero and Quality Is Job #1-image. Quite the jump.
I almost forgot the Maverick and Pinto; maybe just as well.
Lee’s second act turned out to overshadow the first. He became the Savior of Chrysler, and as such ascended to the Pantheon of America’s heroes of the 1980s, including a very close brush with a run for the Presidency. No, Lee didn’t “invent” the K-car; it was pretty far along when he arrived. But he did find the money to build it, in the form of a $1.5 billion federal loan guarantee, repaid within four years. Lee did quickly did put his stamp on the K-Car, in the form of the mini-Mark LeBaron, the first of a long line of FWD K-based Iaccoca-mobiles.
The minivan was not his idea either, but he figured it was worth a relatively low-cost gamble. And Lee hit the jackpot with it, again. It was the minivan’s much larger profits that really turned Chrysler around, and made Lee the highest paid exec in the industry, with an $18 million paycheck in 1987 (cash and stock options). Iacocca used Chrysler’s new-found riches to buy AMC from Renault, sensing (rightly) that the Jeep Cherokee was the other hot new product along with the minivan. Chrysler was on a roll.
Lee’s ego grew along (or exceeded0 the growth of Chrysler in the late 80s and early 90s, although he ended up having to be pushed out the door in 1992, as he was trying to hold on to the now-archaic Iaccoca-mobile format for way too long. And trying to make a run at buying Chrysler with his buddy Kirk Kerkorian in 1995 didn’t exactly warm the cockles of his successors.
Speaking of, Chrysler had its peak run in the mid ’90s, with the new cab-forward cars that broke the Iacocca-mobile mold as cleanly and completely as possible. But in a way, it was just all an extension of Iaccoca-thinking: lots of sizzle and not much steak. I won’t belabor the point, because it goes against the commonly-held wisdom that Chrysler was so glorious before Daimler destroyed it, but my take is a bit different. Every one of the cab-forward car lines were rushed and had lots of quality corners cut, and it ultimately came to bite Chrysler in the butt.
I’m not eager to put my generally negative feelings about Iacocca on display at this time, but we’re here to look at his professional life and judge him accordingly. I see in Lee everything that ultimately took down the Big Three: stuck in 1950’s thinking, to the end of his days. Meaning, putting the flash, fake RR grilles, tufted velour and padded roofs (among others) ahead of solid engineering, a commitment to quality, and a genuine vision for where the car industry needed to go.
Lee’s a genuine hero to many, and I have no desire to take away their adulation. But as a car guy, I’ll leave it with this: except for a brief 11-year old’s fascination with the original Mustang, there was never an Iacocca-mobile I ever really wanted, respected or admired. I reluctantly drove two; the first a 1985 Reliant for two two months as a company car. It was crude, cheap and primitive; like a something from Eastern Europe at the time. I was very happy the day I ditched it. And the other one, a ’92 Grand Caravan, we bought only because Stephanie insisted, and it ate no less than four transmissions and four ABS pumps. That was more than enough for me. Never again would an American car grace our driveway.
As they say, there’s a sucker born every minute. Sorry if this is a bit harsh, but all of this is why the Big Three don’t build anything but trucks anymore. Too bad Lido missed out on that fad, mostly. We might have had luxury pickups with giant chrome grilles a lot sooner. A Ram Imperial? One could say they’re the final incarnation of the Iaccoca-mobile, a fitting tribute to his ability to know what Americans really wanted.
I better stop before I dig myself a deeper hole. But maybe you all can find a bit more love for Lido. Bring it on…
For a more detailed look at Lee Iacocca’s life and career, the NYT has a very fair and balanced article here.
The thing I remember him for the most is igniting the self-rewarding executive bonus tradition at the expense of everyone and everything else. That is his foremost legacy today.
+1
I was just reading his obit in the NYT and expecting that Curbside Classic would take notice.
