Speaker 1: In 2005, Chrysler sold 649,293 cars spread across seven models. Historically, it has been one of the most recognizable names in the U.S. auto industry, one third of the so-called Big Three, the three major American automakers. Now, 20 years later, the brand has nearly disappeared. The only vehicle it currently makes is a minivan.

Speaker 2: Unfortunately, it was that the heyday was 20 years ago and more. And over time, it just wasn't getting the attention and the investment that it deserved.

Speaker 1: An enthusiast news outlet summed it up by saying Chrysler, once an industrial giant, is a shell of a brand. It is now just one of 14 brands in the stable of Stellantis, a struggling European-American automaker. Top managers had said they would consider killing brands that aren't meeting targets. One of founder Walter P. Chrysler's heirs fears that Chrysler could be one of them.

Speaker 3: I've seen the brand slowly whittle away over the years, but I feel I'm on a mission to protect some very important, iconic brands, part of American history that we do not want to lose.

Speaker 1: Chrysler says at least three new vehicles are on the way, including an updated version of its only product.

Speaker 2: Chrysler Grand is here to stay. It is being well invested in. The brand is not on the table for elimination and it has a very bright future.

Speaker 1: Chrysler is one of the four brands that used to make up what once was known as the Chrysler Corporation. There have been others throughout its long history.

Speaker 4: Examples Plymouth, Eagle, DeSoto. Companies like Chrysler have a foothold and a significance in the history of industry in the United States of America. Like it's a foundational company. It's one of the companies they pioneered lots of different things. They were foundational in getting us to the point where we are now with personal transportation and the automotive industry as we know it.

Speaker 1: The Chrysler Corporation was and in spite of its current European ownership is sort of still considered one of the big three or Detroit three, along with Ford and General Motors. It has had a colorful and often difficult history.

Speaker 2: Walter Chrysler founded the company in the brand. It was his intention to deliver vehicles that were beautifully designed with thoughtful innovation and features and top notch engineering and quality all at affordable price.

Speaker 1: It nearly went bankrupt in 1980 and then actually did in 2009. To be fair, so did General Motors, fellow D3 giant. Chrysler has been owned by a private equity firm, by Mercedes-Benz, by Italian maker Fiat, and in 2021, it merged with French maker Group PSA to form Stellantis. The latest arrangement has suffered turmoil after a record year of profits. In 2023, the dealers that sell the North American brands sent an open letter severely criticizing management, especially CEO Carlos Tavares. Not long after, Tavares suddenly resigned. Despite their challenges over the decades, these brands have managed to endure and even succeed.

Speaker 5: The thing that comes across is is that ability to develop to develop products that are consistent with the DNA and Jeep and Ram and Dodge are doing that really well.

Speaker 1: But Chrysler was never able to carve out a similar niche. Its only models in production are the Voyager and Pacifica, basically different versions of the same product. Chrysler is credited with mainstreaming these vehicles and is leading the segment. But minivans are all but disappearing from the market. In addition, the minivans are made in Ontario, Canada, and the incoming Trump administration is threatening a 25 percent tariff on all products imported from the country. Chrysler told CNBC it is looking forward to working with the president elect. Sales have increased since the pandemic and the segment is targeting some new buyers.

Speaker 2: Empty nesters, single people and couples with pets, young people who are very outdoor active. I'm proud to say that when I came into leading the brand in 2021, we've recaptured segment leadership and we've held that for the last three and a half years.

Speaker 1: Chrysler was meant to be a premium or near luxury brand, but its problem was that some of its recent owners decided its stablemates did a better job of serving that market.

Speaker 6: The Chrysler was meant to be the luxury vehicle. So think about Lincoln and Cadillac, and that's what Chrysler was meant to be. But sometime in the in the 80s, that notion was destroyed. Right. And so Chrysler's were just rebadged Plymouths and Dodges and nothing special about them. And recovering that became very difficult because it had persisted for a long time. If you want to look at the cars that that corporation makes now that are the closest to being luxury cars, their Jeeps, you know, they're the wagon, the Grand Wagoneer.

Speaker 1: Apart from the Jeep strategy, after Fiat bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2009, it sought to position its European brands, especially Maserati and Alfa Romeo, as the new company's main premium and luxury names. Chrysler's reputation for poor quality didn't help.

Speaker 6: Even if you made a Chrysler that was really like in every way, an engineer could go over it with a fine tooth comb and say, man, this is every bit as good as a Mercedes. People wouldn't pay as much as they'll pay for a Mercedes because it'll have a Chrysler badge on it and they're going to be like, well, you know, what are my neighbors going to say about that?

Speaker 1: Of course, some say these strategies haven't worked out all that well either. Alfa Romeo sold fewer than 7000 cars in the U.S. through the third quarter of 2024. Some blame Jeep's sales declines on its aggressive move up market. It wasn't always like this.

