Chrysler’s usual outside savior

Traditionally, Chrysler Corporation, Maxwell Motors, and the other incarnations that are part of Stellantis today have had a surefire way to save the company: bringing in a savior from the outside.

Before a single decade was up, Maxwell Motors was saved by Walter Flanders, who bought the company and brought it back to life. Then Walter Chrysler’s team bought the company around a decade after that, and put it onto such an even keel that it kept going, sometimes at the edge of disaster, for decades. Then Lynn Townsend, hired from an accounting firm, was put onto the fast-track to the presidency and did his own bit, modernizing, investing here and cutting there, and globalizing to success, until he, like the Walters to varying degrees, withdrew and let others screw things up.

The board famously brought in Lee Iacocca from Ford, who did the same—rescued the company, then let it slide towards bankruptcy again, saved largely by Francois Castaing from AMC and Bob Lutz from GM. After Daimler took over and turned the company’s successes into more failures, Dieter Zetsche was assigned to lead Chrysler into submission and turned out to be surprisingly good news. Finally, in a bankruptcy brought largely by Cerberus’ desire to avoid spending any of its own money, Sergio Marchionne stepped in and brought Chrysler back from the brink, only to toss it back in again.

These stories have a lot in common; few companies in the world have probably turned to outsiders quite as many times for miraculous rescues. Transformational leaders are admittedly famous for performing miracles and then getting bored and letting things fall apart again. But today, there’s talk of an outside once again turning around what is now Stellantis North America (STLA NA).

Some think it will be Tim Kuniskis, after Automotive News wrote today that dealers wanted him back and the board might agree. He’s not as much of an outsider as he could be, but he would join long-ago president “Tex” Colbert in retiring and then coming back to rescue what-is-left-of-Chrysler. Some could point to Antonio Filosa, who has been patching up relations with dealers and may be the fresh air STLA NA seems to need. There are many other options from inside and outside Stellantis; but history points to an outsider or, perhaps, a de-retirement. One never knows.

David Zatz became all too well acquainted with Chrysler history and its many outside saviors while writing Chrysler Century, a book celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Chrysler marque (far right in the image). It is now available in a cheaper text-only version.