Cars that our family or I owned that Iaccoca had something to with include 1960 Ford, 1964, Ford, 1966 Mustang (briefly), 1967 Mustang, Maverick (wifes car from her family), and 1986 Plymouth Voyager. There are probably others but these are all I can recall.
I will bet that nearly every reader of CC has owned something that Iaccoca was responsible for.
You’d have to go back to my grandparents (and only on my mom’s side) to find something he’d had a hand in in our family. I hadn’t really thought about it, but my dad’s family actively eschewed Iacocca products. They were Mopar people in the 60s, they all switched to GM products in the 70s and 80s. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I remember my dad having a white hot hatred for all Mopar products, especially minivans. Come to think of it, the other side of the family stayed away for the most part too, although they did own some Iacocca Ford’s. Mom’s first car was a Maverick, and I’m pretty sure my grandpa had at least one LTD. But they all hated Iacocca Mopar.
Going through my immediate family’s list – My mom had a 1984 Aries (slow,and with a non-split bench seat in the front, quite cramped when my mom is 5’4″. My knees were pressed against the dash.) I had a 1972 Gran Torino and a 1992 Grand Cherokee… My brother-in-law’s family has a 1965 Galaxy, 1963 Falcon, and 1965 Mustang…
PS, wheni first heard of Lee Iacocca was through his work helping restore the Statue of Liberty. I was 12 at the time, and corporate CEO’s weren’t high on my radar. It was then i found out he was from Allentown, PA, which is about 20 minutes from where i lived. His Cousin, Gary, owns a chain of popular hot dog restaurants around here called Yocco’s (the PA dutch around the area pronounced the last name like that.) http://www.yoccos.com/our-story.html.
Not me. Never close. Not with a 10-foot pole. I like the Eastern Europe analogy. I did get to drive one for about 15 minutes one time, and that drive told me all I needed to know. I kept looking back to see if I was pulling a tiller or a combine or something, because the tractor engine was making so much noise. All the while, it bobbed up and down constantly, no matter how smooth the road. All this and only 55000 miles.
Thank god for guys like this one. Even when there was absolutely no reason to celebrate, they show up and make you feel like a million. After a guy gets his clock cleaned by a lawyer, an ex-wife, a boss, or an impossible task, he still needs to know that he’s worth being treated well. Lee Iaccoca gave us transportation that made us feel like we were worth it. Reminding us that hamburger could be prime rib with the right attitude, setting and sauces, Lee made us feel like a king as we ate cold meatloaf.
He was a fake. The best kind. He was the kind of fake that let us believe that things were going to be OK. We knew he was full of Iaccoca. We knew that the Imperial was really a K-Car. We really knew that the Mustang II was a Pinto. We really knew that his creations were sizzle – but by selling us the sizzle, he was also reminding us of how good things could be. Lee Iaccoca gave us hope, even when there wasn’t any.
Guys like Lee lie to us because we need to be lied to. We need someone to slap us on our sweaty backs like were their best friend. We need someone to tell us that we can have a good life. We need an arrogant gas-bag that tells us our rides are fit for a queen, reminds us that our loser son-in-law loves our daughter, convince us that our wives are still fetching young gamins, and that the American Dream is within our reach. We need loving liars because they remind us that God loves us and there are wonderful reasons we struggle to survive.
God bless Lee Iaccoca as he greets St. Peter with an idea to make heaven even more heavenly.
Well put. Lido is why I drive rock solid, reliable and boring 20 year old Saturn SL and long for a 20 year old Cadillac. The SL has most of the same features- power windows, door locks, keyless entry, a/c, remote trunk release, delay wipers, etc but lacks any presence. My old sales manager used to stress the same statement-“ Sell the sizzle, not the steak” This was the key to his success.
Yes, He did all those things for us, in the period when automotive dreaming was still the order of the day. He was in the tradition of Ned Jordan, Alfred Sloan, Harley Earl: plenty of sizzle on a cheap steak. In the course of his career, he turned in the performance and profits expected based on reading the demographics better than practically anyone in the industry.
