Jeep-Eagle

Jeep-Eagle was the name of the automobile sales division created by the Chrysler Corporation after the US$2 billion takeover of American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1987. The division marketed a variety of vehicles until 1997.

The Jeep-Eagle Division consisted mostly of what was left of American Motors after its acquisition by Chrysler. The first group vice president was Joseph Cappy, who previously held the post of AMC president and chief executive officer.

The new organization was responsible for continuing the promotion, sales, and product engineering for Jeep and the remaining AMC vehicles. It was a method to absorb nearly 1,200 American Motors dealers into Chrysler's distribution system and have them "meet stronger quality standards". The new division gave Chrysler three dealer organizations because state franchise laws prevented Chrysler from merging the AMC dealer network into its existing Chrysler-Plymouth or Dodge franchise systems, as well as preventing the sale of existing Chrysler products through AMC dealers.

Upon completion of the merger, Chrysler rebranded the Renault Medallion under the Eagle marque and discontinued the Renault Alliance, Encore, and GTA models. AMC's dealers continued to market and service the popular Jeep light-truck brand. They also were responsible for selling the new Eagle Premier, which Renault and AMC had been working on since 1982 and were originally planning on releasing in 1987 before the merger.

The newly established Jeep-Eagle Division business strategy was to increase Jeep production and focus more money on marketing. The new "Eagle marketing umbrella" also marketed versions of vehicles produced by Diamond-Star Motors.

Chrysler hoped to make Jeep-Eagle their "specialty division," selling products distinctly different from the K-car-based products. The Eagle passenger cars were supposed to try and capture import buyers. However, they evolved from the innovative, full-sized Premier and the imported mid-sized Medallion into a hodgepodge of cars developed between Chrysler and Mitsubishi. Eventually, many Eagle-branded automobiles were duplicated at Dodge and Chrysler-Plymouth dealerships. Chrysler made a good-faith effort to give the Eagle brand an identity by offering an all wheel drive (AWD) Eagle Talon, basically a badge engineered Mitsubishi Eclipse AWD, however sales were hindered by marketing missteps.

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