Volkswagen goes shopping

[vdk2010]

Headline in my newsapp: Volkswagen examines opportunities for Fiat takeover


That would be the better parent company for Chrysler, I think!

 

[commando1]

That would make VW scary huge!!

Posted via Topify on Android

 

[70NPORT]

I frankly think the parent company of Chrysler should be Chrysler. But since all those Wharton and Harvard MBA's running the company, couldn't run the company, it ended up a subsidiary or step child of Fiat. I guess they had it coming to them.

 

[patrick66]

VW would make a far superior owner to Chrysler than FIAT. Chrysler will never, ever be an American-owned and based company ever again, so there is no use even going there.

Quite frankly, their products today are better than what was put out in the late '90s through the 2000s, whether under stockholder ownership as Chrysler; or us as US taxpayers owning a company run by inept government drones; or by FIAT, which has been a successful company in nearly every year since its founding 120 years ago.

 

[70NPORT]

And that's truly sad...an American icon owned by foreigners. GM and Ford are still here owned by themselves respectively. That could have been the same future for Chrysler as well. Reality is reality but that doesn't mean you have to like it or what it means.

 

[bajajoaquin]

I frankly think the parent company of Chrysler should be Chrysler. But since all those Wharton and Harvard MBA's running the company, couldn't run the company, it ended up a subsidiary or step child of Fiat. I guess they had it coming to them.

I'm not so sure Chrysler was all that fantastically run when the engineers were in charge, either.

 

[70NPORT]

Nope. I think it takes finance, engineering & design together as equal to produce fast selling products. No one source should be calling all the shots all the time in my opinion. If so, engineers will give you K cars, finance will push vinyl roofs, and design will sheepishly do what they are told to do by finance and engineering.

 

[1978 NYB]

BMW owns: Mini and Rolls Royce.
Fiat owns: Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Ferrari, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Ram and SRT.
Ford Motor Company owns: Lincoln and a small stake in Mazda.

General Motors owns: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC. GM owns a controlling interest in Opel and Vauxhall in Europe and Holden in Australia. (The U.S. Treasury Department is in the process of selling off the remaining GM stock holidngs.)

Honda owns: Acura.
Hyundai owns: Kia.

Tata Motors (India) owns: Jaguar and Land Rover.
Mazda mostly independently owned (Ford has small stake)
Mitsubishi is independently owned.
Daimler AG owns: Mercedes-Benz and Smart.
Nissan owns: Infiniti. (Nissan, in turn, is owned by Renault.)
Saab is owned by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS).
Subaru: Owned by Fuji Heavy Industries with Toyota a minority partner.
Tesla: Toyota is a minority partner. Partnership with Daimler AG.
Toyota Motor Company owns: Lexus, Scion, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, with a stake in Fuji Industries (Subaru's parent company) and Isuzu.

Volkswagen owns: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, and overseas-brands SEAT and Skoda.
Volvo is owned by Chinese-automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, aka Geely.

 

[amazinblue82]

I was born and raised in the auto business...know it inside and out, top to bottom. Not saying i know it better than any of you..i just lived it for 30 years and know some of the people you see in the papers personally.

"Scale Economies" has always truly driven the auto business..always will. Just a fancy term for "bigger is better" when you have a business that has a huge appetitite for capital investments, R&D, and engineering expenses that needs a huge volume to have a profitable existence.

And its independent of who's running 'em (bean counters or engineers or Harvard MBA's etc) , or how well they are doing it, its "all in the numbers" end of the day. run em well, they "print money". run em poorly, look no further back than 2009.

So, they are always looking to buy each other. Guess we'll see what happens with this one, but it wouldnt surprise me a bit if VW or somebody took a shot at Fiat-Chrysler

 

[Bryan]

At the risk of sounding anti-German --- I remember a lot of people saying that the Daimler-Benz "Partnership" was such a good thing 18 or so years ago... Before they burned through Chrysler's cash reserves and cheapened them to the point Chrysler used yard furniture material for seats, playskool plastic for dashes, and upside down, leftover Mercedes window switches in the back doors of minivans (without even bothering to remove the little window pictures) ....
Unfortunately, I think Chrysler is in the best position they could be in given their circumstances, past management and business associations...

 

[amazinblue82]

At the risk of sounding anti-German --- I remember a lot of people saying that the Daimler-Benz "Partnership" was such a good thing 18 or so years ago... Before they burned through Chrysler's cash reserves and cheapened them to the point Chrysler used yard furniture material for seats, playskool plastic for dashes, and upside down, leftover Mercedes window switches in the back doors of minivans (without even bothering to remove the little window pictures) ....
Unfortunately, I think Chrysler is in the best position they could be in given their circumstances, past management and business associations...

speaking only for myself, it seems to me you were offering business commentary about an American-German company alliance, not dissing anybody's country

heck, it could have been between any "nationailty"..they all can/many have FUBAR'ed a lot of stuff...and there's a term for "sh*tty business" in every language.

Daimler Chrysler started as a good idea...didnt wind up so well and nobody debates that now. Chrysler was just always too small/too domestic for long term survival. I agree that right now they are in a better place than trying to go it alone.

I sure hope its American "brands" survive..the American "company" is gone as was observed by others above.

 

[patrick66]

Ford is actually owned by its shareholders, like a big, publically-traded company should be.

Government Motors was nationalized by the Obama Administration (as was Chrysler); and despite that, Chrysler ended up in good hands. It would take the shares of GM to trade at over $70 USD per share for the US taxpayer to break even. And that will NEVER happen.

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/gm

 

[67Monaco]

Deleted. I were wrong...

 

[70bigblockdodge]

The Diamler deal was good for the CEO at the time (forgot his name and it is not worth mentioning) the way I understand it he essentially undid all the good moves done by Lee Iacocca, all done to make the company flush cash and ripe to buy. Retired and never heard from again like he hit the Diamler lottery. Sergio is a good Marketing and business guy and better yet a car guy no matter what country he is from, I think he knows or has people in place that know what people are going to buy. A Volkswagen AG ownership would be bad as German cars here are not mainstream like Toyota or Honda, they are on the outside looking in and would take Chrysler back down that road. Take the new Hellcat Challenger, that car would not be a Dodge if it was still diamler it would be a Mercedes CLK62 or some such BS under VW it would be a Audi or Porche.

 

[70NPORT]

Take the new Hellcat Challenger, that car would not be a Dodge if it was still diamler it would be a Mercedes CLK62 or some such BS under VW it would be a Audi or Porche.

A horrendous scenario for sure.

 

[bluefury361]

Chrysler started downhill when the let Virgil Exner go in 61.

 

[vdk2010]

Chrysler started downhill when the let Virgil Exner go in 61.

Why are you still up? It's after midnight ;)

 

[vdk2010]

Take the new Hellcat Challenger, that car would not be a Dodge if it was still diamler it would be a Mercedes CLK62 or some such BS under VW it would be a Audi or Porche.

The Fiat group have sport coupés also and the hellcat is still not a Alfa Spider..

 

[70NPORT]

Chrysler started downhill when the let Virgil Exner go in 61.

Whenever your ready to dump Jezebel let me know, Wil. :tongueflap:

 

[1978 NYB]

Chrysler started downhill when the let Virgil Exner go in 61.

X2........couldn't say it better myself Will.