The K-car platform was a key automotive design platform introduced by Chrysler Corporation for the 1981 model year, featuring a transverse engine, front-wheel drive, independent front and semi-independent rear suspension configuration—a stark departure from the company's previous reliance on solid axle, rear-drive unibody configurations during the 1970s. Derived from Chrysler's L-cars, the Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni, the platform was developed just as the company faltered in the market, at first underpinning a modest range of compact/mid-size sedans and wagons—and eventually underpinning nearly fifty different models, including all-wheel drive variants—and playing a vital role in the company's subsequent resurgence. Common platforms Use of a common platform is a widely used practice for reducing the number of parts and engineering time. Before creating the K platform, Chrysler was building vehicles from a small number of common platforms (e.g. F/L/J/M and R); however there were very few common parts among the different models. Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca claimed that the huge number of parts in inventory and the complexity of building many completely different versions of vehicles was one reason Chrysler was losing money, and directed the engineers to focus on making a larger number of common parts where they would not be visible to customers; this was already common practice in Japan and Germany and would help to make the K-cars profitable even at low prices. Arriving on the brink of Chrysler's near certain financial collapse, the new platform had a dramatic effect, helping Chrysler report a profit in October 1980 of $10 million ($ in dollars ), its first profit in two years. A plethora of K-platform body styles and badge-engineered variants followed the original range, including the company's minivans and upscale Chrysler division models. The platform interchangeability saved production and purchasing costs, initially costing Chrysler $1 billion over three years to develop ($ in dollars ), but only costing $50 million ($ in dollars ) to generate the second group of badge-engineered variants, the LeBaron and Dodge 400. Within two years, the K platform vehicles accounted for roughly 50% of Chrysler's operating profits. In 1984, The New York Times said, "Not only did [K-cars] almost single handedly save Chrysler from certain death, they also provided the company with a vehicle that could be stretched, smoothed, poked, chopped and trimmed to create almost a dozen different models." In 1984, David Lewis, auto industry historian and professor of business history at