After sharing its automotive history and heritage over the past 13 years, the Walter P. Chrysler Museum is slamming its doors to the general public on Jan 1st, 2013. Opened in 1999, the non-profit museum was built and paid by the Chrysler Group. The Walter P. Chrysler Museum has 5 full time employees and 126 volunteers that were notified on December 6th of the closure. The museum is located in the Auburn Hills, MI campus of the Chrysler headquarters.
For some years now the Walter P. Chrysler Museum has been financially strapped running in the red. My question is why? Didn’t Chrysler get a government bail out? Shouldn’t they have used some cash to improve the museum and carry on the history for future generations? Just a thought. The closure will mean no more permanent public displays, but rather the Chrysler Group LLC will operate it as a special exhibitions museum. The plan is to transfer the assets owned by the Walter P. Chrysler Museum foundation to the bigger Chrysler Foundation. Basically, no longer open six days a week, but rather used for special events and requests for employees, retirees, and any other party that wants to rent the facility.
Brian Glowiak, president and CEO of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum was quoted as saying, “Our museum has faced the same financial challenges that many other, even long-standing, cultural institutions have encountered.” “We believe the only viable strategy is to merge the museum foundation into the Chrysler Foundation.”
All I can wonder is if this has something to do with Chrysler being controlled by Fiat? I guess the phrase “Imported from Detroit” could be more true now than ever.
As a Mustang Bullitt owner, occasional auto-cross racer, and off-road adventurer, Destin has been an automotive fanatic since his first matchbox car over thirty years ago. Spare time is usually spent searching the web and reading anything of what’s new and old in the automotive industry. In the summer months, he is either displaying his Bullitt at car shows, participating in an SCCA amateur auto-cross, or exploring the beautiful Colorado Rockies on off-road trails in search of historic mining ghost towns.
