Re: An article on a Dodge website on the Briggs buyout...

Posted by Mr.Pushbutton  On 2012/4/7 22:06:22

The artiicle fails to mention that Briggs engineered much of what became a Chrysler body before the Briggs acquisition. Chrysler always prided itself on being "the engineering company" but that pretty much was restricted to engine (which they did very well) transmissions and chassis. Body engineering was taken for granted for a long time there because all of the competence in body design at Chrysler came from Briggs. They finally had it all in-house, run their way for the 1957 model year, which was also the debut of Virgil Exner's "Forward look" bodies--beautiful designs, for the whole product line. The body engineering/building went to the dark ages overnight, and Chrysler was a very distant third in body engineering/build quality until the Iacocca wave of Ford people came in and showed them how it's really done.
Look at any 1951-'56 Chrysler body with the interior out of the car, like one under restoration. Looks just like a Packard body on the inside. 1957 on, nothing like that, no comparison.