The early 1980s Imperial was an attempt to reinvent the Imperial as a personal luxury car and flagship vehicle in Chrysler's lineup. This came about after Lee Iacocca took the helm at Chrysler, as he had been instrumental in creating the successful Continental Mark series for this market while he was at Ford in the late 1960s. Although the company was facing bankruptcy, Iacocca decided that "a new flagship would assure the public that Chrysler had a future." During the design of the car it was intended to be named "Chrysler LaScala". However, when the car finally appeared, it was marketed simply as "Imperial", and the Chrysler name did not appear on the car.