The Chrysler Cars Automobile Archive
What’s in the Chrysler Cars Archive
The Chrysler Cars Archive contains a compendium of model information, illustrations, specifications and factoids. Significant in the archive will be the increasing development of Car Model Fact Sheets for each model and year – a one-stop shop of all the critical information on that brand’s year and model. The Car Models Fact Sheets are a single page for each model where we gather all the information on that vehicle that is available. It will not be a static page, but rather a living document that we will add to as information comes to light.
Please click the Tabs below and select any available model and year to see what we have collected to date.
- About Chrysler Car Fact Sheets
- 1949 - 1950 Chrysler Fact Sheets
- 1951 - 1955 Chrysler Fact Sheets
- 1956 - 1960 Chrysler Fact Sheets
- 1961 - 1965 Chrysler Fact Sheets
Fact Sheets Contain the following Information
- General Year Information
- Models Offered
- All Engine Specifications
- Power Trains and Power Train Options
- Chassis Information
- Significant Options
- Body Paint Colors & Mix Codes – all Paint Companies
- Direct Link to Hagerty Valuation for the Specific Brand/Model
- Racing History (if available)
- Downloadable Brochures Specific to that Year/Model
- AMA Specifications Sheets (if available)
- Road Tests (if available)
Coming Soon!
Coming Soon!
About The Chrysler Brand
Chrysler cars were large front engine, rear wheel drive luxury sedans the company has offered since the 1920s and continuing until today with the Chrysler 300.
This 1925 Chrysler Six was the Company’s hottest number, when introduced in that year.
The Chrysler Corporation was founded in 1925 by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company. After founding the company, Walter Chrysler used the General Motors brand diversification model and a similar hierarchical strategy. He chose this because he had become familiar with that approach when he worked in the Buick division at General Motors. He then acquired Fargo Trucks and the Dodge Brothers Company, and created the Plymouth and DeSoto brands in 1928.
1951 was the first year of the Company’s modern Hemispherical head V-8.
Chrysler styling and marketing, which remained determinedly conservative through the 1940s and into the 1950s, with the single exception of the installation of hidden headlights on the very brief production run of 1942 DeSotos. Engineering advances continued, and in 1951 the firm introduced the first of a long and famous series of Hemispherical cylinder head V8s.
The high-water mark in the 1950s and early 60s was the famous Chrysler 300.
Facing postwar declines in market share, productivity, and profitability, as GM and Ford were growing, Chrysler borrowed $250 million in 1954 from Prudential Insurance to pay for expansion and updated car designs. In the 1960s, Chrysler expanded into Europe by taking control of French, British, and Spanish auto companies. Chrysler Europe was sold in 1978 to PSA Peugeot Citroën. The Corproation began an engineering partnership with Mitsubishi Motors, and began selling Mitsubishi vehicles branded as Dodge and Plymouth in North America. On the verge of bankruptcy in the late 1970s, it was saved by $1.5 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. government.
The 1987 acquisition of American Motors and the Jeep brand likely saved the Company.
The new CEO Lee Iaccoca was credited with returning the company to profitability in the 1980s. In 1985, Diamond-Star Motors was created, further expanding the Chrysler-Mitsubishi relationship. In 1987, Chrysler acquired American Motors Corporation (AMC), which brought the profitable Jeep brand under the Chrysler umbrella. In 1998, Chrysler merged with German automaker Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler AG; the merger proved contentious with investors. As a result, Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Capital Management and renamed Chrysler LLC in 2007.
The Chrysler 300C has been around since the early 2000s and continues to represent the Corporation in the US.
Like the other Big Three automobile manufacturers, Chrysler was impacted by the automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010. The company remained in business through a combination of negotiations with creditors, and participating in a bailout from the U.S. government through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
On June 10, 2009, Chrysler emerged from the bankruptcy proceedings with the United Auto Workers pension fund, Fiat S.p.A., and the U.S. and Canadian governments as principal owners. By May 24, 2011, Chrysler finished repaying its obligations to the U.S. government five years early. Over the next few years, Fiat gradually acquired the other parties’ shares while removing much of the weight of the loans.
On January 1, 2014, Fiat S.p.A. announced a deal to purchase the rest of Chrysler from the United Auto Workers retiree health trust, making Chrysler Group a subsidiary of Fiat S.p.A. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was established by merging Fiat S.p.A. into the company, completed in August 2014. On December 15, 2014, the Company was renamed FCA US LLC, to reflect the Fiat-Chrysler merger.
The company is now Stellantis N.V. It is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50-50 cross-border merger between the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group. The company is officially headquartered in Amsterdam.