Forward Look, '63 Style
While other automakers look back on Model Year 1962 with satisfaction, about the only thing the men at Chrysler Corp. can be thankful for is that it is finally over. The styling of its '625, which Chrysler called "European," was so out of pace with public taste that Chrysler's share of the market is now only 9.1,% against 18% five years ago. But last week, showing off its new models to newsmen, Chrysler's brass summoned up a heady optimism for '63. Reason: the fast turn-around given to the company's models and management by new President Lynn Alfred Townsend, 43, a tall, budget-watching accountant.
Gone with the Fins. Chrysler's famous flaring tail fins, which began shrinking last year, have given way almost completely to uncluttered, lightly chromed lines that Detroit likes to call "clean." Chrysler has not hesitated to borrow styling from its rivals and end up looking quite a bit like them. While lead times did not permit Townsend to completely redesign the PLYMOUTH and DODGE, they do look different from the '625, and the main change is a flat roof on each that closely resembles the top deck of Ford's racy Thunderbird. The compact VALIANT is chunkier than in '62 (and looks more like Rambler's successful American); and Dodge's compact LANCER, instead of being a look-alike to the Valiant, is more mas sive. In a confusing name switch, the Lancer has been renamed DART, and last year's Dart is called DODGE.
Viewed from the rear, the middle-priced CHRYSLER looks something like an elongated Rolls-Royce, and the higher-priced IMPERIAL (which got only 0.13% of the '62 market) has shucked its showy tail lamps for unobtrusive ones set in the subdued remains of its fins. In a new bid to carve into Volkswagen's small-car mar ket, Chrysler late this year will introduce the rear-engined, French-built Simca MILLE (Chrysler owns 24% of Simca).
Off with the White Collars. The new U.S. models result from Townsend's $50 million hurry-up restyling program, which he ordered after becoming administrative vice president two years ago. He imported a new styling chief, Elwood Engel, 45, from Ford last fall, too late to do much more than alter taillights and grilles. Engel's touch, which fashioned Ford's 1961 Lincoln Continental, will be felt in the Chrysler '645. For inspiration he plans to visit Cape Canaveral to watch the mis siles fly by. "Can't you just imagine," he remarks, "how beautiful one of those things would look on four wheels?" Townsend's rigid quality-control pro gram enabled the company to cut its warranty costs on the '62 models by 30%, and Chrysler now offers a five-year war ranty on '63 motors and drive mechanisms. Says a top Chrysler man: "Three years ago we would have gone broke paying claims on this kind of warranty." With the backing of Chairman George Love, 61, who supervises policy while Townsend directs operations, Townsend has chopped Chrysler's white-collar staff by one third (7,000). closed obsoles cent plants, consolidated divisions. This brought the company's "break-even" point so low that Chrysler, despite its poor sales, earned $12 million in 1962's first half.
Where existing dealerships are weak, Townsend has also begun to open company-owned dealerships--a program that may cost up to $240 million over the next ten years. Chrysler has also been doing well at the Pentagon. It recently landed a $200 million contract to build the first stage of the Saturn rocket, and last week it was chosen from a field of eight to become one of the two remaining bidders (the other: Ling-Temco-Vought) to build a new Army battlefield rocket.
How much of the '63 auto market does Townsend expect to land? "I wouldn't want to guess," he smiles, "because I might guess too low." But since Chrysler now manages to make a profit in adversity, one of his top aides says that even a small rise would cause such a big spurt "that we'd have to stand out of the way of all those profits rolling in."
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.