PHOTO GALLERY: Iacocca's hits, misses on wheels
Over an automotive career that spanned the late 1940s to the early 1990s, Lee Iacocca, former president of Ford and former chairman and CEO of Chrysler, was one of Detroit's most successful executives when it came to product planning.
- Tweet
- Share
- Share
- More




Iacocca created the Lincoln Continental Mark III by directing Ford design chief Gene Bordinant to "take the Thunderbird and put a Rolls-Royce grille on it" and do it "on the cheap." Critics called it "...a Thunderbird designed by seven guys named Vinnie." The Mark III, first marketed in 1969, epitomized all of Iacocca's styling excesses -- padded vinyl roof, porthole rear side windows, and a pseudo-spare tire bulge in the trunk. Others called it a Mafia staff car. But it proved popular and almost matched the sales success of Cadillac's rival Eldorado. While another scribe called it "far-fetched and vulgar, a two-seater sports car stretched to the length of a limousine," Iacocca and Ford laughed all the way to the bank. Ford made a profit of $2,000 for every Mark III sold, Iacocca claimed. "We make as much selling one Mark as from ten Falcons," Iacocca once said.





Lee Iacocca first campaigned to create the minivan while at Ford in the 1970s after the first OPEC crisis but didn't get to realize one of his major product dreams until he joined Chrysler. The Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager -- introduced in 1984 and quickly embraced by waves of Americans because of their low step-in height, roominess, decent fuel economy and noses with an engine up front to provide crush space in the event of an accident -- turned out to be some of the most successful products introduced by a Detroit automaker. They produced billions of dollars in profits for Chrysler over the years. "If you're not number one, then you've got to innovate," Iacocca often said of the strategy behind the creation of the minivan.














