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as long as the Agnellis want to sell, which they will want to, unless they are completely stupid. (They aren't). GM will get FIAT, Lancia and Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari will still belong to the Agnellis. How long that situation will continue is anybody's guess... even if Ferrari is profitable and FIAT as a whole is not, it will be more difficult for Ferrari/Maserati alone, IMHO. FIAT has been a red-ink generator for most of the last few decades, and I don't expect GM to magically cure that. I think what we will see is Opels and Fiats becoming badge-engineered clones, with the larger cars in the range being dominated by the Germans and the smaller ones left to the Italians. That in itself is probably a good thing, since the only decent small car to come out of Germany has been the Golf, and the only decent big car to come out of Italy the Alfa 164, to a lesser extent the Thema. FIAT dominates it's home market, so that economy of scale would surely be a benefit to GM Europe. In all likelihood, SAAB will probably end up producing a car smaller than the 9-3, and it will likely be produced somewhere in southern or Eastern Europe. I bet within ten years the only SAAB built in Sweden will be the 9-5 or it's successors. FIAT has a lot of links in Eastern Europe, so we will probably see a 9-1 built in the old Yugo plant, or something of that nature. If SAAB benefited in the past from a joint venture with the Italians, I'm sure something good will come out of this. Besides, there is considerable over-capacity in the automotive industry, so a lot of consolidation is inevitable. I've wondered for a long time, if VW can build a 1.8T Golf in Mexico and sell it here for under $20,000, why couldn't they build that car in Eastern Europe and sell it in Europe for less than 20,000 Euros?

posted by 141.154.12...

• Do you think GM should buy out FIAT?, Eli5, Thu, 12 Dec 2002 17:20:01
  • GM doesn't have a choice: They have to buy FIAT, K-9, Thu, 12 Dec 2002 17:45:37 <-- Viewing This Message
    • The "Put" clause has been cancelled, Stephen Goldberger, Thu, 12 Dec 2002 20:50:10
      • Hmmm... >, K-9, Fri, 13 Dec 2002 10:03:36
        • Re: Hmmm... >, dtech, Fri, 13 Dec 2002 17:07:00
        • No kidding, CWilson, Fri, 13 Dec 2002 15:33:21
  • No way! n/m, J, Thu, 12 Dec 2002 17:44:09

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