(3 of 4)
Dollars for Dealers. Besides a fatty headquarters operation, Townsend inherited a dealer body so discouraged that 3,000 dealers had quit Chrysler in the previous five years. Reversing the company's traditional indifference toward its dealers, Townsend has allocated $80 million to revamp Chrysler's distribution. Sales Vice President Virgil Boyd (hired away from American Motors) and Dealer Relocation Expert Stewart Venn (hired away from Ford) have taken dealers out of fading downtown areas, put them into new Chrysler-built and -owned suburban facilities. In Vancouver, B.C., the new program lifted Chrysler's share of the car market from 11% to more than 16%.
Townsend has also shown himself quickly responsive to dealer complaints and suggestions. Early last year. Dodge dealers reported to Detroit that they were losing sales because they did not have a high-priced car in their line. Only 36 days later, Townsend announced the Dodge ggo—ingeniously compounded of the front third of the Dodge Polara and the rear two-thirds of the Chrysler Newport.
Evolution & Resolution. By the time Townsend began running Chrysler, there was not much that could be done about the styling vagaries of the 1962 Chrysler cars. But he did remove a grotesque off-center tail fin running down the trunk lid of the Plymouth, and sternly admonished his stylists that "this is the radical type of styling that we are going to avoid' from now on." Townsend believes that car styles should evolve slowly so that customers can always see a similarity from year to year. "There are very few people who don't know what the Olds 88 is," he argues. "It has always been in the same position and in the same price class. But at Chrysler we have had so much interruption in continuity of size, name and styles that customers didn't know what the Dodge 440 was or what the Plymouth Fury was—and they couldn't be assured that they would still be there next year."
In Chrysler's current 1963 line. Townsend began to put some of these beliefs into effect. He had the Dodge that was planned for 1964 rushed into production as a '63, eliminated the Valiant's look-alike Lancer, and moved the Dart into the super-compact field. And as an investment in the future, he hired away Ace Ford Designer Elwood Engel, 45, who was largely responsible for the clean lines of the Lincoln Continental. In the scant time he had to work on the '63 Chryslers. Engel simplified the ornamentation on all Chrysler cars to make them look lower and wider.
Worth the Price. Along with improved styling, Townsend has concentrated on putting quality back into Chrysler cars. Every Imperial gets a two-mile road test (the less expensive lines get spot checks), and critical parts on all cars are examined for invisible defects with ultraviolet rays. Says Chicago Dealer Ronald Esserman: "It used to be that when the cars came in here from Detroit, the doors didn't fit, the moldings didn't jibe, and the upholstery wasn't straight. But this year everything fits perfectly." To drive home to car buyers his conviction that "we are now making the best cars we have ever made," Townsend three months ago inaugurated a five-year or 50,000-mile guarantee on the engine and other "power train" components of all Chrysler cars.