About Chrysler Cars
 Chrysler was founded in 1925 by Walter Chrysler a railroad man and machinist who had previously helped ailing car makers Maxwell-Chalmers and Willys. Walter quickly built a reputation for advanced engineering, and soon Chrysler was in an impressive second place with their US sales figures.
Two of Chryslers earliest innovations were rubber engine mounts, which greatly reduced vibration, making for a better ride, and the first mass produced four-wheel hydraulic brake system. Perhaps one of their most famous ideas was a road wheel with a ridged rim, which was designed to stop a deflated tyre from flying off. This early safety feature was adopted by automobile manufacturers across the world.
One problem with inventions is that sometimes they are ahead of their time. This happend to Chrysler in the 1930's with the
Airflow, which was probably the first car designed in a wind tunnel using aerodynamics. Sadly it was rejected by the public who preferred the more conventional designs of the Dodge and Plymouth. Following this failure, Chrysler's styling remained conservative and conventional for the next few years.
Despite this conservative approach, or perhaps because of it, Chrysler went from strength to strength, and sales during the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's were excellent. However, the oil crisis of the 1970's along with changing opinions and new government regulations hit hard. They were dealt another blow when an overseas expansion plan failed to produce the expected revenue and in 1979 Chrysler asked the US government for a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to prevent it from going bankrupt. This was agreed and so the company and the livelihoods of it's thousands of employees were saved.
Thankfully sales improved in the following years and the loan was paid off in the early 1980's. Then in 1998 Chrysler merged with Daimler-Benz, but although it was intended as an equal partnership, Daimler tended to have the upper hand, but were stung quite badly by the changing opinions on high MPG cars, and were forced to sell Chrysler in 2007, at a loss, to a private equity group.
Chrysler is not only famous for it's cars, but also for it's architecture. In 1930 the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City, and was for a short time the world's tallest building. It remains the world's tallest brick building to this day. Regarded as one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture it has been used in many famous films such as Deep Impact, Godzilla and Armageddon, and also appears on the album cover of Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell II.
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