Speaker 7: The 90s and 2000s were good years for Chrysler. In the 90s, the Chrysler brand really benefited from, you know, the sort of an overall revival at Chrysler Corporation, bold, risk taking, a little outlandish.

Speaker 4: We're talking about the same broader company that made the Prowler. I mean, who makes an open wheel, hot rod, retro looking thing in the middle of, they did. That was risk taking. The Hellcat is risk taking. That's the kind of thing that needs to come back in order for people to look to Chrysler again.

Speaker 1: The PT Cruiser's retro styling polarized opinion, inspiring both ridicule and devotion. Still, it sold well, 1.3 million during its 10 year run. But there were also more conventional vehicles such as the Chrysler 300, which in 2005 sold nearly as well as the Jeep Liberty, a high volume, midsize SUV and nearly twice as well as the Wrangler. That was a car that really just took the market by storm. I mean, everybody had to have one. Cars like the 300 embody what many argue was Chrysler's true identity, an affordable combination of upscale design and performance.

Speaker 4: They brought us to a point where we started to equate power with luxury. And I think that's still true.

Speaker 1: Founder Walter P. Chrysler, who had already built a reputation as a kind of turnaround executive at brands such as Buick and Willis Overland, began working with some ex Studebaker engineers in 1920. The plan, make affordable luxury cars. Their first, the 1924 Chrysler 6, came with a pretty modest sticker price. Walter also had four children. Frank Rhodes is the grandchild of one of the daughters, a very diehard

Speaker 3: Chrysler person. It was like six months before she passed away. I think Chrysler was going bankrupt at the time. And she says, do what you can to keep the engine running.

Speaker 1: And that's all I've been doing ever since. In August 2024, Rhodes wrote an open letter to Stellantis saying he wanted to acquire the Chrysler, Dodge and Mopar brands. I don't have an actual monetary proposal.

Speaker 3: I just want to see what Stellantis is going to do and what the executives are going to do to make this right for our country and keep these brands alive. This is an American icon.

Speaker 2: He was planting a seed or making a suggestion that if the intention was to not invest in Chrysler or Dodge going forward, that perhaps another path could be an investor group purchasing the brands from Stellantis and making sure that they live on for the future. But I can assure you that both brands have a really bright future in the Stellantis portfolio.

Speaker 1: In a public statement, Stellantis said none of its brands are for sale. Rumors and reports of Chrysler's potential demise have circulated as its lineup has shrunk and sales slowed.

Speaker 2: I just want to set the record straight and bust some of those myths that Chrysler's future is intact. It's being invested in and we will continue to grow the brand for the foreseeable future.

Speaker 1: To illustrate what lies ahead, Chrysler has unveiled some concept vehicles over the last two years, a 2022 crossover called the Airflow, which will not be going into production. And in 2024, a sporty coupe called the Halcyon.

Speaker 2: We found a new audience for a really cool, sporty looking coupe. And if you take a look at the design elements of that vehicle, both on the exterior and interior, it is very much the direction that our future design language is going in across the entire portfolio. So very modern, sleek, not overly complicated in terms of design cues and elements, but just very clean.

Speaker 7: As far as the Halcyon goes, well, that to me is just smacking of pure concept car fancy. I mean, you know, it's got a fully glass cockpit, you know, kind of like a jet fighter. I mean, pretty much all of it is unfeasible for an actual real production car.

Speaker 1: But Chrysler did say some kind of production version is in the works.

Speaker 2: I mentioned the Halcyon concept that we are working on bringing to market in a real industrialized form that's affordable for customers as well.

Speaker 1: In the short term, it is focusing on the Pacifica and Voyager minivans, a refreshed Pacifica in 2026 with a new exterior design. The powertrain on that will be an updated version of the plug-in hybrid system on the current model, one shared with the Jeep 4XE models. A full battery EV minivan will come out later. The company didn't specify a date. Chrysler will still offer the 3.6 liter gas version through the end of the decade. In 2026, it also plans to release a large crossover that will come out in both fully electric and hybrid versions. The company is confident the new lineup will help repair the relationship with dealers that has plagued all the American Stellantis names.

Speaker 2: We've shown the silhouettes and the properties to dealers, and they just cannot wait to get these products on their lots. We've also done market research with consumers because we wanted to make sure that this new direction that we're taking Chrysler brand in is going to meet their expectations. And their jaws just dropped at how beautiful the cars look. And they were literally saying, if this is the direction that Chrysler is going in, sign me up.

Speaker 7: I think going forward, it's critical for Chrysler to regain some of that spirit of outlandishness and emotion. And, you know, these were these Chrysler products that we've been talking about. These are all products that really hit people in the fields.