Comments on: Fiat closes Chrysler deal

By: Johnno

Johnno — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:24:01 +0000

AAA – its understandable your reservations around FIAT given their past chequered history. They thoroughly derved it. However, I encourage you not to be caught in the past. Otherwise you would still be stuck thinking AUDI is still REALLY bad like they were in the 70′s. They almost went bankrupt and look at them now. Leading Merecedes in benchmark quality.
Fiat is a totally different company than even 4 years ago. Otherwise the germans, british etc wouldnt be buying their cars in droves now. Further, look to latin america where in places like Brazil they have the largest market share of ALL car companies now, so its not just Europe with its protection laws in place that they are excelling.
Maserati is a serious contender and sales have grown ten fold in the last 5 years, Ferrari continues to be regarded highly and even quirky Lancia is making some interesting cars. Alfa unfortuantely, despite the massive lift in quality, has not hit the sales mark (they have become dull to drive) but Sergio Marchione is on to it.
They are serioulsy on the move, even just been beaten to the post to buy GM europe to become the 2nd largest car manufacturer in the world. Its all thanks to this Canadian Italian CEO Sergio Marchionne bloke……
Who knows what will happen in America. However, the American car buying public I think will be pleasantly suprised with the quality on offer now if they can get around perceived quality prejudices……

By: AAA

AAA — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:01:24 +0000

Frankly speaking, FIAT can’t sell any cars in the USA (possibly the world’s most unrestricted car market) and hardly any body in Australia is buying FIAT cars and it’s not due to high price. It has been passed from distributors to distributors. Given FIAT’s build quality and reliability it isn’t hard to figure out why. As for Europe and Italy, protectionism is there for FIAT to survive.

By: observer

observer — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:50:17 +0000

Fiat and Marchionne know what they are doing. Everything Johnno said is accurate. Just a few years age they were Europes 9th largest car manufacturer, today they are the 4th largest nudging Opel & Renault out of the way this year.

They are the only major car company growing in 2009 with a backdrop of a -15% market decline and 12 months of negative growth across all European sales.

2008 sales vs 2009%

Fiat + 9.7
VW/Audi – 4.2
Peugeot -14.7
Ford -6.3
GM Europe -13.3
Renault -14.0
Mercedes -26.3
BMW 31.2

The Fiat Group is the leader in Robotic Technology called “comau” selling it under licence to other manufactures. In addition they also have their FPT “Fiat Powertrain Technologies” division which manufactures Engines/Gearboxes/axles and sells it under licence to other interested parties. (5.3 million sold in 2008)

Dont underestimate the Fiat Group they will access rear wheel drive platforms from Chrysler for Alfa Romeo etc and like Johnno said access the worlds largest market and it did’nt cost them a cent….it’s all cream.

By: Johnno

Johnno — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:05:02 +0000

I wouldn’t bag this union just yet based on Fiats CEO’s track record. Sergio Marchionne has turned FIAT around in a spectacular way. They were acutally in a worse off position than Chrysler was. He managed to get $1billion out of a GM deal and paid off their debts and now actually have good products that Europeans and latin americans are now buying. The Germans are buying their little cars in droves now because quality is now as good as any German equivalent (though not as good as the Japenese). They are currently the only car company GROWING in the world. Further, they legitimatly have the best small car engine technology/platforms in the world. They invented the common rail diesel engine for example and are about to launch the 3rd generation when the rest of the world is still using the 2nd generation (and paying royalties to Fiat!).
Anyway, Fiat has now secured a distribution network to the biggest car market in the world for FREE thanks to the American tax payer!!

By: Elitist

Elitist — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:11:51 +0000

Captain watch how you speak about our new Automotive Overlords!

Aussie’s suffer from Tall Poppy Syndrome, when someone outdoes them they have to find ways to bag them.

By: Ben Richards

Ben Richards — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:47:04 +0000

Captain Mainwaring, you sound like a real dumb aussie redneck and the reson this country is 20 yrs behind europe

By: Forza M

Forza M — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:56:11 +0000

Hey Captain Dickhead racism and Australia are like a pie and sauce arent they skippy?

By: AAA

AAA — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:26:36 +0000

IMO nothing good will come out of this.

By: Yianni

Yianni — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:13:04 +0000

As much as I like to see this relationship work I don’t see it happening.

As some of you have said FIAT has a reputation for producing unreliable vehicles. The same can be said for Chrysler in the states if you look at recent surveys.

Put them together and what do you get?

Hmmm… The only positive I can take from this is that the latest FIAT vehicles like the 500, Grande Punto and Ritmo are actually decent with no real issues reported. Hopefully they’ve taken a step forward in terms of quality and reliability and can inject some of this in to Chrysler.

I only feel for all the workers and hope they can keep their jobs.

By: Captain Mainwaring

Captain Mainwaring — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:50:04 +0000

The greatest-ever Spaghetti Western is about to unfold.
“Hey Luigi, we can’t start the factories yet, we still have 600,000 cars sitting on the grass?”