Hal Sperlich, at 95

Hal Sperlich, who rose from engineering into product planning to take charge of the Ford Mustang and later convinced Lee Iacocca to make the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan, has passed on at the age of 95. He was one of several members of the Chrysler Corporation “Dream Team,” which led the company’s many process and cultural change which brought it from near bankruptcy to high profits.

At Ford, according to the Automotive Hall of Fame, Sperlich spearheaded the Ford Mustang, which sold 400,000 cars in its first year (and which is often mistakenly credited to Lee Iacocca). Sperlich wanted the Mustang to be just the start; he wanted to see more small cars, using front wheel drive for space efficiency. Unable to make headway, he moved to Chrysler in 1977 as head of product planning.

At Chrysler, Hal Sperlich led the product planning portion of the front wheel drive Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries K-cars, which saved the company by providing a highly profitable car aimed at the center of the American market as it stood in 1981. Sperlich became the president of the company shortly afterwards. It’s possible that without his intervention, the Reliant would have stuck with rear wheel drive, and possibly even a slant-six engine, rather than borrowing the Horizon’s front wheel drive setup.

Former Chrysler executive Burt Bouwkamp wrote that Hal Sperlich and Lee Iacocca deserved credit for the final front wheel drive design of the minivan as well as the decision to go ahead with it—Iacocca initially rejected it, but Sperlich convinced him to find the money. It was quite a gamble, but it paid off quite well. (The minivan had already been developed in rear wheel drive form, since that was the architecture Chrysler had.)

Sperlich disagreed with the purchase of American Motors, thinking the money would be better spent on new products. He was either replaced or retired in 1988, with Bob Lutz taking over as president.

Get the AutoLine interview with Hal Sperlich. 

David Zatz

David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.

David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.