Chrysler might have the most complicated family tree of any automobile manufacturer. Here are but a few of the company’s tangled branches. 

 

 

A recent feature at Mac’s Motor City Garage, The Lost Marques of General Motors, inspired comments about the potential for a similar story on Chrysler. The consensus among our highly knowledgeable readers: It’s impossible.

The automaker has so many lapsed divisions and orphan brands that it would take an encyclopedia to name them all. And now that Chrysler is part of Fiat, the narrative is complicated even more—lots more, actually. (2020 Note: And now that FCA is part of Stellantis, the family tree is extended even further.)

MCG concurs. Thus, no attempt is made here to document all the erstwhile Chrysler brand affiliations. These are merely a few interesting examples.

(Note: you can find part two of our series on lost Chrysler marques here.) 

 

DeSoto, among the best-known of the Chrysler orphan makes, operated for 32 years but never with a clearly defined position in the Chrysler product line. The brand was originally planned in part as a direct competitor to Dodge, a negotiating ploy with the bankers who then controlled Dodge, as Walter P. Chrysler maneuvered to buy out the company.

When Chrysler ultimately purchased Dodge, the new DeSoto brand was shifted slightly down the lineup, between Plymouth and Dodge—shown here is the stylish 1929 DeSoto Six Roadster. A few years later, DeSoto was moved up the lineup, sort of between Dodge and Chrysler, as part of the doomed Airflow product strategy. Perpetually the red-headed stepchild in the Chrysler product line, DeSoto was discontinued in 1961.

 

Chalmers came to be in 1908 when Hugh Chalmers, National Cash Register magnate, bought into a Detroit automaker, Thomas-Detroit, buying out the interest of E.R. Thomas (of Thomas Flyer note). The name was changed to Chalmers-Detroit, then shortened to simply Chalmers in 1911.

A major automaker in the Motor City’s early years, Chalmers erected a large Albert Kahn-designed plant along Jefferson Avenue. But the company stumbled badly and was combined with Maxwell, forming Maxwell-Chalmers. The 1923 Chalmers Touring shown here represents the last year of production under the Chalmers name. Maxwell-Chalmers was then under the control of Walter P. Chrysler, who soon wove the operation into the entity named the Chrysler Corporation.

 

In 1962, Chrysler launched a manufacturing operation in Turkey in partnership with local investors, building trucks that bore Fargo and DeSoto badges, the corporation’s traditional export truck brands. Over time the products evolved unique local content, including the straightforward sheet metal on this 1975 Fargo pickup.

Chrysler sold out its interest in 1978 and no longer has any relationship with the company now known as Askam, but the Turkish maker continues on with the Fargo and DeSoto brands.

 

When Chrysler purchased American Motors in March of 1987, in part by buying out the 47 percent share held by French automaker Renault, the chief object of desire was the Jeep brand. AMC’s passenger car lineup was of secondary interest. That included the new Renault 25-based, Guigiaro-styled Premier, a front-drive sedan with a longitudinal V6.

Repackaged as the Eagle division of Chrysler, the former American Motors network continued to market the Eagle Premier through 1992. In order to fulfill volume commitments with Renault, Dodge dealers received their own version of the Premier, re-badged as a Monaco. Chrysler finally phased out the Eagle brand in 1999.

 

The brilliant A.P. Brush, an industry pioneer who made key technical contributions at Cadillac, Olds, and Oakland, was also the father of the Brush Runabout, which sported a slew of unique features, including a wooden frame and front axle, pull-coil suspension, and clockwise engine rotation. With its clever minimalist design, the low-priced Brush (1907-1913) was a brisk seller until it was eclipsed by the Model T Ford, which offered considerably more bang for the buck.

In 1910, the Brush Motor Car Co. was drawn into the United States Motor Company along with Maxwell, Columbia, Stoddard-Dayton, et. al. When the U.S. Motor conglomerate collapsed, the assets were absorbed by Maxwell, and in 1925 Maxwell became part of Chrysler. The former Brush factory at the corner of Rhode Island and Oakland became part of the old Highland Park Chrysler complex. Incidentally, the house featured in the 2008 Clint Eastwood film Gran Torino is on Rhode Island Street, just one block west of where the Brush plant stood.

 

Chrysler launched an aggressive international expansion in the 1960s, acquiring the Rootes Group in Britian, Simca in France, and the Spanish company Barreiros, producer of trucks, buses, and diesel engines. No, it didn’t work out.

Part of the arrangements with Barreiros included a locally produced variant of the Dodge Dart, which was marketed as the Barreiros Dart or the Dodge 3700—the displacement of its 225 CID Slant Six in cubic centimeters. Local adaptations included new bodywork, disc brakes, and a four-speed transmission. Shown here is the handsome 1970 Dodge 3700 GT.

 

Strange but true: When the Valiant compact was introduced in October 1959, it was not part of the Plymouth division. In contrast to competitors Ford with the Falcon and Chevrolet with the Corvair, the 1960 Valiant was marketed as stand-alone brand.  “Nobody’s kid brother, the Valiant stands on its own four tires,” the ad copy crowed. (You can find our feature on the 1960 Valiant here.)

However, Chrysler’s marketing alignments were already confusing enough, populated with Plymouth-DeSoto and Chrysler-Plymouth dual franchises. For 1961, Valiant became part of the Plymouth division, and Dodge got its own version of the compact badged as the Lancer.

To be continued…