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A Detroit Free Press reporter demythologizes Lee Iacocca’s leadership of Chrysler, demonstrating how salesmanship and self-promotion invariably trumped innovation and investment. “Everyone who cares about american industry should read [this book]” (New York Times Book Review). Index.
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Customer Reviews (4)

Apparently, Mr Levin has an axe go grind.
He takes many liberties in trashing Chrysler products of the early 80's.For instance, he states that chrysler's 2.2 engine was based on "twenty year old technology" yet he offers no evidence to back up this claim.Mr. Levin also carps about the lack of technology in Chrysler's cars such as using a "beam axle" while conveniently overlooking the fact that other cars of this time frame used solid rear axles quite frequently. Nor does he give much coverage to Chryslers lowest cost per unit, the VNT technology used in its turbo cars, the fact it had OHC engines on the market LONG before GM and Ford, the first domestic auto company to use airbags in its cars, the firs electronically adaptive transmission.
Mr Levin admitted he got little in the way of cooperation from Iacocca and it appears he wrote this tome to vent against a good yet flawed man and a great company.

Not the Book It Could Have Been...
I really wanted to like this book, but was disappointed with the end result.When the author sticks to the facts of the story, it is a revealing look at the politics of running a struggling auto company.The biographical information of the main players in upper echelons was quite interesting, also.

However, there is a sense of the author's bias lurking throughout the pages.He manages to imply that somehow, once Toyota introduced the Corona in 1966, there wasn't a marketing misstep to be made by the Japanese, particularly Toyota.Do the nameplates "Crown", "Cressida" and "Echo" ring a bell?I won't even mention some of the other sad cars that other manufacturers have coughed up in the ensuing years, and still do occasionally, from both sides of the Pacific.

Every now and again factual errors will appear, but they're so glaring that somebody with even a moderate interest in the car industry will pick up on.For instance, Honda earned customer loyalty because they "never dropped a nameplate."Really?Where did one go in 1987 to purchase a new Honda 600 GT or Sports 800?

More troubling was a hint of elitism that came up a couple of times.Was there (is there) really anything wrong with selling new cars to the blue-collar crowd?I know that some people are consumed by image, but most of us don't care what anybody else is driving, as long as they know HOW to drive it.People without a stratospheric income should be able to make a fully warranted purchase and get "that new car smell", too.

Finally, too little of the book is spent explaining exactly what was wrong, quality-wise, with Chrysler vehicles.Aside from the Aspen / Volaré twins, there was precious little time given to specific examples of lax quality control or design deficiencies.Even the A/V cars were a major problem only in their first year.More detail would have been revealing as to why buyers were steering clear of Chrysler's showrooms in the late 70's, when the whole mess started.

I've always had an avid interest in the auto industry, and have been waiting for somebody to write a book on the true Lee Iacocca to show the savior / charlatan that he really was.Unfortunately, somebody else is going to have to write it.This one falls short.

In case anybody's wondering, I have owned several cars from both American and Japanese manufacturers, including an 80's era Chrylser product.I have enjoyed the majority of them, and the only lemon I ever picked was from a European make.

An Interesting Read for Car Enthusiasts
I found this book provided a quite interesting history of not only Chrysler, but the entire auto industry between the years of '70-'80.I particularly enjoyed the author's insights in to Chrysler's main playerIacocca.The book did however seem to jump around from subject to subjectwith no clear tie-ins.I found it difficult during some portions of thebook to figure out what time frame the author was speaking of, as he tendedto bounce back and forth.All in all I found the book to provide someexcellent information on Chrysler and the prevailing personalities andvalues that has kept the organization alive for so many years through somany triumphs and tragedies.

