Chrysler isn't the company it once was. It used to be a staple of American automotive excellence, but in recent years, the brand has devolved into a fancy Dodge knockoff with two minivans in its lineup. Two great minivans, mind you—but two minivans nonetheless.
Recent news, though, has us hopeful.
Chrysler hired product planners and an entire team of marketers specifically for that brand—not for the larger Stellantis conglomerate as a whole. And, for a company once known for beautiful vehicle designs, it finally gets its own dedicated design studio. Arguably, this is the most significant development at Chrysler in decades.
Chrysler’s Design Era
Chrysler's cars used to be iconic. One of the most beautiful vehicles ever built, still, is the Chrysler d'Elegance concept from 1952, designed in partnership with Ghia. Sure, the Italians had a big hand in making this beautiful machine, but it might not have happened if it weren't for the design know-how of Chrysler executives at the time.
Chrysler would then go on to produce dozens of stunning vehicles throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s; the New Yorker, the original C-300, the Windsor, the Newport—the list goes on. Chrysler design then languished for a bit in the 1980s and 1990s before a major revival in the early 2000s, thanks largely to one car.
The revived 300C debuted at the New York Auto Show as an "unabashedly American" take on the traditional full-size sedan, designer Ralph Gilles said at the time. It was the first truly beautiful thing to come from Chrysler's design studio in damned near three decades, with many drawing comparisons to Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars of the day.
Not bad company.
Chrysler also produced the two-door Crossfire at the time, an odd-if-not-interesting sports car, and a bevvy of concept cars like the Firepower, the Imperial, and most memorably, the ME Four-Twelve hypercar (which almost made it to production).
But when the 2008 financial crisis hit Detroit, Chrysler—as with Ford and General Motors—faced a major business restructuring that essentially halted all projects in development at the time. No ME Four-Twelve, no Firepower.
The 20 years that followed the financial crisis were not kind to Chrysler design.
The 300 ended production in 2023 after an impressive two-decade run. The Pacifica—as pretty as it is for a minivan—hasn't changed much since its debut in 2017. And the only "new" addition to the lineup was a downgraded version of the Pacifica with a retro name: The Voyager.
The Future of Chrysler Design
Thankfully, the future of Chrysler design looks much brighter. And frankly, so does the future of Chrysler as a whole.
Ralph Gilles, now the head of Stellantis design, told Road & Track that, "Chrysler is back on. We’ve built all the fixings to really look after the brand," he said, "and that’s brought new energy."
Gilles also told Automotive News that the company was going to "experiment" even more:
'I think it’s time for us to pivot. We’re going to try. We’re going to experiment with the brand. There is an unserved part of our portfolio in our showroom that our dealers have identified that we can maybe serve with Chrysler, so we’re in the process of experimenting.'
With Carlos Tavares now out of the picture and new CEO Antonio Filosa at the helm, Chrysler could be back on the right track with enough investment. A team of dedicated marketers, fresh product planners, and most importantly, a design studio—as opposed to its former studio, which it shared with Dodge—could thrust the brand back into the design limelight.
Of course, rumors are already swirling of a reborn 300 sedan based on the futuristic Halcyon concept from a few years ago, as well as an SUV with similar looks, and a thoroughly updated Pacifica minivan.
Whatever the future may hold for the Chrysler brand, there’s at least hope that its vehicles could look beautiful again.
