Ford Motor Company (1946 to 1978) convertible from what is considered the
first generation of Mustangs. Iacocca was instrumental in the Mustang's development. Iacocca joined
Ford Motor Company in August 1946 as an engineer. After this brief stint in engineering, he asked to be moved to sales and marketing, where his career flourished. While working in the
Philadelphia district as assistant sales manager, Iacocca gained national recognition with his "56 for '56" campaign, offering loans on 1956 model year cars with a 20% down payment and $56 (~$ in ) in monthly payments for three years. His campaign went national, and Iacocca was called to the
Dearborn headquarters, where he quickly moved up through the ranks. On November 10, 1960, Iacocca was named vice-president and general manager of the Ford Division; in January 1965 Ford's vice-president, car and truck group; in 1967, executive vice-president; and president on December 10, 1970. Iacocca participated in the design of several successful Ford automobiles, most notably the
Ford Mustang, the
Continental Mark III, the
Ford Escort and the revival of the
Mercury brand in the late 1960s, including the introduction of the
Mercury Cougar and
Mercury Marquis. He promoted other ideas that did not reach the marketplace as Ford products, including cars ultimately introduced by Chrysler: the
K car and the
minivan. Iacocca also convinced company boss
Henry Ford II to return to racing, claiming several wins at the
Indianapolis 500,
NASCAR, and the
24 Hours of Le Mans. Eventually, he became the president of the Ford Motor Company, but he clashed with
Henry Ford II. On July 13, 1978, Iacocca was fired from Ford, even though the company posted a $2 billion profit for the year (about $ in ).
Ford Pinto In 1968, Iacocca foresaw the need for domestically produced, small, fuel-efficient vehicles, and proposed a vehicle that weighed less than 2,000 pounds and would be priced at less than $2,000 (about $ in ). Although Ford's European subsidiary was already selling such a model, the
Ford Escort, a team of Ford designers was assigned to create the exterior and interior of an entirely new car, which would be named Pinto. The Pinto entered production beginning with the 1971 model year. Iacocca was described as the "moving force" behind the
Ford Pinto. In 1977, there were allegations that the Pinto's structural design allowed its
fuel-tank filler neck to break off and the
fuel tank to be punctured in a
rear-end collision, resulting in deadly fires. This was partially due to recalls of its
Dodge Aspen and
Plymouth Volare, both of which, Iacocca later said, were among the causes for Chrysler's woes and customer dissatisfaction. Iacocca joined Chrysler and began rebuilding the entire company from the ground up and bringing in many former associates from Ford. Also from Ford, Iacocca brought to Chrysler the "Mini-Max" project, which, in 1983, bore fruit in the highly successful
Dodge Caravan and
Plymouth Voyager. Henry Ford II had wanted nothing to do with the Mini-Max, a restyled version of the minivan, which
Toyota was selling in huge numbers in Asia and Latin America, and his opinion doomed the project at Ford. Hal Sperlich, the driving force behind the Mini-Max at Ford, had been fired a few months before Iacocca. He had been hired by Chrysler, where the two would make automotive history together. Iacocca arrived shortly after Chrysler's introduction of the subcompact
Dodge Omni and
Plymouth Horizon. Bearing a strong resemblance to the
Volkswagen Rabbit, the front-wheel-drive Omni and Horizon became instant hits, selling over 300,000 units each in their debut year, showing what was to come for Chrysler. The Omni was a derivative of Chrysler Europe's
Chrysler Horizon, one of the first deliberately designed "World Cars", which resulted in the American and European cars looking nearly identical externally. However, underneath remarkably similar-looking sheetmetal, engines, transmissions, suspensions, bumpers, and interior design were quite different. Initially the U.S. cars even used
VW-based engines (while the European models used
Simca engines), as American Chrysler did not have an engine of an appropriate size for the Omni until the 2.2L engine from the Chrysler K-Car became available. Ironically, some later year base model U.S. Omnis used a French
Peugeot-based 1.6L engine.
1979 Chrysler bailout , a
Chrysler K-Car 's design was the driving force behind
Chrysler's 1987 acquisition of
American Motors Corporation. at the
White House in January 1991 Realizing that the company would go out of business if it did not receive a large infusion of cash, Chrysler approached the
United States Congress in 1979 and requested a
loan guarantee. Chairman and CEO
John J. Riccardo resigned on September 17, 1979, because he believed that the company would be more likely to receive government aid under new management. His retirement took effect three days later and he was succeeded by Iacocca. Iacocca was able to obtain the guarantee, but Chrysler was required to reduce costs and abandon some longstanding projects, such as the
turbine engine, which had been ready for consumer production in 1979 after nearly 20 years of development. Chrysler released the first of the
K-Car line, the
Dodge Aries and
Plymouth Reliant, in 1981. Similar to the later minivan, these compact automobiles were based on design proposals that Ford had rejected during Iacocca's (and Sperlich's) tenure. Released in the middle of the major 1980–1982 recession, the small, efficient, and inexpensive
front-wheel drive cars sold rapidly. In addition, Iacocca re-introduced the big
Imperial as the company's flagship. The new model had all of the newest technologies of the time, including fully electronic fuel injection and all-digital dashboard. Chrysler introduced the minivan, considered Sperlich's "baby", in late 1983. It led the automobile industry in sales for 25 years. Because of the K-cars and minivans, along with the reforms Iacocca implemented, the company turned around quickly and was able to repay the
government-backed loans seven years earlier than expected. Iacocca led Chrysler's acquisition of
AMC in 1987, which brought the profitable
Jeep division under the corporate umbrella. It created the short-lived
Eagle division. By this time, AMC had already finished most of the work on the
Jeep Grand Cherokee, which Iacocca wanted. The Grand Cherokee would not be released until 1992 for the 1993 model year, the same year that Iacocca retired. Throughout the 1980s, Iacocca, with the help of his longtime friend and advertisement executive,
Leo-Arthur Kelmenson, appeared in a series of commercials developed by
Kenyon & Eckhardt for the company's vehicles, employing the ad campaign, "The pride is back", to denote the turnaround of the corporation. He also voiced what was to become his trademark phrase: "If you can find a better car, buy it." Iacocca retired as president, CEO, and chairman of Chrysler at the end of 1992.
1995 return to Chrysler in April 2009 In 1995, Iacocca helped billionaire
Kirk Kerkorian attempt a
hostile takeover of Chrysler, which was ultimately unsuccessful. The next year, Kerkorian and Chrysler made a five-year agreement which included a gag order preventing Iacocca from speaking publicly about Chrysler. In July 2005, Iacocca returned to the airwaves as Chrysler's pitchman, Because of the Chrysler bankruptcy, Iacocca lost part of his pension from a supplemental executive retirement plan, and a guaranteed company car during his lifetime. The losses occurred after the bankruptcy court approved the sale of Chrysler to
Chrysler Group LLC, with ownership of the new company by the
United Auto Workers, the Italian carmaker
Fiat and the governments of the United States and Canada. ==Other work and activities==