When was Chrysler founded?
Chrysler was created in 1924, according to the official histories. But when was Chrysler really started?
Chrysler itself, as a corporate entity, was indeed created then. But it was merely a name change for the existing Maxwell-Chalmers; even the new Plymouth was a revised Maxwell. The Chrysler car was new, but the popular Plymouth was a revamped Maxwell-Chalmers car.
If you look at the family tree produced around 1960-61, you can see that Chrysler goes back to 1894. That’s right, 1894, in the 19th century, even before Fiat. 1894 is when Electroboat was created; it would become, in succession, Ricker Electric, Columbia Electric, Columbia-Knight, and U.S. Motor Company before becoming Maxwell Motor Company, joining with Chalmers, and being taken over by turnaround artist Walter P. Chrysler, who put his name on top… and then invented a new name for the company’s most popular carline.
(Chalmers itself was a 1908 invention baseed on Chalmers-Detroit and Thomas-Detroit of 1907, based on Stoddard-Dayton-Knight, based on Stoddard-Dayton, based on 1904’s Dayton.) Maxwell’s other roots include Courier (1904), Brush (1907), Maxwell-Briscoe (1904), and Alden-Sampsen (1904). And that’s not even going into the AMC branch, which started with Jefferys, whose first automobile was completed in 1895, with the Rambler line of cars created in 1897. Jeffery started mass producing cars in 1898, using the assembly line after Ransom Olds, but before Henry Ford.
(See histories of some of these Chrysler antecedents at http://www.allpar.com/history/)
