100 years of Chrysler - The car is older than the company
Walter P. Chrysler (April 2, 1875 - August 18, 1940) came from a family of railroad workers. His father was an engineer with the Pacific Railroad in Kansas. His son was supposed to go to college. But Walter loved mechanics and started as a mechanic in the workshop of a railroad company at the age of 17. He worked his way up and soon became workshop manager. He changed jobs several times and on each occasion took a job with a little more responsibility. He soon proved to be a skilled production specialist with a flair for increasing efficiency. His credo was: "Give a demanding task to a lazy person in charge, he will find ways and means to master the job required of him with less effort!"
Walter P. had already bought a car in 1908, a Locomobile, but it was supposed to cost $5,000, while Chrysler only had $700 in his account at the time. However, he was so taken with the idea of having his own car that he borrowed 4300 dollars and bought the car. Afterwards, he, who had never driven a car before, is said to have dismantled it in order to understand how it worked.
Charles Nash, then head of General Motors, persuaded Chrysler, when he was 36, to work at General Motors as director of Buick. He did so at half the salary he had previously earned in his job at the American Locomotive Company in Pittsburgh. There he had earned a princely 12,000 dollars a year. Chrysler was nevertheless a success. When William Durant was able to take the helm again at GM from 1915 after being temporarily thrown out of his own company - his success with Chevrolet allowed him to buy back his old company - the two strong characters had different views on how the business should be run. Chrysler left GM, but not in disagreement, as Durant and Walter P. remained friends for the rest of their lives. Shortly afterwards, Walter P. Chrysler was in business with two manufacturers: Willys Overland and the Maxwell Motor Company. As late as 1923, Chrysler had a car designed for the ailing Maxwell company, which was announced as the Chrysler Six. Instead of exhibiting the new car at the New York Motor Show, Walter P. had it displayed in the lobby of the Commodore Hotel on January 5, 1924 (see the postcard for this event), not without having informed the trade press representatives who were already in town. This premature launch secured Walter P. the financing for his "Six", later also known as the Chrysler 70, one of the first production cars ever with hydraulic four-wheel brakes.
But the company, the Chrysler Corporation, was only founded on June 6, 1925, 100 years ago yesterday, out of the Maxwell Motor Company. 100 years is definitely a reason to celebrate! We will come back to this later.
