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Junkyard Gem: 1982 Chrysler LeBaron Convertible

Things looked very grim at Chrysler during the late 1970s, as Oil Crisis-shocked car shoppers avoided buying thirsty land yachts and ancient-technology compacts in droves. The Carter administration grudgingly bailed out the company with loan guarantees in 1979 (leaving "small enough to fail" American Motors to seek help from the French government) and Chrysler needed a huge sales hit in a big hurry. Under the leadership of Lee Iacocca (freshly canned by Henry Ford II), Chrysler developed the modern, front-wheel-drive K Cars and the company was saved. The very first K Cars hit the road for the 1981 model year, and I'm always on the lookout for those historic early Ks when I'm searching for interesting bits of automotive history in junkyards. The '81 and '82s have become nearly impossible to find, but this once-plush LeBaron convertible appeared in a Northern California yard last month. While a bafflingly complex family tree of K-derived vehicles grew up in Chrysler showrooms through 1995 (including the hot-selling Caravan/Voyager/Town and Country minivans), the only "true" US-market K-Cars are the Dodge Aries, Dodge 400/600 coupe, Plymouth Reliant and Chrysler LeBaron. 1982 was the first model year for the K LeBaron and this car was built in March of that year, so we're looking at one of the very early successors to the Dodge Diplomat-based LeBarons of the 1970s. Chrysler developed a homegrown 2.2-liter, overhead-cam straight-four engine that proved very successful, and a 94-horsepower version of that engine was the base powerplant for the 1982 LeBaron. This car appears to have just about every option available that year, so of course the original buyer went for the 2.6-liter Mitsubishi Astron straight-four. With hemispherical combustion chambers, the 2.6 could be called a Hemi (a few Ks even got "2.6 HEMI" badging); horsepower came to just 93 in 1982, but the 132 pound-feet of torque beat out the 117 lb-ft of the Chrysler 2.2 that year. Silver-faced gauges and complicated radio controls were all the rage during the Late Malaise Era, and this car has both. Note the Chronometer next to the HVAC controls, a digital design with green vacuum-fluorescent display lifted from the previous-generation rear-wheel-drive LeBaron. The non-cloth bits of the convertible-top mechanism look decent enough, so perhaps some junkyard-shopping LeBaron owner will rescue them.

Chrysler reports $464M net income for Q3

Chrysler has just announced earnings of $464 million in net income for this third quarter, a 22-percent year-over-year increase. Net income for the first three quarters of 2013 is at $1.1 billion. Net revenue climbed significantly as well, to $17.6 billion, a 13.5-percent increase on Q3 of 2012.
Those increases were thanks in no small part to an eight-percent rise in sales from the same period last year, with 603,000 vehicles sold worldwide. "Chrysler Group's ninth consecutive quarter of positive net income highlights our commitment to producing award-winning vehicles for consumers, such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Ram 1500," said Sergio Marchionne, Chairman and CEO of Chrysler Group.
Despite the increased sales, Chrysler's US market share dropped slightly, from 11.3 percent in Q3 2012 to 11.2. Canadian market share remained level at 14.3 percent. Have a look below for the entire press release from Chrysler.

Fiat Chrysler UAW corruption had roots in federal bailout of Chrysler

The Detroit News continues its dogged coverage of the federal investigation into corruption at the United Auto Workers union and Fiat Chrysler in a lengthy in-depth report that ties the investigation together with Chrysler’s emergence from bankruptcy protection in 2009, a hefty federal bailout and former CEO Sergio MarchionneÂ’s push to force a merger with crosstown rival General Motors. ItÂ’s a staggering look at the brazen illegal payoffs, kickbacks and embezzlement in the top ranks of both Fiat Chrysler and the UAW, an investigation which has so far resulted in 11 criminal convictions — three of them former FCA employees, the rest former UAW leaders — with at least seven others implicated in wrongdoing to date, including former UAW President Gary Jones, who recently resigned. Prosecutors allege all of it was fueled by $12.5 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout funds within days of Chrysler LLCÂ’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2009. The News reports that former FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli, then its top labor negotiator, admitted to opening the spigot that same month. HeÂ’s now serving 66 months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney Office in Detroit. All told, Iacobelli and FCA made more than $9 million in illegal payments over eight years to the UAW to cover salaries and benefits, many of them for "no-show" jobs at the joint UAW-FCA training center in Detroit, which is being dissolved. WhatÂ’s more, prosecutors say that Iacobelli answered on UAW matters solely to Marchionne, who died in a Swiss hospital in 2018. Marchionne was never charged with any wrongdoing, even though investigators reportedly caught him lying about providing gifts to UAW leaders during a meeting at the U.S. AttorneyÂ’s Office in Detroit in 2016. The story also details how prosecutors believe he tried to buy the support of UAW leaders for his repeated bids to get GM to agree to a merger, despite widespread belief that such a move would have led to massive job cuts and plant closures, given the two automakersÂ’ many overlapping products. The whole Detroit News story is highly worth a read. Find it here. Read This UAW/Unions Chrysler Fiat GM Sergio Marchionne FCA