OPINION — There was much anxiety in the early 1970s inside Chrysler’s Highland Park, Michigan, headquarters outside Detroit. Everywhere the Big 3 automaker turned, serious trouble was staring it right in the face.
For starters, sales were declining in a sluggish economy. Then there was the Arab oil embargo, which sent gasoline prices skyrocketing to the unheard-of price of 50 cents a gallon or more. That was a blow to the bottom line of a company that made gas-hungry big cars.
However, the worst problem by far was that American consumers were turning their backs on full-scale four-door sedans, which were Chrysler’s bread and butter. The carmaker needed something new, something bold, something daring — and pronto — or it faced the very real risk of going the way of Studebaker, Packard and DeSoto.
