Re: [FWDLK] Air Conditioners/Airtemp History

[Bill Watson <wwatson@xxxxxxxxx>]

About 1981, under Chairman Lee, Chrysler sold off its tank division, again
to raise cash.  In a bit of irony, just as Chrysler sold its no longer
needed plant in Pennsylvania to Volkswagen, Volkswagen sold its no longer
needed plant at Sterling Heights, Michigan to Chrysler a number of years
later.  VW apparently built the plant as its sales were heading to the sky.
Unfortunately, VW suffered a sales collapse and eventually closed the
Pennsylvania plant as well.

In 1978, Chrysler sold its European operations (UK, France and Spain) to
Peugeot who renamed all the vehicles Talbot.  A bit or irony there, too, as
its British operation, Rootes, had taken over the British arm of the
original Talbot organization, Sunbeam-Talbot, in 1935, and its French
operation, Simca, had taken over the French arm, Talbot-Lago, (formerly
Talbot-Darracq) in 1959.

Chrysler Australia was sold to Mitsubishi, also in 1978.

Bill
Vancouver, BC


> According to the big book, Chrysler sold Airtemp to Fedders
> in 1978 under John Riccardo and Gene Cafiero, also sold an
> unfinished PA assembly plant to VW, disposed of a recreation
> area in MT, and got government subsidies from the UK.
>
> --Roger van Hoy, '55DeSoto, '42DeSoto, '66Plymouth,
> '73Duster, '81 Imperial, Washougal, WA
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Sealey" <mopar2ya@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 7:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [FWDLK] Air Conditioners/Airtemp History
>
>
> | --- cpollock@xxxxxxxx wrote:
> |
> | (snips at will)
> |
> | > This is all I know about Airtemp.  Airtemp was
> | > Chrysler's air conditioning division and they made
> | > air conditioners for almost everything. They also
> | > made refrigerators and freezer along with
> | > refrigeration units under the "Kelvinator" brand
> | > name.  Anyone remember those?
> |
> | Kelvinator wasn't really part of the Chrysler story
> | until '87, being a division of Nash-Kelvinator and
> | later AMC before being sold to White Consolidated
> | Industries in the early '70s... ...Chrysler was,
> | however, in the appliance industry in kind of a
> | backdoor manner in the '60s, when they made Kenmore
> | sewing machines for Sears...
> |
> | > But Airtemp was also the brand name that all air
> | > conditioning units for Chrysler were put under.
> | > On factory air cars a small "Air Conditioning by
> | > Airtemp" sticker appears on the rear of the
> | > quarter windows. This was for all of the
> | > Chrysler cars.
> |
> | True from about '67 on. The sticker Charles is talking
> | about, which being later than the FL era has a
> | pentastar, also appeared in the lower RH corner of the
> | back window in '64-'66. Prior to that, and this
> | includes FL stuff, a larger sticker appeared in the
> | lower RH corner of the back window. This sticker had
> | "Airtemp" in kind of a "'50s modern" script, and
> | naturally no pentastar. Not sure what year that
> | started, I'm guessing '59 or '60 but could be wrong.
> | Earliest car I've seen this early decal in is a '59
> | Imperial, latest was my uncle's '63 Polara.
> |
> | BTW, the '57 Plymouth owners' manual refers to the
> | factory AC as "CarTemp". Anyone ever seen stickers
> | saying this or know how long that went on? Seems to me
> | the Imperials were using the Airtemp name then.
> | Perhaps the Plymouth units came from an outside
> | supplier?
> |
> | > This sticker ONLY appears on factory air cars,
> | > not dealer add cars.
> |
> | Sorta true. '60s-'70s MoPar dealer add-on air had a
> | different sticker that said "Air Conditioned by
> | Chrysler", and had a pentastar but did not use the
> | Airtemp name. It was about this same time that
> | Chrysler started using the "Cool Aire" name on the
> | aftermarket units. These decals may have said
> | something like "Chrysler Aftermarket Sales
> | Corporation" (it's been years since I've seen one).
> |
> | > As for dealer installed air, they all hung under
> | > the dash.  I have never seen them anywhere else,
> | > and that includes all of the various brands.
> |
> | My grandparents had a '67 Dart with dealer installed
> | indash air. It didn't use the control buttons the
> | factory unit used, controlled instead by knobs next to
> | the lower vent just under the ignition switch, but it
> | appeared to use the same vents as the factory unit
> | including the AC-specific defroster vents. Years
> | later, my parents had dealer installed indash air put
> | into their '75 AMC Matador, but that's a whole other
> | story.
> |
> | > As for when and how Airtemp came to be and their
> | > eventual demise, I don't know.  I would speculate
> | > they were sold off in the early 80's as part of the
> | > federal restructuring of Chrysler Corp.
> |
> | Absolutely correct, at least as far as time period. I
> | always assumed the events were connected.
> |
> | =====
> | Mike Sealey, San Francisco CA
> | '57 Plymouth Sport Suburban
> |
>
>