People should stop looking at the Ol' Lee thing as black and white.
K cars did put a huge boost into Chrysler's wallet. Enough that they bought AMC, could afford to redesign their V8's well before GM or Ferd, could afford to redesign the entire body of the 94 truck line in less than a year, bought into Mistubishi.....
The company was in a bad way because while GM and Ferd had shiny new stuff for 78 Chrysler just.... didn't.
Why didn't they hold their own in the truck line? Because they dumped the big block. Did most trucks come with a big block? No.
They decided to drop V8 muscle cars, no pony car. Did the majority of public buy a muscle car? No.
Lee came in, saw what the last couple years of the 70's were, and slammed the door on those things. The issue is, those things are very, very important marketing tools. They reach a segment of the population to create loyalty and "hype". the 80's turned into Ford vs Chevy, and in WI, the Chevy side were zealots to the point by the 90's they were willing to pay $30k for a $19k pony car. The Mustang was the stop light drag race king of the late 80's. Of course there were challengers, but they were few between and much more expensive.
Ford and Chevy offered a big block into the late 90's, GM offered the 8.1 until mid 2000's. Ford switched to a V10. Now Ford has a new big block.
Chrysler stopped big blocks DECADES before, and the 80's they were not even a talking point on the truck scene because of it.
Turbo hatchbacks were fast, but they were not "cool". No high school guy was leaning on his hood in his jean jacket in the 80's waiting for the girls to come check out his hatchback.
Ol' Lee made a good decision developing the K cars. He could have left the 400 available(or 440!) for the 250/350 trucks, AT LEAST until they made the deal with Cummins. They could have had a gap with some turbo K cars and in the late 80's, or for SURE by the time the early 90's came around, developed a low cost RWD 5.2 powered pony car.
Lee viewed those ideas as relics from the 70's and it kept Chrysler from blowing the doors off of Ford and GM. Lee settled for recovery instead of dominance. His entire career there was spent in damage control mode, even after paying loans back early, stabilizing the company, and even buying competition. He needed to either go away by that point or turn the page into a more aggressive development/marketing model.
Ford had a F150, the Taurus, and the Mustang. Tempo was the commuter car.
GM had a Silverado(K1500), a slug of nameplates on the W body chassis, and a Camaro. Grand Am's and Cavaliers were commuter cars.
Chrysler didn't have a big block for people to recognize their trucks until the body overhaul in 94, ??????(Intrepid in the 90's eventually) and ?????? K cars were viewed as commuter cars, even the leather appointed ones by the public. People that bought Taurus, Lumina, Buick LeSabre, Grand Prix, were NOT looking at K cars as equivalent. Chrysler was.
Lee needed to fill the gaps once the company stabilized. He owned the minivan market. He was SUPER late to the party on the trucks and sedans, but they did do a great job once they got there. They never did come back around to the pony car market. 10 years later after Daimler bought it they did! And nowdays what is left? Trucks that got a hold of the market through aggressive design in 1994 and the muscle cars. Trucks kept their share and the muscle cars built theirs both on the marketing power of V8 and HEMI.
Lee was a genius to add k cars to the market, the caravan, saved Chrysler. He was a blasted fool for not doing in 1990 what the Germans decided to do in the mid 2000's. He is not a saint, he is not a buffoon. He took the company out of the abyss and then left it sitting on the edge instead of climbing to the top of the mountain.
Is the Sprint the one that came with a 3 cylinder engine? My BIL bought that or something similar because of the mpg it got and the seat went back far enough for him to drive it. He was 6'7" and the seat went back fare enough that I couldn't reach the pedals and I'm 5'9". It reminded me of the Dodge Omni.....another box car that really didn't appeal to me but the Omni GLHS sure got my attention lol
