Tom Gale joins Cerberus advisory team. It’s a big news for Chrysler. Indeed Tom Gale is amongst the key men responsible for the Chrysler rebirth at the end of the eighties and in the nineties.
Born in Flint in 1943, he studied industrial design at Michigan State University before joining Chrysler in 1967, not as a designer but as an engineer. He built up his reputation when he was sent to Mitsubishi at the beginning at the eighties. There he designed the Mitsubishi 3000GT/Dodge Stealth and the Plymouth Laser/Eagel Talon/Mitsubishi Eclipse. In 1985, he took over from Don Delarossa as head of design. He persuaded Lee Lacocca to raise the status pf design at the same level of the other departments.
Under his leardership, Chrysler revealed astonishing concept cars such as the Portofino in 1987. Some of them were put into production such as the Viper in 1992, three years after making itas debut at a motorshow. The following year, the Prowler was revealed and put into production in 1997, but with less success.
Each year Detroit motor show became the Chrysler’s motorshow where it revealed Thunderbolt, Atlantic and Phaeton concept cars. Before retiring he persuaded Chrysler to choose a rear-wheel drive platform and to favor an appealing design for future 300C.
Toyota will launch a new competitor on the microcar market next September. The new model, which is set to compete with the popular Smart car, will be available from 2008.
Having a factory in China is an obligation if you want to be considered as serious by Chinese car dealers and customers. Renault currently sells four models — Scenic, Megane, Vel Satis and Laguna — in the Middle Kingdom but 740 vehicles found an owner last year. In the middle of last year, Renault teamed up with Dongfeng, which produces the old ZX, the Xsara, Picasso and the 307 in a joint venture with PSA.
