Auto Industry Legend Lee Iacocca Dies at Age 94

Lee Iacocca, the bigger-than-life auto industry executive credited for championing the Ford Mustang and later leading Chrysler through near-bankruptcy, is dead at age 94.

He succumbed yesterday in Bel Air, Calif., reportedly to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Iacocca rose to prominence at Ford Motor Co., starting with a regional sales job in Pennsylvania and ending as president in 1970 at age 46. His career at Ford spanned 32 years, capped by his backing of the Ford Mustang, which galvanized young Baby Boomers in 1964.

But by 1978, Iacocca’s brashness and grandstanding had raised the ire of autocratic Chairman Henry Ford II. The grandson of the company’s founder abruptly fired Iacocca with a dismissive, “I don’t like you.”

Iacocca soon moved to ailing Chrysler Corp., reviving the company with a new type of vehicle called the minivan and a bevy of variants of the boxy K-car. The revival was made possible by a then-astronomical $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed bank loans. Chrysler repaid them in four years—seven years before the final payment was due.

Iacocca spurred sales by appearing in television and print ads, bluntly challenging consumers, “If you can find a better car, buy it!”

A best-selling autobiography followed, and he chaired a project to revitalize Ellis Island and refurbish the Statue of Liberty. As his popularity and business successes grew, polls confirmed Iacocca might be a viable candidate for the U.S. presidency.

But by then, U.S. automakers were feeling relentless competitive pressure from Japanese carmakers. Two energy shocks in the 1970s, followed by sharp hikes in gasoline prices, had made Japan’s small, fuel-efficient cars attractive to American consumers.

Detroit responded with its own small cars, but Americans were captivated by the relatively high quality and extra features they found in the Japanese imports.

Iacocca railed that the U.S. was being flooded with cars whose low price was made possible in large part by Japan manipulating its currency. He backed a successful industry lobbying effort that led to Congressional import quotas on Japanese vehicles.

The scheme was intended to buy time for Detroit to engineer more competitive models of its own. But Detroit largely squandered the opportunity. Demand for Japanese vehicles continued to grow. And Japanese carmakers responded to the quotas by building factories in the U.S.

By the early 1990s, Iacocca’s aura had diminished. He retired from Chrysler in 1992, but he didn’t stay away long. In 1995, he and corporate raider Kirk Kerkorian mounted an unsuccessful hostile bid to buy Chrysler. The attempt was rebuffed, but the move deeply offended Iacocca loyalists, who saw it as a deep betrayal.