2000 Chrysler Lxi on 2040-cars

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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.

Fiat Chrysler and Renault are in advanced partnership talks

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Renault are in advanced discussions about a possible alliance, according to a report from the Financial Times citing an anonymous "person familiar with the matter." The news isn't particularly surprising, as FCA has been a constant subject of merger and alliance talks for as long as many of us can remember. We've reported on a potential tie-up between these two automakers several times, as far back as 2008 and as recently as two months ago. FCA CEO Mike Manley has mentioned the company's openness to merging with another automaker. At the Geneva Motor Show a few months back, he said, "We have a strong independent future, but if there is a partnership, a relationship or a merger which strengthens that future, I will look at that." It's no secret that FCA is much stronger in the United States than it is in Europe. For its part, Renault has basically zero presence in the United States. A partnership or potential alliance between the two could shore up each automaker's weak spots and allow the group to split investment money into new technologies, including electric vehicles and autonomy. Of course, Renault is already tied up with Nissan and Mitsubishi, but that partnership has been a little tattered since the arrest of former Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn on charges of financial misconduct in Japan. And in addition to Renault, FCA is understood to have discussed various partnership strategies with the PSA Peugeot Citroen group. What a final agreement – if there's any agreement at all – could look like between the two global automakers remains to be seen, and the report from Financial Times cautions that many different options for FCA and Renault are currently on the table. In other words, stay tuned.

Junkyard Gem: 1975 Plymouth Fury Sedan

The Plymouth Fury was once among the most commonplace vehicles on American roads, with the 1970s being the most Furious decade of all. If you've watched a lot of Malaise Era cop shows, you've seen endless examples of the 1975-1978 B-Body Fury sedan; today's Junkyard Gem in Colorado is a civilian version with a very unusual combination of features and options. Though the 1975-1978 Fury is sibling to many much more famous B Platform Chryslers, including the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee and a lot of other highly revered Mopars of the late 1960s and early 1970s, it doesn't get the recognition it deserves today. Would the world be the same if Debbie Harry had posed in her Anya Phillips dress on the bumper of, say, a Ford LTD instead of the iconic '76 Fury on the cover of Plastic Letters? I've got this album cover hanging on my garage wall, right next to Sir Mix-a-Lot's My Hooptie and its '69 Buick Electra. This sun-baked '75 left the assembly line with some nice luxury options for an affordable midsize sedan of its time, including a padded vinyl roof. Factory air conditioning was a $437 option on the Fury in 1975, a price tag that comes to an attention-grabbing $2,185 in 2020 dollars. The MSRP on a Fury sedan that year started at just $3,571 ($17,840 today), so A/C jacked up the cost by close to 15%. The base engine was a 225-cubic-inch (3.7-liter) Slant-6, but this car took the next step up on the Fury engine hierarchy for 1975: a 318-cubic-inch (5.2-liter) V8 making 145 horsepower. Here's where things get a bit weird. That shift lever on the steering column controls a three-speed manual; this rig is commonly known as a three-on-the-tree. The most popular transmission setup on Detroit cars of the 1940s through the early 1960s, the good ol' three-on-the-tree survived here all the way through the 1979 model year in new cars and 1987 in new trucks. By 1975, most lower-priced American mid- and full-sized cars had the three-on-the-tree as base equipment, but by that time nearly every new-car shopper here opted for an automatic transmission or — occasionally — a floor-shifted three- or four-speed manual. The total number of 1975 Fury buyers who sprang for the V8 engine, air conditioning, and a vinyl roof yet still kept the old-fashioned three-on-the-tree transmission setup probably can be counted in the low hundreds, if even that many.