Sure, he overlooked the major sea change in attitude that overtook the industry as the 1970’s and 1980’s wore on, all leaders sooner or latter lose their touch. A flawed hero to be sure, but influential in his time like few others. RIP Lido
I don’t think he lost his touch even near the end of his career. Far from overlooking a major sea change about to occur, he prepared Chrysler for it with one of his masterstrokes – buying AMC for an absolute pittance in 1987. For not much money Chrysler obtained some factory space, the Eagle Premier which though not successful itself would provide an evolutionary path for the post-K era, lots of engineering and management talent that would finally have some money to work with, and most importantly Jeep, perfectly timed at the cusp of the SUV boom. Jeep at the time had their still-quite-new Cherokee and Wrangler, plus the in-development Grand Cherokee that was amongst the biggest attractions. Iacocca knew Jeep was gold. The boost Jeep has given FCA’s bottom line since its formation cannot be overstated. Of course their current lineup was fashioned long after Iacocca retired, but in a world now transfixed with SUVs and their rugged image, it helps a whole lot when your company owns the genre’s most iconic brand. And for that they can thank Lee.
Interesting take on the situation. And very American, no malice implied, just noting facts.
American general thought is that anyone can make it, if they work hard and really, really apply themselves. It can be true, albeit rarely to the level Lido saw.
For a lot of the rest of the world, people understand that their lot in life is more static and is less likely than not to change much. If you are born poor, you will probably die poor. If born rich, you have a very good chance of remaining that way, or at least living in that manner, whether you have money or not.
It’s really telling that the cars that Lido is known for only sold well in this market. Selling the sizzle seems to only work on Americans.
And with that, it reminds me of the quote from Bette Davis regarding her archnemesis Joan Crawford upon Joan’s death:
“You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”
How discouraging and inaccurate. What was Jaguar selling in the 60’s and 70’s? Could it be that most mainstream European cars had no sizzle or even any meat? Best course of action in life is to accept your lot and don’t work toward anything more than your parents had in terms of education, knowledge or finances. Great way to have a better life.
We see things differently, but Jaguar (or any mainstream European) of the 60s and 70s was selling steak that sizzled, not the sizzle without the steak. The basic cars offered were not so much sold on sizzle over there, more on price. That’s why we called most of them econoboxes.
And one can work hard, get good grades and an excellent education, have great knowledge, and still not improve their life versus their parents. That is the norm right now, Millennials are finding that they have a lower net worth than their parents did at their age, adjusted for inflation. Too many paths to success are determined by who you know versus what you know or what you can do. It does not mean you cannot improve, but it does tend to suggest that any improvement will be modest.
Europeans, having more of a class based structure, understand innately that who one is born to is more of a factor in how one’s life will proceed than Americans believe. Americans believe that they can go from poverty to a millionaire by working hard. I wish it were so easy. That may work for professional athletes, but not for a normal working stiff. For every anecdote about a janitor who became CEO, there are 350 million other Americans who never got that far, and the majority were (and are) hard workers. The chance of wild success is far lower than getting hit by lightning. Americans tend to overlook that fact. It does not negate the joy of life, and one may argue that it actually removes a lot of stress as people realize that modest success, or even keeping the status quo, is actually doing as well as can be expected.
“Americans believe that they can go from poverty to a millionaire by working hard. I wish it were so easy. ”
The part that is missing is that too many people think they can spend themselves to wealth and have no idea what savings and living within ones means is. I’m far from “rich” but I am better off financially than my parents were at the same age. My kids are learning (and being taught) more about finance, saving, interest, debt than I ever did at their ages, I hope they can avoid the mistakes I made. How is it that people have trouble paying the rent or for their car or their child support but there is always enough money for a sixer of craft beer, or a pack of smokes/Juul, or another tattoo?
