The Carmagedonn Thread: FCA and "Consolidation"

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Good that FIAT and Alfa will have cars on US soil, I for one do not care that it will have a Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep badge. Bring it on. A FIAT 500 is a FIAT 500 no matter what--a cracking car that will sell very well here. If I see a handful of Smartcars a week here in TEXAS I can only imagine how many of those FIAT's and Alfa's I'll see. I see quite a few Versa's and Yaris'. Bring it on!
 
That was a risk the Gov't took going in. Now Chrysler is...well, for all practical purposes, a division of FIAT. So, I suppose the Italians will be paying their debt or something.

Not like that much money hasn't been lost forever before...Bridge to Nowhere? other pork-belly products?
 
Yeah. Compared to some of the other things the government is throwing money at, this doesn't really worry me all that much.
 
+1 to Philly's comment. Obama and his cronies are spending YOUR AND MY money like it was a parched wild-west cowboy who has been in the dessert for a year and is very thirsty which starts to drink said money (water). And spending it irrisponsibly. Good riddance.
 
What makes me sicker still is that they won't even let legit creditors collect their loans from Chrysler. Instead, the government is demonizing them and robbing them of their millions/billions. The sooner GM and Chrysler go bankrupt, the better. Let a judge take care of this mess.
 
JCE
YOUR AND MY money

The good news is that we own 10% of FIAT-Chrysler now. I think that means we all get the government discounts, right?

Meethinks if the Chrysler bankruptcy "goes well," GM will do it too. Although I anticipate them paying back the loan(s).
 
They'd probably just raise the MSRP up to compensate for the discount since everybody would get one. Unless... Tax breaks?
 
Toyota-Logo_400.jpg


BOOM!

Toyota Declares an $8.6 BILLION Dollar Loss for 2008

...Oh, and they just burned $7.6 Billion last quarter as well (more than GM)...

Take Note Kids: The Carpocalypse isn't going away
 
Wow. Toyota's balloon's deflating fast.

over the last 5 quarters, they've lost...$16.2 billion US. That's a good hunk of change.
 
I was listening to NPR on the way home from my Russian History exam and they had a piece from the BBC playing about the conditions in Toyota City right now. Apparently they have gone from roughly two jobs per person a year ago to less than a job per two people now. If Toyota is having problems that big, that really should be concerning for everyone else.
 
Maybe...maybe not.

All the Quality methods Toyota uses aren't gonna help them with an overpopulated, lackluster lineup, particularly on the SUV side...(and the JDM market itsself...though those people are weird...for YEARS they've have entirely different models that are sold in direct competition with one another [Within Toyota's brand!!!]...and seem to have gotten away with it...)
 
How much money did they have in reserves? I know they said it sometime last year when Ford was saying they had enough to last through 2009.
 
Is it bad that I actually kinda want to see Toyota fail? But that's probably just in response to all the tools who say "ZOMG buy a Toyota you'll save the planet and the car will last forever!!!1!!!!!one one one." I think badge snobbery is worse at Toyota than VW/Audi/BMW even.
 
How much money did they have in reserves?

I'd assume that it is quite a lot. Sixty some years of profits would indicate that, unless of course, a lot of it had been invested in R&D and other legacy costs (where have I heard that before?). Not that it is really all that huge of a problem, operating as a keiretsu and with the government's general support, they have far less to worry about than some of the other brands.
 
Soooo, FIAT has been busy...

1) FIAT CEO Marchionne will transfer to Chrysler's head position after the bankruptcy is over, and Nardeli steps down.

2) In addition to attempting to buy Opel/Vauxhall and GM Europe (and apparently GM Latin America?), FIAT-Chrysler is attempting to buy Suzuki as well.

3) The impending North American production of the FIAT 500 could mean yet another special thing; We could get the Ford Ka anyway.

=-=-=-=-=

Good deals, I suppose. FIAT clearly has a lot of stuff going on right now.
 
this is starting to sound like FIAT is spreading themselves a bit TOO thin...and they're making the same mistake Chrysler itself did decades ago that started it's downward spiral!
 
Are Fiat just buying everyone now, then? Dear old Sergio seems to be on some odd impulse-shopping trip. "Ooh, let's have Chrysler. That'll be a laugh. Oh and Opel, I've always liked their badge. Oh well if we're buying Opel then we might as well have Vauxhall. And Saab too. Oh and Suzuki, we've already got one of their cars. Oooh, and shall we try making the Ford Ka while we're at it?"

Is that all of them, or have I missed any out? Is Fiat buying Microsoft now? Or perhaps Walmart? Nestle? Sony? Procter & Gamble? There can't be that many companies left now, surely...
 
FIAT + Suzuki + Chrysler = epic win

Can you imagine the small-car awsomeness?! :D
 
Suzuki already had good small cars. It's just that they were never confident that they'd sell in the US market.

The Suzuki Swift is an awesome little toy... but that's all it is... a toy. Even compared to the Yaris, its backseat is pathetic. That may not matter to you or me... well... it matters to me now that I have a kid and a car seat to think about... but I can get by... I doubt the rest of the market would take it so lightly... especially the OMG!SUVgonnarollovahme! crowd.
 
Looks like we will know the future of the Opel brand by the end of the month, my guess is that Magna will come in a get it. I can't see Fiat being able to afford Opel after they obtained Chrysler and Suzuki. It's odd to see Fiat putting itself in position to be a major automotive world player.

Autoblog
Henderson: Buyer for Opel picked by end of month
The Opel brand may be churning out some solid-looking products of late, but the European brand isn't long for the GM world. That isn't news, but the fact that a buyer will be chosen before the end of May is. GM CEO Fritz Henderson promised the quick turnaround of Opel during a Monday news conference, saying "several bidders" are interested in the brand.

So far, Fiat and Magna International have publicly expressed interest, but some are expecting at least one Chinese automaker to be in the mix. Henderson insists that the General would have the final say on the winning bidder, though the German government would be counseled on any decision. The German government has been asked to provide $2.5 billion euros in loans to finance the new company.

The sale of Opel is just one facet of GM's larger viability plan, which will pare the General down to four core brands; Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac
 
Something I've been wondering: Since GMs entire lineup for the next few years (other than Cadillac and select parts of Chevrolet) seems to come from Germany, what will happen when GM does sell Opel? Will there be an engineer transfer or what?
 
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