Iacocca, dealers lobbied to save Chrysler

摘要

Veteran Chrysler dealer Hoot Mclnerney vividly recalls the impression that Lee Iacocca made on Congress in 1979, when the Chrysler Corp. chairman sought federal loan guarantees that would help bail out the struggling automaker. "When he went before the congressmen, they were dumbfounded," says Mclnerney, owner of Northland Chrysler-Jeep in Oak Park, Mich. Lawmakers were swept away by Iacocca's brilliance, quick mind and seemingly endless supply of good ideas, Mclnerney says. Mclnerney was one of scores of dealers who went to Washington to lobby for the USD1.5 billion loan-guarantee package that eventually saved the company. Iacocca, father of the Ford Mustang and savior-in-chief of Chrysler, was the public face of the effort. Still, Iacocca insists that he couldn't have preserved Chrysler without the help of the company's dealers.