Chrysler

Walter Chrysler established Chrysler Corporation on 6 June 1925 when he reorganised the Maxwell Motor Company, which he had been brought in to rescue in the early 1920s after a similar turnaround at Willys-Overland. The original 1924 Chrysler Six offered features unusual for the era: a carburetor air filter, high-compression engine, full pressure lubrication, an oil filter, and among the first practical mass-produced four-wheel hydraulic brakes — a system largely engineered by Chrysler with patents assigned to Lockheed. Rubber engine mounts, marketed as "Floating Power," reduced vibration beyond what competitors offered. A distinctive ridged rim wheel, designed to prevent a deflated tire from leaving the wheel, was later adopted industry-wide. These engineering innovations helped push Chrysler to second place in US sales by 1936, a position it held until 1949.

In 1928, Chrysler began structuring its range by price class. Plymouth was introduced at the low end; DeSoto entered the medium-price field; Chrysler acquired the Dodge Brothers automobile and truck company and continued the Dodge line and Fargo trucks. The Imperial name, used since 1926 as the top-of-the-line Chrysler model, became a separate make and division in 1955 to compete with Lincoln and Cadillac, giving the company five distinct marques in price order: Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, and Imperial. DeSoto was discontinued in 1961.

In 1955, Chrysler and Philco jointly announced the world's first all-transistor car radio, the Mopar model 914HR, offered as a $150 option on the 1956 Imperial. In 1957, Chrysler announced the first production electronic fuel injection (EFI) as an option on 1958 models including the Chrysler 300D and Dodge D500, using Bendix Corporation's Electrojector system; however owner dissatisfaction led to almost all equipped cars being retrofitted with carburetors. In 1960, Chrysler became the first of the Big Three to switch to unibody construction for passenger cars, a decision not applied to the body-on-frame Imperial until 1967.

Chrysler's Hemi V8 engine became central to the brand's performance identity. In 1954, Chrysler supplied its Hemi V8 exclusively to Facel Vega, a French coachbuilder offering hand-built luxury performance cars, paired with Chrysler's PowerFlite and TorqueFlite automatic transmissions. The SRT (Street and Racing Technology) division, which operates under Stellantis North America, serves as the performance arm carrying the performance lineage forward.

During the 1960s, Chrysler acquired controlling stakes in the French Simca, British Rootes, and Spanish Barreiros companies, merging them into Chrysler Europe in 1967. When falling sales and the oil crisis of the 1970s hit hard, Chrysler Europe was sold to PSA Peugeot Citroen in 1978 for a nominal one dollar.

Chrysler struggled severely in the late 1970s as consumer tastes shifted toward smaller cars, US import competition intensified, and government safety and emissions regulations tightened. On the verge of bankruptcy, the company received $1.5 billion in loan guarantees from the US government under the Loan Guarantee Act, which also required Chrysler to secure $2 billion in concessions and assistance from outside the federal government. CEO Lee Iacocca, hired in 1978, was credited with returning the company to profitability during the 1980s. In 1985, Diamond-Star Motors deepened the ongoing Chrysler-Mitsubishi partnership. In 1987, Chrysler acquired American Motors Corporation, gaining the Jeep brand and the newly formed Eagle brand.

In 1998, Chrysler merged with German automaker Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler AG. The merger proved contentious with investors, and Daimler sold its Chrysler stake to Cerberus Capital Management in 2007, at which point the company was renamed Chrysler LLC. The global automotive industry crisis of 2008-2010 struck Chrysler severely. On 30 April 2009 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation. On 10 June 2009 Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy with the United Auto Workers pension fund, Fiat S.p.A., and the US and Canadian governments as principal owners, having defaulted on over $4 billion in debts. In May 2011, Chrysler repaid its US government obligations five years ahead of schedule, though the net cost to the American taxpayer was $1.3 billion. Fiat gradually acquired the remaining shares and in January 2014 purchased the UAW retiree health trust's stake, making Chrysler a full Fiat subsidiary. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was formally established in May 2014. On 15 December 2014, Chrysler Group LLC was renamed FCA US LLC. Following the merger of FCA and PSA Group, FCA US became a subsidiary of the Stellantis Group on 17 January 2021.

The Chrysler and Dodge nameplates have long associations with American racing, particularly stock car and drag racing, through the Hemi V8's extraordinary performance potential. The SRT division continues as the internal performance and racing-technology arm of Stellantis North America. Chrysler's Mopar parts and accessories division has supplied components to privateer and factory racing programmes across multiple decades.