These days it seems as though all the auto manufacturers are in bed with each other. Toyota and BMW co-developed the new Supra, Ford and Chevy did the same for an automatic transmission for the Mustang and Camaro, and Volkswagen has their finger in everyone’s pie. But of all the partnerships between manufacturers no one has had such a convoluted history together as Chrysler and Mitsubishi. Since the 1970’s and into the mid 2000’s these two have been intertwined with varying levels of success and failures.

Chrysler and Mitsubishi’s story together starts in the 1970’s. Chrysler needed a new small car that could compete with the growing demand of economical cars, and Mitsubishi wanted to break into the North American market. So in the early 70’s their relationship began, with the newly rebadged Mitsubishi Galant being sold has the Dodge Colt. This continued throughout the 70’s and Chrysler had purchased a 15 percent stake in Mitsubishi.

But when the 1980’s came around Mitsubishi wanted to be able to sell their cars under their own name. So in 1982 Mitsubishi started selling cars such as the Lancer, Galant and Starion in US dealers. But a lot of these cars were still being sold as Chryslers, with over 100,000 Mitsubishi’s being imported for Chrysler. This was hurting Mitsubishi sales and did not let Chrysler have the input that they wanted on the development of cars coming in. So in 1985 Diamond Star Motors was born. Diamond Star Motors, or DSM, was named from Mitsubishi meaning three diamonds and at the time the logo for Chrysler was a star. With this new venture the Companies took a 50/50 split in a new manufacturing plant in Illinois making both brands under DSM, and it seemed to be a match made in heaven. But not all was good between the two. As the years went on Chrysler wanted to have more of a say in the cars being built and Mitsubishi wanted more freedom to do what they wanted without Chrysler butting in.

In 1991 Mitsubishi bought out Chrysler for most of what they put into the joint partnership, but that did not stop the two companies continuing to produce cars together. Throughout the 90’s the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, 3000GT and Dodge Stealth were all impressive cars produced at the DSM factory. Many of these DSM cars won praise and awards from auto journalists throughout the 90’s. But despite these very well publicly received cars, Chrysler decided to pull out, and in 1995 the DSM factory was renamed Mitsubishi Motors Manufacuring America or MMMA.

Although Diamond Star Motors was dead, there were not only Mitsubishi’s driving out of that plant in Illinois. When Chrysler had split from Mitsubishi they had started a new deal with Daimler. And in march of 2000, the new DaimlerChrysler group made a deal with Mitsubishi to continue making cars with Chrysler. So Chrysler was still co-developing cars with Mitsubishi even though they had split up in 95. The 2000’s Eclipse was also a Chrysler Sebring and even the late great Neon SRT-4 used a Mitsubishi turbo and had an engine that was derived from one used in some of the 90’s Eclipse and Talon models.

The lines between the three manufacturers continued to blur even more. Daimler started producing freight trucks with Mitsubishi while Chrysler was producing cars with the other two. Following a drop in Mitsubishi stock from a recall cover up, DaimlerChrysler renegotiated their purchase in Mitsubishi and began taking control of the company as much as they could. Employees started to get laid off, factories were shut down and Mitsubishi was at the mercy of the DiamlerChrysler group.

Things continued this way until 2005 when DaimlerChrysler decided to sell it’s part of Mitsubishi and finally end the 35 years of Chrysler and Mitsubishi working together. There have been some great cars that came from this long history together such as the Eclipse/Talon cars or the Stealth/3000GT combo, but with infighting and a constant shift of power, the partnership was always destined to end. But who knows, with Mitsubishi currently struggling to stay in the North American market, we might just see another joint venture with the two.