Chrysler has a good reputation of putting new ideas into production - concept cars such as Viper, Prowler and PT Cruiser. The cab-forward design of Cirrus, Neon and LH-series are also leading the world `s design trend.  

Before the merge with Mercedes, Chrysler was mainly bounded in the US. It sells the same cars in the Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge brands. Their brand images are not clearly identified, although Dodge and Plymouth concentrate more on lower price cars while Chrysler is for upmarket versions. The off-roader maker, Jeep, was taken over from AMC in the 80 `s and became the most precious brand for the group in these days. 

In July 1998, Chrysler merged with Germany giant Daimler-Benz (which owns Mercedes-Benz) and formed DaimlerChrysler. The German partner may help improving Chrysler `s build quality and share its advanced technology.

The Plymouth brand was born in 1928. Car maker Dodge Brothers was acquired in the same year. The purchase of AMC (American Motors Corporation) in 1987 from Renault secured the famous Jeep division. 

Like Ford and GM, Chrysler s factories were turned into arsenal during WWII and concentrated on making the Sherman M4 tank. The broke out of Korea war in 1950 gave it another opportunity to earn a great profit.  

Chrysler created a few classic cars. The Air Flow of 1934 was one of the first saloon designed with aerodynamic concern. The Chrysler 300 of the 50 `s pioneered a powerful V8 with hemi-spherical combustion chamber, which gave the heavyweight coupe a strong performance. Another classic is Dodge Charger of 1967, which was the most fearsome muscle car. Its spirit inspired the Viper of the 90 `s. 

Chrysler was in financial crisis during the 70 `s and early 80 `s, thanks to oil crisis, emission control and the Japanese `s invasion. When Lee Iacocca was employed from Ford in 1978 as the new president, the company was closed to bankrupt. Iacocca, the father of Mustang, introduced a radical cost reduction, cutting heads, axing unpopular models and reducing platforms - eventually to only one ! As a result, Chrysler lost weight by 50%.  

He sought $1.5 billion loan from the federal government, using them to finance the development of the one and only one platform - the front-wheel-drive K-cars, which formed the basis of many models including the Laser coupe. The K-cars were small cars compare with GM and Ford `s models. It helped Chrysler to regain profitability in 1982. Next year, it pioneered the MPV trend with Voyager / Caravan which was soon became the company s best seller. 

Chrysler tried to expand many times, some succeeded but more failed - the acquisition of 15.6% in Maserati in 1984 resulted in a turbocharged convertible version of the K-car built in small quantity. The took over of Lamborghini in 1987 resulted in the Diablo and the promising F1 engine program, but the company pulled out before any return was generated. The merge with AMC resulted in just several factories but a precious name, Jeep. The joint-venture with Mitsubishi to form "Diamond-Star" helped Mitsubishi to access the US market. It was then sold to the Japanese company in the mid-90 `s. 

Since the Iacocca era, Chrysler had became an efficient, fast-reacting and creative car maker. It was the first to realise the potential of MPV and SUV, which helped it earned billions before competitors came. The Neon also represent a creative design and development process with engineers and stylists working under the same roof. This helped it to achieve a record-breaking development time. 

The last important event to date is the merge with Mercedes in 1998. The "equal merge" was actually a take over by Mercedes.