Chrysler exists because Lee Iacocca bet the company on the minivan. Now, thanks to the oil crisis, the minivan looks like it could be on its last legs.
One of the company's two minivan assembly plants will be shut indefinitely on Oct. 31, Chrysler said today. The problem is that families -- the target market for minivans -- have been particularly affected by rising gas and food prices, falling home values and more difficulty in borrowing money.
It's a humiliating development for Chrysler, which spent $1.4 billion on the redesign of its two industry-leading minivans, the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan. And then saw sales go, well, nowhere.
"Everything that a family needs is more expensive right now, and so the last thing they're looking at is, 'Do they need to replace their Honda Odyssey?'" said Rebecca Lindland, an auto analyst for Global Insight, the economic consulting firm
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