Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca, one of the true giants of the American auto industry, has passed away at 94.
The son of Italian immigrants who operated a hot dog restaurant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Lee Iacocca was originally trained as an engineer, with a degree from Lehigh University. But from the start as a new hire at the Ford Motor Company in 1946, he discovered that his real talents were in marketing, sales, and management, and he requested a transfer.
Rising quickly through the ranks at Ford, he was a driving force behind a number of important products for the company, including the Mustang, Pinto, and Lincoln Continental Mark III and Mark IV. But eventually his boss, the equally hard-nosed Henry Ford II, came to see Iacocca as more of a threat than an asset, and he was fired in 1978.
Iacocca soon landed as boss at the troubled Chrysler Corporation, where he was free to take the spotlight. There he negotiated loan guarantees with the federal government that allowed the company to escape bankruptcy, and he directed the launch of the K-car, the car that saved Chrysler. In 1983, he introduced the minivan to U.S. car buyers.
With a series of memorable television commercials for Chrysler in which he dared consumers, “If you can find a better car, buy it!” and a plain-spoken book called Iacocca: An Autobiography, he became a popular media personality and something of an American folk hero. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to head the commission that funded the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. Iacocca passed away this week in his Los Angeles home at 94. Historians will no doubt enshrine him as one of the last of the great automotive tycoons.
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One of the true giants. That guy should have been president of the US.
Iacocca was a master salesman and promoter and always knew a good thing when he saw it. Hal Sperlich and his Product Planning staff deserve the real credit as father of the Mustang and the “Carrousel” Garageable Family Van at Ford in 1972. Sperlich and his expert team researched and then determined opportunities followed by recommendations for the best response options regarding cost, engineering, styling and marketing. Identifying these opportunities by Sperlich and his staff virtually gauranteed great success. Iacocca would use this information and “sell” to Henry Ford, at which point he would often take credit for the ideas as well. Iacocca was able to take recognition for the expert work of Hal Sperlich and his team for most of Ford’s great success in new product launches. Iacocca hated the Continental Mark IV because the final design was selected by Bunkie Knudsen instead of his preferred proposal for 1972.
Dick,
Thanks for your first-hand observations.
Although Henry Ford II seemed to be casually dismissing Iacocca when he fired him in 1978, there was a lot more to it. Iacocca was planning a “hostile takeover” at Ford and had lined up several key executives with the promise of great reward if they backed him in Iacocca’s ultimatum to Henry Ford II. Iacocca threatened Henry Ford II with the promise of Iacocca and the key executives all leaving the company at once unless HF II immediately fired Bunkie Knudsen and replaced him with Iacocca as president. Ford had to give in, but the end of Iacocca’s career at Ford was measured in numbered days after that…Henry Ford II passed over Iacocca as company president in 1967 when HF II surprisingly hired Bunkie Knudsen when Knudsen was passed over as president at GM in favor of Ed Cole…HF II had great concerns regarding Iacocca’s ambitions regarding his place at Ford Motor Company.