“In truth, it was the American taxpayer who “saved” Chrysler, not Iacooca. And thanks to Iacocca, the taxpayer did so against his will since Iacocca was an expert at leveraging the coercive power of government to make others pay for his corporate schemes.”
Iococca’s big initiative at Chrysler was the K-car. Mechanically not much better than the junk that Chrysler was selling before he got there. Iococca managed to get direct loans, but more than that, just about every US government car in the fleet was a K-car. If it weren’t for the fleet sales, the K-car would only have been a modest success.
OTOH, the K-car platform was used to develop the Chrysler & Plymouth mini-vans. Those were wildly successful.
But even for all that Chrysler was no longer a complete car builder. Aside for the aenemic 4-cylinder engines, all the V6 engines at that time came from Mitsubishi. And bringing the Jeep brand under Chrysler also helped keep the wolf away from the door.
My turbocharged 4-cylinder GLH was far from anemic
Later, they made the minivan, based on the K-car.
The NYPD had a fleet of K cars in 1981-82. They handled good in the snow, otherwise the suspension systems in them didn’t hold up well on NYC streets. My dad bought an 81 Reliant wagon with the bigger Mitsubishi 2.8 hemi. Performance was OK it certainly was no Road Runner. But the camshaft bearings wore out under warranty, they were prone to this. Damn car sat at the dealer for almost a month because there weren’t any replacements available in the US.
My father, a self-made, successful, small-town businessman, despised Iacocca for the very reasons you mention.
I remember I teased him about Iacocca running for prez. He said, “I wouldn’t vote for him for dog-catcher.”
First time I had heard the phrase. I was in my teens. I chuckled at his vigorous contempt.