Walter P. Chrysler was a railroad machinist who took his first car apart to learn how it worked. His name went on a car in 1924, wearing a ribbon seal designed to look like a prestigious award.
- Country
-
United States - Active
- Since 1925
- Founded by
- Walter P. Chrysler
- Website
- Official website ↗
A railroad machinist puts his name on a car
Walter Percy Chrysler was born in Wamego, Kansas, in 1875, the son of a locomotive engineer. He skipped college for a machinist’s apprenticeship and spent his early career in railroad shops. In 1908 he bought his first car, a Locomobile. He couldn’t drive it, so he took it apart and put it back together several times to learn how it worked.
That curiosity took him a long way. In 1912 he joined Buick as works manager and later became its president. After leaving General Motors in 1919, he became a kind of doctor for struggling carmakers, first at Willys-Overland and then at Maxwell Motors. With three engineers, Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton and Carl Breer, he designed a new car. The Chrysler Six made its debut at the New York Auto Show in 1924, the first vehicle to carry the Chrysler name.
It sold well. On June 6, 1925, Maxwell Motors became Chrysler Corporation, with Walter P. Chrysler as president. Chrysler still treats that date as its birthday. Three years later he bought Dodge Brothers and began building DeSoto and Plymouth cars.
A seal that looked like a prize
The first Chrysler emblem arrived with the first Chrysler car in 1924. It was a ribbon seal, and according to Chrysler it was designed to resemble a prestigious award and to symbolise quality and engineering excellence. Early cars also wore a winged radiator cap inspired by the Roman god Mercury, which Chrysler links to speed and freedom.
Seals and wings became a habit. Through the 1930s and 1940s, Chrysler tried streamlined wings, shield emblems and script nameplates, all in step with an era obsessed with aerodynamics.
Enthusiasts like to say that the zigzag lightning bolts on the old seal are really a letter Z for Fred Zeder, the engineer behind the first car. The story is repeated in archive notes at the Detroit Historical Society and in the motoring press, but it doesn’t appear in Chrysler’s own account of its logo.
The star, the seal and the wings
In 1955 Virgil Exner’s Forward Look styling arrived, and with it a cleaner, more directional kind of symbolism. Then, in 1962, came the Pentastar: a star shape made of five separate triangles, created by the design firm Lippincott & Margulies. Chrysler describes it as a corporate-wide emblem designed for global recognition and simplicity. That’s all. The company has never given an official meaning to the five pieces.
The Pentastar belonged to the corporation, though, not to one brand. The Chrysler brand kept developing its own look on the cars, going back to wings and seals again and again. The star served as the company’s symbol for more than 40 years, stepped aside during the Daimler years and returned as part of “The New Chrysler” logo in August 2007. Today the name lives on in Chrysler’s Pentastar V-6 engine.
By the mid-1990s, the original ribbon seal was back. Later it was paired with long, outstretched wings on the front and rear of the cars. In the 2010s that gave way to the modern Chrysler wing badge: a clean, horizontal layout with the brand name in the middle. Chrysler says this era made wings the brand’s primary visual signature.
Wings that light up
For its 100th birthday in 2025, Chrysler gave the Pacifica a 100th Anniversary Edition with an “Est. 1925” wing badge at the rear. The real change came a year later.
The newest wing badge was first previewed on the Chrysler Airflow concept in 2022 and refined on the Halcyon concept in 2024. It reached production on the 2027 Pacifica, revealed in New York in April 2026. Chrysler describes it as cleaner and more digital, with a modernised Chrysler wordmark developed in-house. On the Pacifica it is illuminated and sits at the centre of a full-width LED light signature. On the top trims, the badge is among the first lights to wake up when the car comes to life.
Cars that carried the name
Chrysler earned a reputation as Detroit’s engineering company, and many of the cars that wore its seals and wings were built to prove the point.
Landmark Chryslers, decade by decade
- 1924: Chrysler Six. Combined a high-compression six-cylinder engine with the first use of four-wheel hydraulic brakes in a moderately priced car.
- 1934: Airflow. Shaped in a wind tunnel Chrysler built with advice from Orville Wright, and described by Chrysler as the first unit-body, aerodynamic car.
- 1941: Town & Country. The company’s first highly styled station wagon, with a wood and steel body.
- 1955: C-300. The first of Chrysler’s “letter series” cars, combining Forward Look styling with HEMI power.
- 1963: Turbine Car. Gas turbine prototypes loaned to 200 families across the country for real-world testing.
- 1990: Town & Country minivan. Introduced by Chrysler as the first luxury minivan.
- 2016: Pacifica. Unveiled in Detroit together with the Pacifica Hybrid, which Chrysler calls the first electrified minivan in its class.
Chrysler has rarely been alone. It bought Dodge in 1928 and gained Jeep with American Motors in 1987. After the Daimler years, it merged with Fiat in 2014, and in 2021 it became part of Stellantis, alongside brands like Peugeot. For more badges from the early days of motoring, see our classic car logos.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Chrysler logo mean?
According to Chrysler, the original 1924 ribbon seal was designed to look like a prestigious award and to symbolise quality and engineering excellence. The wings go back to the winged radiator cap of the early cars, inspired by the Roman god Mercury and standing for speed and freedom.
Who founded Chrysler, and when?
Walter P. Chrysler. His first car, the Chrysler Six, appeared in 1924, and on June 6, 1925, Maxwell Motors became Chrysler Corporation with him as president.
Is the Pentastar the Chrysler logo?
It was the corporate symbol, adopted in 1962 for the whole company. The Chrysler brand used its own seals and wings on the cars, and since the 2010s the wing badge has been its main emblem.
When did Chrysler get its new logo?
The new wing badge was previewed on the Airflow concept in 2022 and the Halcyon concept in 2024, then made its production debut on the 2027 Pacifica in April 2026, with an illuminated version on the grille.
Chrysler at a glance
- Founded
- 1925
- Founder
- Walter P. Chrysler
- Country
- United States
- Headquarters
- Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA
- Parent company
- Stellantis
- Current emblem
- A wing badge with the Chrysler name in the centre; a new, cleaner version debuted in 2026 on the 2027 Pacifica
- Known for
- The Airflow, the 300 letter cars and minivans
- Website
- Official website ↗