Good book for those interested in recent Chrysler history
An interesting book that looks at the Iacocca era at Chyrsler. The book reads more like a series of articles (the author is also a journalist) than a novel, but is nevertheless an effective portrayal of Chyrsler, Iacocca and the American and Japanese auto industry of the late 70s thru the early 90s. Lots of background information on the auto industry with interesting historical tidbits as well. The book's only "flaw" is its tendency to tear apart the Iacocca legacy with nasty (but apparently true) stories that topple the former auto industry icon, thus providing a counterweight to Iacocca's own biographical portrayals. While not a tightly woven "can't put it down" book, it is nevertheless worth adding to your collection if you are an automotive buff or Chrysler buff. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Walter Chrysler, Lee Iacocca, Robert Nardelli, Robert Lutz, François Castaing, Sergio Marchionne, Louis Rhodes, Lowell W. Perry, Thomas W. Lasorda, Willem Weertman, John E. Herlitz, Jim Press, Robert James Eaton, Ledyard Mitchell, C. Robert Kidder. Excerpt:C. Robert Kidder was chairman and CEO of 3Stone Advisors LLC , and is now chairman of Chrysler Group LLC and has previously served as CEO of Duracell . References (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at François J. Castaing (born 1945 in France ) is a 27-year veteran automotive executive with Renault , American Motors , and Chrysler . He is an engineering graduate from École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers in Paris , and worked in Europe for Gordini and Renault before being named Vice President for Product Engineering and Development at American Motors Corporation (AMC). With Gordini and Renault Castaing started his career in motor sports with Gordini in 1968 by working on engines for the 24 Hours of Le Mans races. After Gordini had been taken over by Renault, he advanced to the position of Renault Sport Technical Director. His record of accomplishment with Renault included stints as a member of a racing-engine development team and as director of racing programs. He had joined AMC from Renault, which owned 46 % of the company. He and his family moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1980. With AMC and Chrysler Castaing was responsible for product engineering and development at AMC. He was critical in the development of the downsized Jeep Cherokee SUV that became very profitable for AMC. He designed a new development approach in which teams of engineers focused on a single type of car platform, working on new models as a system from concept to production. This differed from the standard automotive practice of ... ... Read more

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Word count: 2812. ... Read more

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Chapters: Alfred P. Sloan, Oliver Parker Fritchle, John Delorean, Lee Iacocca, Jacques Nasser, Japan Automotive Hall of Fame, Alan Mulally, Raymond Loewy, Doug Roby, William Clay Ford, Jr., Edsel Ford, Richard A. Teague, Henry J. Kaiser, Virgil Exner, Alec Issigonis, Edward S. Jordan, Rick Wagoner, William C. Durant, Carlos Ghosn, Charles E. Spahr, Henry Ford Ii, Horatio Nelson Jackson, Robert Lutz, Carl Hahn, Roy D. Chapin, Jr., Henry Skinner, Frederick Henderson, Andrew J. Crevolin, Claude Lobo, Rudolf Leiding, Richard Parry-Jones, Semon Knudsen, Sergio Marchionne, Henry Bourne Joy, Ransom E. Olds, L. David Ash, Kurt Lotz, John Williams Stoddard, Amadeo Barletta Barletta, David Dunbar Buick, George B. Selden, Kendall D. Garff, Robert H. Garff, Marshall Teague, Charles Warren Nash, Toni Schmücker, E. J. Pennington, Richard M. Langworth, Eric Stoddard, Heinz Prechter, Richard Arbib, Shahid Khan, Harold Sines Vance, Alex Tremulis, Laurence Hartnett, Brooks Stevens, Alexander Trotman, Baron Trotman, Clement Studebaker, Jr., David Plastow, Percival Perry, 1st Baron Perry, Heinrich Nordhoff, James J. Nance, Richard E. Cross, Kjell Qvale, Donald N. Frey, Edwin Rutenber, Edward B. Montgomery, Benjamin Briscoe, William S. Knudsen, Max Hoffman, Leonard Lord, Klaus Von Oertzen, Willem Weertman, Ryan Nagode, Jill Lajdziak, Hans Scherenberg, Joseph Lowthian Hudson, John E. Herlitz, Joachim Zahn, Delmar "Barney" Roos, Owen Nacker, J. Irving Whalley, Ernst Fuhrmann, James Fuller, Walter Lorenzo Marr, Errett Lobban Cord, Jean Bugatti, William Clay Ford, Sr., Eugene Bordinat, Frank Hershey, John Black, Mike Issa, Vittorio Valletta, Charles Madrid, Edsel Ford Ii, Amos Northup, Sherwood Egbert, Stanley Gillen, Fritz Nallinger, Joseph Hinrichs, Charles T. Jeffery, Michael Macht, Jay Ohrberg, Leonard Crossland, J. Stuart Perkins, Paul G. Hahnemann, Ulrich Eichhorn, Karl Wilfert, Frederick C. Crawford, Maximiliano Larroquette, Harald Pietschm...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=21620507 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1006 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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Chapters: Walter Chrysler, George W. Romney, Lee Iacocca, Jacques Nasser, Alan Mulally, William Clay Ford, Jr., Franz Josef Popp, Roy Abernethy, Rick Wagoner, Carlos Ghosn, George W. Mason, Roy D. Chapin, Jr., Frederick Henderson, Edward Whitacre, Jr., Shoichiro Toyoda, Sergio Marchionne, Peter Schutz, Charles Warren Nash, Katsuhiko Kawasoe, Robert B. Evans, Alexander Trotman, Baron Trotman, Martin Winterkorn, A. E. Barit, Richard E. Cross, Gerald C. Meyers, Eberhard Von Kuenheim, Takemune Kimura, Norbert Reithofer, Rupert Stadler, Helmut Panke. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 164. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 July 26, 1995) was an American businessman and Republican Party politician. He was chairman of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, the 43rd Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, and the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 to 1973. He is the father of former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney and the husband of former Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Lenore Romney. Romney was born to American parents in the Mormon colonies in Mexico; events during the Mexican Revolution forced his family to move back to the United States when he was a child. The family lived in several states and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they struggled during the Great Depression. Romney worked in a number of jobs, served as a Mormon missionary in England and Scotland, and attended two universities in the U.S. but did not graduate from either. In 1939 he moved to Detroit and joined the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, where he served as the chief spokesperson for the automobile industry during World War II and headed a cooperative arrangement in which companies could share production improvements....More: http://booksllc.net/?id=318677 ... Read more