TImes change. The 9-5 5day a week model is dead. Working for someone else is rarely the path to sustained and secure success anymore. Grabbing opportunities that arise are the way forward, as well as not constantly paying others to do things that one can do or learn to do oneself. That goes for all age groups, I’m well aware of the difficulties some face as opposed to others. I’m also well aware of the instant gratification culture that exists to drain people of the contents of their wallets.
There is still plenty of opportunity in America, but if one is content to sit on their porch and just complain about things then they’ll never see or take advantage of those opportunities.
+1… yes to all of what you say, Jim Klein! Learning from past mistakes and using that to help your children build a better future is what all parents should aspire to.
My sister’s household has a gross annual income over $1 million per year. They’d be monsters if they were actively coaching, pushing, and expecting my niece and nephew to do better than that.
Tufted upholstery and more gold trim and wire wheel covers on the chariots?
Paul, thanks for posting this so fast, even though you had serious time constraints. When I saw the news about Iacocca’s passing, I was immediately most interested in CC’s take.
To me, Lido represented the highs and lows of the auto business, all wrapped-up in one outsized ego, reminiscent of fellow flawed titans like Lutz, DeLorean and Musk. Hogging the spotlight and elbowing others out of the way to take credit seemed second nature to Iacocca. And he surely knew how to spin the press.
When Iacocca was good, he nailed it. The first Ford Mustang was a brilliantly packaged and marketed product, as was the Lincoln Mark III. Both were nicely profitable and effectively captured the tastes of the time. While many car buffs loathe the Mustang II and Granada/Monarch, they too were canny marketing exercises that were well-timed for buying trends. Ditto for Broughams.
Problem was, Iacocca seemed to freeze in time, and never really left the Brougham epoch even when the market moved on. The dreadful FoMoCo products of the late ’70s/early ’80s demonstrated this, as did the endless array of over-chromed stretched K-Cars with vinyl toupees. They were all Lido mobiles, seemingly reflecting his grandiose tastes and penchant for glitz over substance. He even tried the schmaltz on the minivans, with the Chrysler Town & Country. Like a moth to flame, he just couldn’t stay away from the shiny objects….
All that said, one of the best “shiny objects” that caught Iacocca’s attention was Jeep. That deal arguably is the one thing that has granted Chrysler’s continued survival to this day.
RIP Lee. Your legacy will never cease to be fodder for us here at CC.
Just amazing, the brand power of Jeep. If not for Jeep, American Motors would have had chains and pad locks on the doors by ’75ish. If not for Jeep, Chrysler would have had chains and pad locks on the doors by ’96ish, as Daimler would have had no interest in it. They were just looking at the high four figure profit on every Grand Cherokee going out the door. R.I.P Lee. You were a good man despite having a ego that entered the room before the rest of you. May it always be 1964 for you.
He left his Mark (III… Grandma,) on our family. I learned to drive in a ’77 Monarch with the 200 six. I was replaced soon after I got my licencse with a Lebaron K-car. The car I owned the longest was a ’67 Mustang.
Um, if 282,000 Corvairs were sold in 1961, how does that equal 550-600,000 cars today?
Did we change our numbering system?
Scaled up for relative market sizes (total number of cars sold in ’61 vs 2019)
Ok, didn’t think of it that way. Thanks.
We haven’t seen any cars sell over 500k in many many years. Camry did 343k last year.
The other part of the equation is that in 1960 there just weren’t as many choices. Except for maybe Volkswagon, the number of imports was tiny. So you had the big three, AMC, and Studebaker.
So while the pie wasn’t as big in 1960, without the Europeans, Japanese, or Koreans it didn’t have to be cut into so many slices.
Lee Iacocca and Ronald Reagan, both heroes of a sort and generation.
I’d call the Granada the Most Iacocca Car Ever. As I’ve said before, most of his other hits were aimed squarely at his own generation (’65 LTD, the Marks, both Imperial revivals, the too-square-and-broughamy Spirit/Dynasty/etc. Probably 56 for ’56 in the early part of his career) or at the leading edge of the Baby Boomers (original Mustang, minivans) but the Granada was a car Boomers pushing 30 could look like real grownups in and their parents could downsize from that LTD without worrying they were moving down in image.
