Fiat and who? Merger comments...

[estorhok@xxxxxxxx]

Ah, the Arna- one of the greatest beasts never to be seen on these shores...
Its funny how the car turned out, considering the good intentions/ plans
for the original car.  Why do I bring this up?  Well, from what I hear, 
Nissan is by far the weakest Japanese manuf, and they are trying hard to
find a new source of deep pockets...  Ford (us) keeps getting mentioned, 
considering the joint venture we have right now, but to me it seems as if
there would be far too much crossover in market.

I have heard Fiat- Nissan before, its hard to say if it would work out- Fiat
is quite strong, but has no significant sales here in the current largest
market (just Ferrari now).  And while Nissan's reputation is good, they are
riddled with LARGE debt.  Its hard to say if that would be good or not- 
perhaps Fiat has money burning holes in pockets now?

As for the "sterilization" of a marque- I sure hope what our leaders say is 
true, that we can let Volvo keep being themselves.  I think we are doing an
admirable job with Aston and Jag, but not as good as many of the magazines
say we are.  I guess over the next 10 years or so, we will know how much we
plan to fiddle with Aston and Jag, and then we will know about what will 
happen to Volvo in 20 years.

I have heard predictions that there will be ONLY 5 companies left when the
whole merger thing ends, all 3 continent conglomerations.  Should be
interesting who buys who and who merges with who (2 different things...).
So far, its only the buyout of Chrysler (don't fool yourself here, Daimler
is much bigger than Chrysler), and Volvo- who is next?

Sorry for the long drivel- it kind of impacts my job...

Eric Storhok
Ann Arbor, MI

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End of alfa-digest V7 #435
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