Even in the mid-1970s, with imports and gas prices destroying its business, Chrysler executives were reluctant to consider a radical plan to build a front-wheel-drive subcompact designed by its European arm in the United States. It took an impending financial disaster to convince the company to get the Plymouth Horizon on these shores -- the first small front-wheel-drive car built by an American automaker in this country. And it was a massive success, one of the few cars that kept Chrysler afloat through its first bailout. Today, Chrysler has once again taken a European front-wheel-drive model and built it in America, this time as the Dodge Dart, sales of which didn't meet targets last month. The old Chrysler used the Horizon as the basis for the TC3 and eventually the Scamp -- and wasn't shy about telling dealers to hit the competition, even though the Horizon and Dodge Omni used Volkswagen engine parts:
Source: Yahoo!
No comments:
Post a Comment