He was an engineer who realized car buyers (well, at least American car buyers) didn’t care about engineering. Maybe he was proving his point by using the tired Falcon platform for the Granada.
He went a bridge too far with the Versailles, though.
RlP Lee.
Imagine what Lee could have done as the (imported) leader of The Communist Sovjetunion, there everything was a fake. Brougham MIG 21 Fighters, malaise Sovjet toasters, padded nuclear power plants with RR grilled Moskowitch fire trucks….
Although Lee was not my kind of guy at all, I must say that in the world of cause and effect people like him caused things to happen. The rest of us are just part of the effect.
The only Iaccoca-mobile our family ever had was an early 90’s Grand Caravan which ate only one transmission. Some things never change, hopefully our 2015 GC will limit it’s appetite to the transmission it’s eaten this year.
Lee was my childhood hero growing up. I wanted to be Just. Like. Him. and read, and reread, and reread, his autobiography dozens of times. I don’t think we’ll ever see, in any industry, an executive again of his ability both as an executive and a pitchman both for himself and his company. He was his own brand before that became a thing, and a very successful brand.
In terms of Lido style, his goal was to maximise profits. he had seen the disasters of GM innovative engineering during the ’60’s with the Corvair, rope drives, turbocharging, Wankel engines, FWD Toronados and aluminum V8s and decided sensibly that these were expensive and doomed projects. People wanted a cushy car, with lots of glitter, which could be produced inexpensively and sold at high margins. Whatever it costs to put an extra interior light package and a vinyl roof and fancier upholstery and a fancy grille on a car costs a lot less and is far more profitable than expensive engineering that the customer will reject or find troublesome. The Pinto wasn’t hugely advanced but it did have an overhead cam engine and rack and pinion steering which have become go to parts for anyone looking to modernise a hot rod. For 1971, it was at least as advanced as anything from across either ocean. He might have stuck with his vision too long, but he was instrumental in Neon development as well, so he could belatedly see that times had changed.
I’ll disagree with Paul re the quality issues to an extent. Even though the Omnirizon and K car were in development when Lee came to Chrysler, Lee made sure they weren’t the quality disasters the Aspen/Volare had been. In 1978, no domestic manufacturer had anything comparable to the Omnirizon, an efficient, roomy, modern car with room for four adults plus luggage as compared to the Chevette, which was not efficient or modern, or the cramped Pinto. The Omnirizon could be optiioned up as well to provide the levels of comfort Americans were used to like the Accord.
Consider the quality disaster that was the X, and the Fairmonts/early Escorts/Tempazes were not anywhere close to meeting Japanese quality standards. Iacocca at least was ahead of them, and the K was a far better car than the Cavalier in both execution and quality.
I had an ’86 600 convertible as my first car and it was a solid, nicely trimmed, robust little car. Was it supremely refined? Probably not, but it was better than the domestic competition of the time. As a convertible, it was quite a lot of fun.
Could Lee have developed a Chrysler Camry, in terms of quality and refinement? Should the K have been replaced by around 1986 as the Taurus came out? Yes, absolutely. One of the problems was that the minivan was so popular and so profitable, Chrysler couldn’t do the minivan well and the sedans well, and let the sedans wither on the vine. It was a profitable decision at the time but led to Chrysler’s downfall later. Additionally, Lee saw the value of adding Jeep and put Chrysler’s energies there. There was only so much leadership to go around.
Comparing Lido with other domestic executives, Chrysler still ended up thriving in the ’80’s even though it wasn’t doing so well by the early ’90’s, but let’s not forget that GM came within a hair’s breadth of bankruptcy in 1991/1992 and Ford was struggling as well. Yes, Chrysler should have developed better, newer sedans earlier and met the Japanese challenge more strongly, but with limited resources, Lido played his hand very, very well.
