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Lee Iacocca, Chrysler's savior and godfather of the Mustang, dies at 94

Lee Iacocca, a charismatic U.S. auto industry executive and visionary, who gave America the Ford Mustang and Chrysler minivan, and was celebrated for saving Chrysler from going out of business, died at the age of 94, the Washington Post reported. He died Tuesday at his home in Bel-Air, California of complications from Parkinson's disease, his daughter Lia Iacocca Assad told the Post. During a nearly five-decade career in Detroit that began in 1946 at Ford Motor Co, the proud son of Italian immigrants made the covers of Time, Newsweek and the New York Times Sunday Magazine in stories portraying him as the avatar of the American Auto Age. One of the first celebrity U.S. chief executives, his autobiography made best-seller lists in the mid-1980s. Iacocca was a cracker-jack salesman. He encouraged his design teams to be bold, and they responded with sports cars that appealed to baby boomers in the 1960s, fuel-efficient models when gasoline prices soared in the 1970s, and the first-ever, family-oriented minivan in the 1980s that led its segment in sales for 25 years. "I don't know an auto executive that I've ever met who has a feel for the American consumer the way he does," late United Auto Workers Union President Douglas Fraser had said. "He's the greatest communicator who's ever come down the pike in the history of the industry." Iacocca also had some duds, such as the Ford Pinto, an economy car that became notorious for exploding fuel tanks. "You don't win 'em all," he said of the Pinto. Iacocca won a place in business history when he pulled Chrysler, now part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, from the brink of collapse in 1980, rallying support in U.S. Congress for $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed loans and persuading suppliers, dealers and union workers to make sacrifices. He cut his salary to $1 a year. Iacocca was often described as a demanding and volatile boss who sometimes clashed with fellow executives. "He could get mad as hell at you, and once it was done he let it go. He wouldn't stay mad," said Bud Liebler, vice president of communications at Chrysler during the 1980s and 1990s. "He liked to bring an issue to its head, get it resolved. You always knew where you stood with him." Iacocca often spoke of his immigrant roots and how America rewards hard work.

Moon landing anniversary: How Detroit automakers won the space race

America's industrial might — automakers included — determined the outcome of the 20th centuryÂ’s biggest events. The “Arsenal of Democracy” won World War II, and then the Cold War. And our factories flew us to the moon. Apollo was a Cold War program. You can draw a direct line from Nazi V-2 rockets to ICBMs to the Saturn V. The space race was a proxy war — which beats a real war. It was a healthy outlet for technology and testosterone that would otherwise be used for darker purposes. (People protested, and still do, that money for space should go to problems here on Earth, but more likely the military-industrial complex would've just bought more bombs with it.) As long as we and the Soviet Union were launching rockets into space, we were not lobbing them at each other. JFKÂ’s challenge to “go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” put American industry back on a war footing. We were galvanized to beat the Russians, to demonstrate technological dominance. (A lack of similar unifying purpose is why we havenÂ’t been to the moon since, or Mars.) NASA says more than 400,000 Americans, from scientists to seamstresses, toiled on the moon program, working for government or for 20,000 contractors. Antagonism was diverted into something inspirational. The Big Three automakers were some of the biggest companies in the moon program, which might surprise a lot of people today. Note to a new generation who marveled when SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster out into the solar system: Sure, that was neat, but just know that Detroit beat Elon Musk to space by more than half a century. This high point in human history was brought to you by Ford ItÂ’s hard to imagine in this era of Sony-LG-Samsung, but Ford used to make TVs. And other consumer appliances. Or rather Philco, the radio, TV and transistor pioneer that Ford bought in 1961 — the year Gagarin and Alan Shepard flew in space. Ted Ryan, FordÂ’s archives and heritage brand manager, just wrote a Medium article on the central role Philco-Ford played in manned spaceflight. And nothingÂ’s more central than Mission Control in Houston, the famous console-filled room we all know from TV and movies. What we didn't know was, that was Ford. Ford built that. In 1953, Ryan notes, Philco invented a transistor that was key to the development of (what were then regarded as) high-speed computers, so naturally Philco became a contractor for NASA and the military.

FCA to make 1 million face masks a month for North America coronavirus fight

MILAN, Italy — Italian-U.S. car giant Fiat Chrysler has confirmed plans to produce a million face masks a month and said it will distribute them to emergency services in North America to help the fight against coronavirus. FCA, which is also trying to help produce badly needed respirators for patients in intensive care in Italy, is one of a number of large manufacturers adapting production lines to make products in desperately short supply. "Production capacity is being installed this week and the company will start manufacturing face masks in the coming weeks with initial distribution across the United States, Canada and Mexico," it said in a statement released late on Monday. The monthly output of 1 million masks will be donated to police, emergency medical staff, firefighters and to workers in hospitals and health care clinics, it said. The decision to begin distribution of masks in North America rather than Italy, the company's other home country, underlines the difficult balance global companies are having to maintain as they weigh where to offer help in the emergency. Face masks and other protective equipment for medical staff have been running out across the world as thousands of new cases of the highly contagious virus have arrived in hospitals daily. Fiat's position as a historic pillar of Italian industry makes the issue of where to provide help sensitive, especially as Italy is the country worst hit by the virus so far. Both FCA and its controlling shareholder Exor, the investment firm of Italy's Agnelli family, have offered significant assistance to efforts to handle the crisis in Italy, where almost 6,000 people have died. FCA and luxury automaker Ferrari, also controlled by Exor, are in talks with Siare, Italy's biggest respirator manufacturer, to help it double production of the life-saving machines. In addition, the Agnelli family said last week it was donating 10 million euros to fight the virus emergency in Italy. It said companies controlled by Exor bought 150 ventilators and other medical equipment abroad, provided vehicles for support of people in need and were in touch with Italian authorities to help them buy medical equipment and healthcare products abroad. As part of the process, an Exor spokesman said on Tuesday the group had made an initial purchase of 250,000 face masks in China which would be distributed in Italy and were expected to arrive by the end of this week. Related Video: