A pioneer of automotive history passed away on July 2, 2019. Lee Iacocca was born on October 15, 1924 in Pennsylvania and was already interested in cars as a boy. He was often to be found at the local Ford dealership, as he was taken with the brand.
After completing his engineering studies, the American with Italian roots began working as a trainee at Ford. The year was 1946 and Iacocca quickly jumped up the ranks and by 1949 was already sales manager at the Ford Chester unit in Pennsylvania. It quickly became apparent that he had a knack for selling cars. Iacocca himself once said in an interview that he wanted to sell cars, not build them.
He developed a new strategy to boost the business. The method later known as the "Iacocca Plan" was a form of leasing. For just USD 56 per month, you could drive a brand new 1956 Ford. This had a corresponding impact on Chester's figures.
But by far Iacocca will be remembered by posterity as one of the midwives of the Ford Mustang. From 1964, he was General Manager of the Ford Division and played a key role in the development of the Mustang and is now regarded as a co-founder of the pony car era.
In 1965, Iacocca became vice president of Ford's car and truck production and, from 1970, president of the entire Ford Motor Company. Together with Henry Ford and Philip Caldwell, they held power over Ford like an ancient triumvirate.
Ford's departure in 1978 was due to personal differences with Henry Ford. Iacocca then went straight into the top management of Chrysler, at the time an ailing company on the verge of bankruptcy. He completely restructured Chrysler, also with the help of loans (approx. USD 1.5 billion) from the Carter administration, and put the company back on the road to success. By 1983, the company was back in the black.
Part of the success was also due to the new compact models (K-Car System). Iacocca had already proposed a similar idea to Ford, but was rebuffed. The product range was not totally flawless, but in terms of quality it was light years better than its predecessors.
Unfortunately, his beloved wife died of diabetes in the same year. As a result of this dramatic experience, Iacocca founded the Lee Iacocca Foundation, which set itself the goal of finding a cure for the disease.
In 1993, he left Chrysler because the Supervisory Board had called for a generational change. In retrospect, he decided that he had chosen the wrong successor, as the company soon merged with Daimler to form DaimlerChrysler Union. A quote from Iacocca: "Resist the urge to merge." Which means: Resist the urge to merge.
After his retirement, he turned his full attention to his diabetes foundation. Lee Iacocca passed away on July 2, 2019 as a result of Parkinson's disease. The automotive community will miss him.
