Fiat CEO in Berlin to pitch plan
© REUTERS2009
MILAN/BERLIN (Reuters) - Fiat's chief executive visits Berlin on Monday
to try to convince Germany's political leaders to sign up to his vision
for a new European car giant by letting him take over General Motors's
Opel unit.

Sergio Marchionne goes to Berlin with a one-month deadline in his
sights, a newspaper report said, less than a week after he sealed a deal
with Chrysler to form a partnership.
His plan would involve spinning off Fiat's core car business into a new
company including Chrysler and GM Europe and listing it on a stock
exchange.

"An agreement in principle has to be struck in 30 days," he said in an
interview in the Financial Times on Monday about a deal with Opel.
Fiat's shares jumped 6.5 percent in early Milan trade while the DJ Stoxx
European auto sector rose 1.1 percent.
Combining with Chrysler and Opel fits in with Marchionne's strategy for
guiding Fiat through the auto industry's current crisis.

He has often said a carmaker had to make more than 5 million vehicles a
year to be able to make a profit, and in December he said Fiat did not
have the scale to survive the shake-out as a standalone company.

A Fiat statement on Sunday said Fiat, Chrysler and GM Europe would
together have annual revenues of about 80 billion euros (71.3 billion
pounds). It did not mention Opel, which makes up 80 percent of GM
Europe's revenue.

Marchionne told the Financial Times that Fiat and Opel would reap
synergies of 1 billion euros a year from the deal.
"From an engineering and industrial point of view, this is a marriage
made in heaven," he was quoted as saying.

The biggest opposition to a deal between Fiat and Opel will come from
the unions in both countries. They fear the eventual cost savings to
come out of a merger would lead to job cuts and plant closures.
The new company, tentatively called Fiat/Opel, would merge their small B
and midsize C segment car platforms, and absorb Fiat's ultra-small A
platform and Opel's upper-middle D platform, the Financial Times said.

'OPPORTUNITY FOR EUROPE'
Marchionne plans to ask the British government and administrations in
other European countries where Fiat and Opel have plants, to offer the
new company loan guarantees, the FT said.
He will say the deal is important for Europe, currently being battered
by an economic downturn, the paper said.

"This is a real opportunity to make the European Union work as a union,"
he was quoted as saying. "If we don't do this, it's a failure of our
efforts to create a single market."
The new company would see the Agnelli family's 30 percent shareholding
of Fiat Auto diluted after the spin-off, with GM also a minority
shareholder in Fiat/Opel, the paper said.
The merged company would also include SAAB, GM's small Swedish brand
which it is selling separately, the paper said.

The new company may also include GM's Latin American operations, the FT
reported.
Ferrari and Maserati luxury carmakers would stay with the parent, the
paper said.
The FT said Marchionne was considering stepping down next year as
non-executive vice-chairman of UBS.

German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said he did not
expect a final decision on the future of Opel to come out of his meeting
with Marchionne on Monday.
"Today I just hope that I hear something more concrete than the rough
draft that has already been presented to me," he told German radio,
adding he was open to any potential investor.

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/article.aspx?cp-documentid=16551435

Well, the 9000 bodyshell was a joint effort with Fiat and made one of
the nicest SAABs IMHO.

Graham

Eeyore wrote:
The current 1.9 Saab diesel is a Fiat engine also used by Opel, Vauxhall
and Alfa Romeo. Fiat originally pioneered the modern common rail diesels.

While FIAT well engineered cars, they haven't had the best interiors to put
it mildly. Flimsy fittings which often drop off IME. Facias which warped in
the sun light. Creeks and rattles. Parcel shelves with a minds their own.
We must hope that Saab insists on standards.

Could be very good news, dealer network will be critical if it is to
succeed with the public. I can't imagine the new group wanting to
maintain the same total size of dealer network, so we might end up with
"mass market" dealerships (Fiat, Vauxhall) and "up market" dealerships
(SAAB, Lancia, Alfa perhaps) through a process of culling.

Here in UK, Fiat group have not enjoyed a very good reputation for
aftercare although that might be changing now. SAAB dealerships have
been an asset to the brand.
--
Richard C

RCC wrote:
That is true. I had both cars; Fiat Croma and now 9000. Fiat dealer was
awful. They even bumped my car and wouldn't admit it.

me wrote:

Well... FIAT have several brands like Lancia and Alfa Romeo that could fit
into a nice niche market. They're a lot better now too and Italian cars
have always had a reputation to be fun to drive. I nearly bought an
Alfasud Cloverleaf once. That went like it was on rails.

Graham

me wrote:
Had a Fiat 132 1800S, a 132 2000 and a Croma CHT. The 132 2000 was the nicest
of them, a pity that it rusted so badly.

On Wed, 06 May 2009 12:56:56 +0100, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

my last company car was an Alfa 156. It was fun to drive, but it wasnt
predictable whether you could drive it on a given day.

it was the only one i ever handed back early - just too painful with
the frequent services, flaky flappy paddle gearbox, breaking water
hose, unreliable electrics.......

the best bit was you could not change gear out of 2nd on 500m of road
on my way to work where it is under a 400 kV power line.
Regards

stephen_hope (AT) xyzworld (DOT) com - replace xyz with ntl

I have been reading this post and responses on this thread which
appears that most are coming from those in the UK. Here in the US I
can say, as a 6 time alfa offender with a 91 spider still in my
garage, that Italian autos left in 1995 with Alfa Romeo, leaving only
Ferarri and Maserati to be sold in small numbers. Americans have long
memories of Fiats, last sold her in the early 1980s, and they are not
good. My 1978 short lived 131 sedan was a prime example. However, that
was a lifetime ago and my experience with my last "new" alfa, a 1994
164Q, ranks as one of the best cars I have owned. Those of you in the
UK would know better but I believe that there are no longer any "bad
cars" as that term was defined decades ago. While consumer
expectations have risen hugely in the last 30 years due in large
measure to Japanese quality and reliability-and dragging the former
big 3 auto makers with them-I must assume that Fiat and its progeny
will be able to field a good product line if they ever make it back
here. I have been waiting for alfa's return since it left in 1995.

I currently own a 2003 9-5 aero, purchased used in 2006 with low miles
and, I must admit, it has been a stellar car from reliablity
standpoint. Excitement? Not so much. As someone pointed out in an
earlier post, Fiat and Saab collaborated with Lancia and Fiat on the
9000/164 platform in the late 90's and that produced good cars all
around. I trust that if Saab enters the Fiat fold the same type of
synergy will result. We cannot expect specially built models from
small car companies any longer. While some of the character of an
individual manufacture will inevitably suffer, enough of the character
of each car line should survive to make it a better alternative than
losing the marque completely.

The swedish head of the European Association of Automotive Suppliers
(CLEPA), Lars Holmquist states that it is a very high risk that SAAB is
gone in a year.
The financial situation for Volvo Personvagnar is much better. Still,
because the lack of support from European Investment Bank it is
difficult to guess if Volvo will survive.

www.di.se


akushner (AT) ake-law (DOT) com wrote: