How Fiat Chrysler’s Proposed Merger With Renault Crashed

wind back the clock to Daimler Chrysler and youll see there was nothing but mistrust from the start. German execs wanted an inroad into an american market segment that their luxury brands couldnt target at the time, and Chrysler wanted cash and technology. In the end, Daimler wound up with almost nothing in terms of IP or licensing, and Chrysler got the E class for its charger and challenger. Right down to the windows that roll down when you exit and enter by a few centimeters.

Fiat was at least pragmatic about its interaction and kept Chrysler at arms length. they got the GM fiat small platform developed almost entirely for them as they pumped cash into chrysler. The bitter irony here is that Chrysler once partnered with Maserati to get them off the ground, and now the same group is basically taking them to the cleaners. the promasters made it to the states as basically rebadged Ducatos basically at cost. Chrysler saw very limited revenue from it.

Chryslers other big problem is they are market-blind. Their strong suits are already dominated by fiat. Americans want reliable cheap cars that are good on gas, but things like the Charger RT and Hellcat challenger are loss-leaders that arent doing much of anything but filling press releases and patching the bald spots on the dwindling boomer market that remembers hellcat (and can afford it.)

Also, typically most companies only want to buy Jeep when looking at FCA because it’s the real money maker from what I hear. I wonder if a merger would ultimately lead to companies like Chrysler being shuttered due to redundancy. That’d be a big loss of jobs.

And on another side note it’s intriguing to think about a company that would have spanned four countries and how so many different personalities and cultures would have been able to work together.

https://jalopnik.com/the-entire-dodge-car-lineup-is-old-as-h...

Meanwhile, what does FIAT make in Italy these days?

FIAT get cars made in the former Eastern Europe, slap an Italian flag on and pass off the product as having Italian design. That is what motorists buy into, the Italian style and not the Italian workmanship. They don't care if the tin box is made in Timbuktu, so long as it expresses their personality in some way then they will buy it.

Italy has gone the way of the British auto sector, they have lost the ability to have Italian companies making mass market cars in actual Italy. Sure there are few thousand Ferraris and other lifestyle accessories churned out but those FIAT 500 cars for the ladies are not made in Italy. Those days are over.

Aside from the poor communication between Renault and Nissan, the proposed deal strikes me as over pushed by the FCA management. It went down with the French establishment as well as the post-Brexit British idea of outsourcing the NHS to American private healthcare providers. A complete non-starter because the management was not a cultural fit. Having Renault thrown in with some brash American led FCA was not on the table. The publicity for the merger was over-eager, as if that would make it happen by making it appear the deal was as good as done.

It is important to understand how the 'captains of industry' work. They are capitalists, not Marxist social workers. They don't care about making jobs or even delivering a product for the regular working/middle class person. They are not cast from the same stuff as Henry Ford. They get their bonuses for merger and acquisition activity and move on to the next deal.