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Martin Iannelli was president of Cole Motors, one of the world’s largest and grandest corporations. Above him, the top floor of the office tower, were the private quarters of the company’s chairman, William Alistair Cole—known to many as King Cole.

Customer Reviews (1)

Exciting peek into corporate shenanigans.This story is a classic
This story is a classic case of paranoid jealousy that occurs when an heir to a business fortune is outwitted by a self-made rival from modest roots.Names are changed but easily identified characters include Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Imelda Markcus, Roy Cohn, George Hamilton and various vice presidents of the Ford Motor Company in the 80's.Corporate treachery, illicit sex, and legal deceit keep you turning the pages to the surprising and uplifting end.-- Gene Prandine, Sterling Heights, Michigan. ... Read more

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Chapters: Amanda Seyfried, Lee Iacocca, Charlie Dent, Lara Jill Miller, Thom Browne, Irene Ng, Larry Seiple, Joe Wolf. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 47. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Amanda Michelle Seyfried (pronounced ; born December 3, 1985) is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was eleven and when she was fifteen she began her career as an actress; starting off with an uncredited role and going on to have a recurring role on a television series, which expanded into her having a successful television career. In 2004, Seyfried made her film debut in Mean Girls playing Karen Smith, the ditziest of the so called 'plastics'. She then went on to other films including Nine Lives (2005) and Alpha Dog (2007). In 2008, after landing a lead role on HBO's popular television series, Big Love, in 2006, Seyfried appeared as Sophie Sheridan in the musical feature film Mamma Mia!. Other recent notable appearances include lead roles in Jennifer's Body and Chloe in 2009, and one of the two lead roles in Dear John the following year. She currently has three films in production where she plays Juliette in all of them. Seyfried was born Amanda Michelle Seyfried in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States on December 3, 1985. Seyfried's mother, Ann (née Sander), was an occupational therapist, and her father, Jack, was a pharmacist. Seyfried has one older sister, Jennifer Seyfried, who is a musician in the Philadelphia organ-driven rock band Love City. Amanda graduated in 2003 from Allentown's William Allen High School. In 1995, Seyfried began her acting career at age nine. In her hometown Allentown, Pennsylvania, she attended classes at Civic Theatre of Allentown. She signed with Image International Agency ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1020882 ... Read more

