Who Owns Chrysler And Where Are The Brand's Cars Built?

Chrysler has officially joined the elite ranks of The Century Club, having been founded all the way back in 1925. Like every automaker that's been in the game that long, the brand has come a long way since Walter P. Chrysler unveiled his first creation, the Chrysler Six, in 1924. Chrysler has also seen its fair share of ups and downs throughout its existence.

Interestingly, Walter Chrysler was a General Motors man early in his career, leaving the burgeoning automotive titan in 1919 before setting off on his own. Just a few years later, Chrysler would join the likes of Ford and GM as one of Detroit's Big Three automakers. The founder would call the shots at Chrysler as company president until stepping down in 1935. His company would continue to operate as an independent entity until 1998, though the brand's ownership story begins to get complicated from that point. In 1998, Chrysler merged with Daimler-Benz, the latter acquiring the American automaker in a multi-billion-dollar stock swap.

The new company was branded DaimlerChrysler AG, which it remained until 2007. That year saw Cerebrus Capital take control of the brand, which then offloaded it to Fiat in 2014. Chrysler and Fiat eventually merged to form Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In 2019, FCA merged with the PSA Group and became Stellantis, and Chrysler has officially been a subsidiary of that conglomerate since 2023.    

Chrysler is one of the many major auto brands that are currently held under the Stellantis umbrella, alongside names like Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati. The brand has long been recognized as distinctly American, with the company setting up shop in the Michigan area upon its formation in the 1920s, and continuing to make cars in the U.S. for decades thereafter. But given the international scope of the brand's current Amsterdam-based ownership group, Chrysler's American-made status is, understandably, in question. As it is, Chrysler-branded vehicles are not made in America anymore.

To be fair, that has been true for quite a few years now, as Chrysler, along with most of the major American automakers, began manufacturing vehicles outside the U.S. as early as the 1960s. There are, however, a few brands that formerly lived under the Chrysler banner that can claim a dash of the Made in America glory. But that tag applies more to names like Dodge, Ram, and Jeep, with the latter brand continuing to crank out beloved vehicles like the SlashGear-approved Jeep Gladiator through their facility in Toledo, Ohio. But even those brands have vehicles made in other countries, including Mexico and Canada.

As for Chrysler, the brand is largely operating in the minivan market these days. According to 2024 information offered by Stellantis, the bulk of Chrysler's current lineup is indeed being made in Canada, as the Pacifica, Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid, and Voyager models reportedly originate in the Windsor Assembly Plant located in Ontario.