Article content Back in 1924, Walter P. Chrysler thought he’d like to see his name on an automobile, and so he built one. He didn’t actually create the Chrysler Corporation until 1925, but while the company is only 99 years old this year, the cars span a century, and so we’re highlighting important or fascinating models from each decade.
Born in 1875, Chrysler was the son of a train engineer. Always fascinated by machinery, he started with the railway at age 17, becoming a machinist and then a master mechanic; and eventually, superintendent of the Chicago Great Western Railroad. How did Walter Chrysler get into cars? It all started when Walter P.
Chrysler attended the 1907 Chicago Auto Show, liked what he saw, and bought a Locomobile. Despite paying $5,000 for the enormous luxury car – when he could have had a smaller one from a mainstream brand for $600 – he immediately took it apart to see how it worked. Chrysler was also a brilliant businessman .
On the advice of a friend, he joined General Motors, and by 1912 was the president of Buick . From there he went to Willys-Overland, a struggling automaker, and turned it around to profitability. Willys would later build Jeep — and, much later still, the Chrysler Corporation would acquire Jeep, via its purchase of American Motors in 1987.
He was then asked to fix Maxwell, a close-to-bankruptcy automaker in Detroit. He did, in a deal that included basically handing the company over to him. That’s where his hand-picked.