Chrysler, the third-largest auto company in the United States, declared bankruptcy in 2009. Chrysler, who has a history of 84 years, has undergone several reorganizations and returned to life. After all, it is impossible to escape the fate of bankruptcy.
"Three big cars" dominate the US auto industry
The American automobile industry started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the beginning, it was just a piecemeal sale, ordering parts from bicycle and horse-drawn car manufacturers and mechanics, and assembling a limited number of cars to meet the needs of the upper class.
In 1903, Ford and GM's predecessor, Buick, were founded. In 1908, Ford introduced the T-type car, which led to the revolution in the automotive industry. The T-type combines new technologies and new production methods to create assembly lines, which in turn greatly reduces costs and prices.
After the first assembly line was established in 1914, the car was transformed from the luxury of the rich to the daily consumer goods of ordinary people. Large-scale markets have been created, technology and scale have immediately become the way to survive in the automotive industry, and bankruptcy and mergers have become commonplace.
By the 1920s, cars had penetrated the lives of ordinary Americans. It is in these 10 years that 60% of auto companies have closed down, and the remaining GM, Ford, and Chrysler "three big cars" have become the dominant force in the US auto industry.
GM combines career management, market forecasting, and technology development to create fierce competition in the low-end market through the creation of cheap cars and Ford. Chrysler took the luxury road and smashed it in this scuffle.
Chrysler was founded in 1925 by restructuring the bankrupt Maxwell Motor Company. It was quite difficult for a car company to start in 1925. At that time, the GM and Ford giants were engaged in a brutal price war and technological innovation competition, leaving little room for small companies to survive.
More importantly, by 1923, the US auto market was basically saturated. Chrysler started with the genius founder Walter Percy Chrysler.
The rise of Chrysler
Walter Chrysler's father was a Canadian-born train engineer. Influenced by the family, Walter Chrysler loved machinery since childhood. When he graduated from high school in 1892, he decided to become a mechanic and started his career at a local train repair shop. He soon became a senior mechanic.
At the Chicago Auto Show in 1908, he bought an automatic car, dismantled it and reorganized it. In 1911, he entered the Buick Company (now part of General Motors), became the manager of the production department, and was promoted to the position of president and general manager of the production department within 4 years, with an annual salary of up to 500,000 US dollars.
GM was founded on the acquisition of several companies, including a train manufacturing company. Chrysler was a versatile GM and became vice president of GM in 1919. But because GM's ownership changed hands, he resigned in the same year and became a 45-year-old millionaire.
After retirement, he has always maintained his interest in machinery and constantly designed and assembled his own car. In 1924, he finally created a new six-cylinder Chrysler. This is a high-tech high-end model that uses technologies such as carburetor air filtration, high-pressure engines, pressure lubrication, and gasoline filters that are not available in most vehicles.
In particular, his own four-wheel hydraulic brakes, rubber damping engine system, and the ridges that prevent the tires from running out of the wheel after running, greatly improve the performance and safety of the car. At the same time, the price is lower than expected.
Also relying on these technical costs, he restructured the bankrupt Maxwell Motor Company into a very competitive Chrysler company in 1925. Luxury is the brand of Chrysler.
At this time, the US auto industry has become the largest industry in the United States, and even the Great Depression is hard to bring it down. In the deep valley of the Great Depression of the 1930s, cars became the first consumer goods to overwhelm telephones, bathtubs, and telephones. Although the market downturn forced the three major cars to halve production in 1932, by 1933, all three began to regain profits.