FCA hits a Great Wall

[kartone]

Look it up!

[poohbah]

Well let's just hope that if GW end up buying the whole business they don't destroy AR the same way Chinese owners have done with the relaunched MG - by turning it into a manufacturer of shitty little econoboxes while "promising" to launch a modern "affordable" sports car like the old MGB and MGF. Though no doubt some might argue that is what FCA have done in recent years with the Giulietta-MiTo range. (That is not my view)

That said, I think the Chinese would attach a lot of value to acquiring "halo" brands like Maserati-AR and would put in a fair effort to maintain them as aspirational marques. So as long as they continue to let the Italian design/production team do the heavy lifting, it could work out okay. Many of the big manufacturers already have major China-based manufacturing arms that seem to churn out pretty good local versions of their biggest sellers. Even back as far as the mid-late 90s, when I first visited Beijing almost every "prestige" vehicle on the road at that time was a locally assembled Jeep Cherokee or Audi saloon.

[bonno]

FCA denies being approached by Great Wall refer to the following link : https://www.goauto.com.au/news/jeep/fca-denies-great-wall-interest-in-jeep/2017-08-22/64981.html
Cheers
bonno

[poohbah]

The rider to FCA's response is "yet".

Great Wall explicitly stated they are interested in FCA two days ago:

"With respect to this case, we currently have an intention to acquire. We are interested in (FCA)," the company official in Great Wall's press relations department, who declined to give his name, told Reuters over phone.

Followed by this slight backpedal overnight.

Commenting just a day after expressing interest, Great Wall Motor said there are "big uncertainties" whether it will continue to study Fiat Chrysler, the Baoding-based automaker said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. The Chinese company's efforts have "not generated concrete progress as of now," and it has not established contacts with Fiat's board.

Which just means they are trying to cool the interest of stockmarket regulators, and that someone spoke out of hand too early. It certainly doesn't mean its no longer of interest.

Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/21/chinas-great-wall-motor-confirms-interest-in-fiat-chrysler.html
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/chrysler/2017/08/22/great-wall-fiat-chrysler/104844268/

[Doug Gould]

Great Wall are not considered financially sound in China. I'll be surprised if they can raise the funds.

SAIC didn't do anything bad to MG. MG/Rover did it to itself. Its last UK owners were a private equity company that stripped iot of cash and bankrupted it. SAIC bought the assets of a failed business. The product development continues based in the UK with production in Shanghai. The cars are now targeted to Chinese buyers and the export volume is small. The sports car image of MC died while it was still owned by MG/Rover.

[poohbah]

I completely agree Doug that GW would struggle financially to buy Fiat/Chrysler - at least in its entirety - and that MG/Rover were the architects of their own demise (including their crazy MG XPower prototype that was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back). The "new" MG line is just a ghost - pure badge engineering.

[carlo rossi]

what could go possibly wrong with that
merge
Jeep Chrysler known as the poor end of the american market for over 50 years
what was the saying "If you cant afford a FOrd dodge a dodge and buy a CHev"
or something like that
so we Have American KNow how (albiet 50 year old tech)
with italian electronics R &D by Fiat
and build quality of the chinese
THis is what NOrth Korea is really worried about
cars that will spontaneously BLOW up at random