It’s fitting in some way that I’m driving our ‘12 VW Routan for the last time today, getting new tires before we gift it to our pastor to replace a 230K mile Uplander on its last legs.
It’s the fifth Chrysler platform minivan we’ve owned, and will be the last – succeeded by a Buick Regal TourX.
We only had transmission problems with one of the five, a gen-3 ‘98 GC, and then not until it hit 280K miles.
That’s a great way to get rid of a minivan. We dropped our daughter off at camp on Sunday, and saw our old 2007 Caravan still doing the job 🙂
Iacocca was a salesman at heart, and was probably the best in his generation of auto execs of being able to know what the customer wanted and how to deliver it.
I would argue that his tenure at Chrysler may be a better measure of the man than his time at Ford, if only because he was never truly the man with all of the power there. But at Chrysler he assembled his team and ran things his way.
He should get credit for bringing a level of management and systems that Chrysler had never known in the modern era. He brought Chrysler into position as the most profitable of the Big 3 and I would argue that the quality of stuff under his tenure was probably better than before it or certainly after it.
We do have his family to thank for Yocco’s Hot Dogs in Allentown, PA, the best stop between NYC and Hershey and IIRC, part of what put Lido thru school.. The Iacoccas were a true immigrant success story. I’m surprised none of the obits have mentioned that as it was something I think he felt pride in. This is a great rundown of the life of an executive, such an accurate assessment of Lee, and a snapshot of postwar America in a nutshell. Nice one, Paul.
Never again would an American car grace our driveway.
How about a Fiat van built in Mexico by FCA, with a genuine Chrysler minivan engine and transmission? Does that count? 🙂
Mya – yes, that is important to me. I grew up around Italians and as an adult I like and admire them very much. Lee was not exactly an easy fit in the WASP, mid-west culture of Ford at Dearborn, Michigan. That could be why Henry the Deuce hated him. I don’t know. But I do admire him for his success on such a big, important stage given his unusual (for upper management) heritage.
And also, my mom loved her ’66 Mustang coupe. So there’s that too.
Great write-up, Paul.
I agree with your summary, and you really nailed it in a concise way.
The comment thread is particularly enjoyable to read this time around as well.
Everyone makes good points, positive and negative.
Mr. Iacocca and his legacy will always be an interesting topic to discuss.
I think the top picture, with Lee leaning on the original Mustang some ten years after it’s introduction, tells the Iaccoca story in a single shot. For better or worse, Lee was the “Father of the Mustang,” and he never desired another title.
Clearly, he accomplished much over the next 30 years, but he continued to define himself based on this early accomplishment.
In fact, I can picture the Chrysler PR team gently explaining to him that he CAN’T roll out a Wimbledon White Mustang coupe during the K-CAR introduction party.
No holds barred. One of a kind type man. Love him… hate him, what a life he had.
Thank you Lee for the Mustang. Thank you for the beautiful Mark III.
Thank you for heading, under President Reagan… the Foundation (SOLEIF), to raise private money for the massive restoration project on The Statue of Liberty.
And, although not directly involved, without what you did back in the day, I likely wouldn’t have my 300S right now. A car that I love to drive, and even just look at… more than any I’ve owned in years. She’ll get an extra coat of Carnauba this weekend in your honor.
You shall be missed by some… maybe not so much by others. But, RIP Good Sir 👍
The lead circa 1974 picture does sum up Iacocca – father of the Mustang (this one has an optional vinyl roof) with a Monarch & Granada behind it built on the same then 15 y/o platform as the Mustang. Instead of bashing Japanese cars he should tried to understand why consumers were buying them – because cars built by Japanese automakers (some US built) offered reliability, durability, with surprise and delight interiors that offered coin and cup holders and things like fully adjustable comfortable seats.
Iaccoca did make major contributions to the American automotive scene, but don’t forget the Pinto was internally know at Ford as “Lee’s Car”.