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Chapters: Henry Ford, Robert Mcnamara, Lee Iacocca, Jacques Nasser, Archie Mccardell, Walter Hayes, Alan Mulally, William Clay Ford, Jr., Edsel Ford, Henry Ford Ii, Robert Lutz, Harry Bennett, Charles E. Sorensen, John Francis Dodge, Semon Knudsen, James J. Couzens, William Bushnell Stout, Marvin Travis Runyon, Ian Mcallister, Alexander Trotman, Baron Trotman, Donald Petersen, Whiz Kids, Elena Ford, Lewis Booth, William S. Knudsen, Peter E. Martin, William Clay Ford, Sr., Eugene Bordinat, Walter Flanders, Mark Fields, Edsel Ford Ii, George W. Walker, Harold Arthur Poling, Philip Caldwell, Stanley Gillen, William B. Mayo, Joseph Hinrichs, List of Ceos of Ford Motor Company, Leonard Crossland, J. Edward Lundy, Nick Scheele, Sam Toy, Ernest R. Breech, Jim Padilla, John Coletti, Lewis Crusoe, Donat Leclair. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 217. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. As owner of the Ford Motor Company he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism", that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line, coupled with high wages for his workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of the world's largest fortunes without ever having his company audited under his administration. Henry Ford's intense commitment to lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system t...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=13371 ... Read more

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Driven: A Photobiography of Henry Ford is a riveting profile of the man whose invention revolutionized American life: the industrial visionary who changed the automobile from rich man’s toy into affordable necessity. Don Mitchell weaves archival images from the Benson Ford Research Center with quotes from Ford’s writings, speeches, and interviews to create a lively, comprehensive profile of this intriguing individual.

Fiercely independent, and a man of complex contradictions, Henry Ford is revealed above all as a man driven to achieve his dream of building "a motor car for the great multitude," accessible to all. Driven includes a time line, resource list, and index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is an excellent photobiography of Henry Ford, a man who "believed in equal opportunity" long before it was popular!
Henry Ford was one of those youngsters who was fascinated by anything that ticked.He was simply obsessed by the mechanical workings of pocket watches or windup toys and his brothers and sisters had to be on the lookout or he would have them apart trying to figure out how they worked.There was one thing that separated him from most in that he "usually could put them back together again."The obsession with anything mechanical never waned.Not long after his mother was lost in childbirth, a devastating loss for such a young man, twelve-year-old Henry spotted "A steam engine [that] was traveling along the road under its own power."This amazing sight was more than enough to capture his imagination for a lifetime.

Later, when he invented his quadricycle, people simply considered him to be an odd duck and called him "Crazy Henry."He was far from crazy and many others were amazed by his talents.He was having trouble breaking into the automobile industry, but while others were experimenting with an electrical "horseless carriage," he was experimenting with a gas-powered vehicle.When this was pointed out to Thomas Edison, a lifetime friendship was born when he shouted out, "Young man, that's the thing: you have it.Keep at it. . .Your car is self-contained--it carries its own power plant--no fire, no boiler, no smoke and no steam. You have the thing.Keep at it."And that he did.

In this book you will get a glimpse at the life of a man who was determined that the automobile would shift from being a "luxury item for the well-to-do to a necessity for the average American."You'll learn about his family life, the formation of his company, the manufacture of the Model T, the creation of the innovative assembly line, how he shared his good fortune with his employees (the $5.00 day), you'll learn about his "Peace Ship," his brief political career, his commitment to the "broader community," his pacifism, his biases, and much more.Did you know that he hired African American during "a time of great racial discrimination?"

This is an excellent photobiography of Henry Ford, a man who "believed in equal opportunity" long before it was popular.It will not take long for the reader to become totally immersed in this excellent biography.There are numerous photographs, many that I've never seen, that simply speak for themselves.The amazing advances in technology began with the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, two close friends who challenged each other with their work.This biography not only gives an overview of Henry's "automobile" life, but also gives the reader a feel for his personality.In the back of the book is an index and additional recommended book and web site resources to explore. ... Read more