Chrysler LH platform

The US economy slipped into a recession following the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash and the Savings and Loan Crisis, but the company's main problems were due to a lack of engineering innovation and careless spending during the years of prosperity in the 1980s.

[1] With Chrysler facing an uncertain future in the late 1980s, engineering teams were now allowed to explore new designs that had been largely discouraged under Iacocca's tenure.

The LH platform team was headed by François Castaing, who was previously responsible for product engineering and development at American Motors Corporation (AMC).

[5] Exterior styling was heavily influenced by another Chrysler design which debuted as the Lamborghini Portofino, a concept car introduced at the 1987 Frankfurt Auto Show.

[citation needed] Much as the company had done in the months leading up to the introduction of the K-platform cars in 1980, Chrysler referred directly to the LH platform in advertisements touting the advantages of its "cab-forward" architecture (generally meant to imply wheels moved out towards the corners of the body; a short, sloping hood; and a large windshield extending from its base over the front wheels), and also referred to the platform name for the Chrysler LHS sedan.

Although the real "gold mine" of Chrysler's acquisition of AMC was the Jeep brand, their minivans and LH sedans also helped to bail the company out of almost certain bankruptcy in the 1990s.

One episode of Robert Reich's 1992 PBS miniseries Made In America focused on the then-yet-to-be-released LH's development and its role in reversing Chrysler's flagging fortunes.