Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

MARKET DYNAMICS IN THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY 111
rear - window defrosters, all features that would be helpful in the
minivan arena. Perhaps most important, Chrysler was weak in
the station - wagon market, in which both Ford and GM were
making signifi cant profi ts. The prospect of seeing a new minivan
category take business away from station wagons was for
Chrysler a good thing.
There was a problem. When Iacocca arrived in 1979, Chrysler
was in bankruptcy and required a government bailout of some
$ 1.7 billion (a lot of money in those days) in loan guarantees
in order to fi nance the minivan and, in fact, in order to
survive. Given the desperate need for new vehicles, Iacocca
decided to spend $ 6.5 billion over fi ve years on vehicle development,
the fi rst of which was the minivan. This rather gutsy
decision might not have been made had Iacocca been a fi nance
type who would look to restructuring and closing plants fi rst,
or if the situation had not been so dire that clearly some
changes in the product profi le were needed. So the crises may
have helped.
On November 2, 1983, Chrysler introduced the minivan in
the form of the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan, seven -
passenger, front - wheel - drive, “ garageable ” minivans with roomy
interiors, low step - in height, and removable seats. Termed the
“ Magic Wagon ” by admirers, the new vehicle felt and drove
like a car rather than a truck. It sold over 200,000 in the fi rst
year and over 12.5 million by 2009, by which time the Chrysler
Town and Country had been added to the stable of brands. 8
With its early success, Chrysler made the tough decision to
build a second plant, gambling that the initial sales results were
not a short - term fl ash in the pan. It was exactly the kind of bet -
the - fi rm decision Asahi made went they built additional capacity
upon the initial success of Asahi Super Dry beer that was
recounted in Chapter One . For at least sixteen years, Chrysler
did not have a serious competitor, and over two decades later
they were still the market leader. Everyone else was playing
catch - up. In 2009, over twenty - fi ve years after the minivan ’ s