It just occurred to me that my father was perhaps typical of how the market changed in the 80s. He was a child of the depression, so was very careful with money, carefully scrutinizing Consumer Reports to try to get the best balance of performance and value on everything he bought. When the house was paid for and the kids were grown (well, mostly), he decided he could replace the miserly and cramped mustard yellow 6-cylinder Comet (Iacocca-mobile #1) with a bit more plush Monarch (Iacocca-mobile #2). It had all the brougham touches (pleated seats, vinyl roof, V8, cruise, air conditioning) that made him feel like it was a treat.
But owning it never really fulfilled the promise. Fit and finish were poor, the performance was ho-hum, the steering was numb, and the reliability was lousy. When my oldest sister came home with a new Honda Accord a year later, dad took note of the build quality, and all the thoughtful little features – like the coin box and the remote trunk release – that were STANDARD equipment, not options. He noticed how it never broke down. So, when the rear seal on the Monarch’s 302 let go after just 5 years, dad headed for the Honda store. It didn’t bother him that the little Honda would cost more than a bigger American car. What mattered was that it arrived with zero defects.
He would buy 3 Accords in the next decade, and would never give an American brand another look.
Paint it nipple pink and sell it to a sucker could have been his battle cry, R.I.P. Lee.
I read his autobiography about 30 years ago and I still remember a lot of stories from it.
I read that too back when. Do you remember it giving him credit for the Mercury Bobcat, but not the Pinto?
It’s not a big deal, but how is his surname really spelled? There are two different spellings among the main body text and the Comments. One Comment has it spelled both ways in the same comment.
Lee Iacocca. I don’t see it spelled otherwise in the text, but maybe my spellcheck is tricking me. It doesn’t like “Iacocca”, and keeps suggesting Iaccoca.
When Chrysler employees needed to remember how to spell his last name, they would recite:
“I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation Always,”
I’m using the Chrome browser on a Windows laptop, and the spell check keeps insisting “amongst” is misspelled. How else are you supposed to spell amongst?
I found it, Paul:
“Lee’s ego grew along (or exceeded0 the growth of Chrysler in the late 80s and early 90s, although he ended up having to be pushed out the door in 1992, as he was trying to hold on to the now-archaic Iaccoca-mobile format for way too long. And trying to make a run at buying Chrysler with his buddy Kirk Kerkorian in 1995 didn’t exactly warm the cockles of his successors.”
There is another in the next paragraph. Both sre hyphenated, which could throw off Spellcheck.
Reading “Curbside Classic: 1990-1993 Chrysler Imperial – The Last Imperial; The Last Iacocca-mobile.” I found Lido’s surname spelled differently IN THE SAME SENTENCE:
“Of course it was bestowed the ubiquitous Iacocca “cap” and of course the other trappings of Iaccoca-mobiles.”
Love him or hate him, he was as influential as The Beatles in the 60’s. Maybe even more so.
Yes, but his Sargeant Pepper album was just “Meet The Iacocca” recycled with only cosmetic changes…😁
Paul, if you do want to go to Lee Iacocca’s funeral:
Lee Iacocca’s funeral arrangements set for next week in Oakland County
Ann Zaniewski, Detroit Free Press
Published 9:51 p.m. ET July 3, 2019
Funeral services have been scheduled for next week for Lee Iacocca, the legendary auto executive who died Tuesday at age 94.
Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. Tuesday at Lynch & Sons Funeral Home, 1368 N. Crooks Road in Clawson.
A funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Hugo of the Hills, 2215 Opdyke Road in Bloomfield Hills. Burial will follow at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy.
I hope that someone drives up to Lee’s visitation or funeral Mass in a 1975 Ford Granada with the ‘250’ six. Mustang’s are plentiful and ~anyone~ could drive to Clawson in one of those . . . but a ’75 Granada Malaise-mobile churning down the highway in 2019 toward Bloomfield Hills would be a nice touch for Lee’s final send-off. I think.
Like a moth to a flame, I seem drawn to Mr, Iaccoca’s chariots — my family, too, since I had an uncle who worked at Chrysler’s Fenton, Mo., plant for decades. Thirty years ago, brother gave me a ’78 Monarch with 40k that had that ’70s sizzle — six-cylinder power, vinyl roof, sport wheels, plush interior. When my mom died in the early ’90s, she left me her 4-door ’83 base Reliant, which was a reliable runabout. In subsequent years, I bought a 2-door ’86 LeBaron hardtop and a ’95 LeBaron convertible.
In fact, the “sizzle” comment got my attention, because I like sizzle. I love driving convertibles, and Lee Iacocca brought the drop-top back into the reach of somebody of my relatively moderate means. He believed there were enough open-air-driving fans to justify making convertibles available to the masses once again, after ragtops had virtually disappeared for the better part of a decade. Thanks to the LeBaron — and its Sebring successors — I have lived my automotive open-air dream for 20 years. My experience has been largely problem-free — or, at least, largely free of large problems.
What is “sizzle” but a sign of dreams, aspiration and eternal hope? I thank Lee Iaccoca for injecting a bit of pizzazz into an industry that, too often, relies on ordinary, cookie-cutter, appliances. Yep, there’s no question that Iacocca learned heavily on the same recipe, but at least he dared to diversify the product into packages answered the wants and needs of a lot of varying tastes.
Godspeed, sir.
My dad still has the book on Iacocca’s autobiography (literally called “Iacocca: An Autobiography”) & I’ve read through it several times finding out what all happened when he was at Ford and then Chrysler; yes possibly being run for presidency too. He even had plans for a Ford-Chrysler merger! My mom’s 1st car was a blue 1983 Plymouth Horizon (the one below is an ’84 but otherwise nearly identical), not really an Iacocca-mobile but its basic platform (the L-car) was used for the K-cars as well as the first minivans. Without Iacocca I know 3 things would be certain today: there would be no Mustang, there would be no Grand Caravan (or any other minivan for that matter), & Chrysler would’ve been dead by the middle of the 80s.
“Never again would an American car grace our driveway.”
‘How about a Fiat van built in Mexico by FCA, with a genuine Chrysler minivan engine and transmission? Does that count?’
You made a comment on your own article Paul! 🙂
Say what you want, but when Mr. Iacocca gets to the pearly gates…just put on a set of headlights!
When I think back on my long history of car buying, I have never bought a “Big 3” brand for my own use. Yes, I have had a couple of captive imports, but not any mainstream Detroit product.
That’s because they never made anything on which I was going to spend my hard earned scratch. For me, it has always been about the steak and not the sizzle. Looking back, all my daily drivers were cars of substantial meat and very muted sizzle. I have always like the Q-Ship model for my cars: a seemingly pedestrian device that is going fast. Nobody gets it and I get away with more than the average driver, I think.
Lido, in my opinion, epitomises the whole steak and sizzle aspect. North American culture is all about sizzle. I mean, who really needs a 3000 kg truck that costs $80k to go to Safeway? Said truck is using archaic technology but it really doesn’t matter: no matter what, they are going to sell like crazy. Sizzle is so prevalent in the Detroit makers, even today, they have given up on making anything that is not huge.
I kind of reminds me of 1973, 1979 and 2008 in many ways.
We, including extended family, never owned one of his creations. While there was a Chevy and VW in our driveway in the mid/late 1960’s, there seemed to be a Mustang in half the driveways on the block. There was a small Ford dealership a block away.
The Caravan is the only vehicle I admired, primarily for it’s super efficient packaging. Drove a rare stick shift cargo version that a friend owned, the only Lidomobile I would have considered buying.
Paul, Lee was around for Chrysler to be deep into its fancy truck with a big chrome grille. The Big Rig Ram would have been introduced on Lee’s watch if Chrysler had the money. Instead Chrysler spent its money on the minivan refresh and Grand Cherokee. A pretty good decision IMO.