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When did Mercedes buy Jeep?

Someone told me the other day that Mercedes bought Jeep sometime before the turn of the century, which came as a surprise because I thought Jeep was owned by Chrysler. When did Mercedes buy Jeep?

avatar
Andrew Biro · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
This is a great question! You’re technically right that
Chrysler
owns
Jeep
—it bought the brand back in 1987—but Mercedes-Benz did own Jeep for a short period of time after the German automobile company Daimler-Benz merged with the Chrysler Corporation on May 7th, 1998.
At the time, the merger seemed like a good idea for both companies, as Mercedes-Benz would benefit from Chrysler’s U.S. dealership network and Chrysler would benefit from the acquisition of certain mechanical pieces and the Mercedes platform.
In the end, however, the merger would prove to be disastrous for Daimler-Benz, which would go on to sell the company to private equity in 2006. It would then be bought by Fiat on Jan. 21, 2014, at which point Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) was born.
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