"I never expected Suzuki to get back into commercials, but if anyone can make a good small van its Suzuki and hopefully it will get use of the 1.0 boosterjet suzuki petrol engine."

Strange comment, Suzuki have never left commercials, though you don't (officially) get them in the UK.

As for collaborating with fiat, that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, it is fiat who supply the diesel engines for the vitara, SX4 S-cross, and the previous generation swift. And they previously collaberated on the old SX4, which was twinned with the sedici.

Do they really expect the public to pay more for a Vauxhall badge and even more for a Peugeot badge for an identical car?

Yes

GM sold 2 ranges of what were similar or identical models at 2 different price marks.

Chevrolet - re-badged Daewoos, Vauxhall -Opels with some Daewoos at the bottom & top of the price range.

Problem?

Vx sell a lot of cars to day renters @ huge discounts (40+%) + large corporate fleets. Then there is the retail customer.

The 6/9 month old cars compete with their retail sales £13K 6 mth old ex day renter competing with £20K list price new car - solution GM subsidise deposit, Zero% deals, enhanced T/I........suddenly the Vx car is/can be less than the Chevrolet Dealer...............Profitability dives & Ope/Vx/Eu Chevrolet suffering. as to who can catch the customer's

That was 2 ranges - Peugeot are going to try & differentiate 3 different badges - it will end up with 3 division directors competing with one another rather than other car manufacturers.

Not cars but I worked for a company selling the same products directly & through 3rd parties - Direct had the right contacts in the big companies, 3rd party sellers knew the products & were more flexible.......... after 25 years the company exited the markey with 3 to 4,000 people losing jobs & sub-contractors 10's of thousands of UK jobs.

Having three brands with cars based on the same basics works well for VAG.

Surely you mean four?, Audi, VW, Skoda and Seat

The rear drive of a current CR/V is heavily torque-limited to protect the weedy mechanicals - so it's pointless gimmick anyway, if you get in a situation where 4WD is actually needed, it'll shut down drive to the rear - you're just carrying extra metal around for the sake of it.

Meh, it worked well enough in the snow in March. I could feel it kicking in and pushing the car up hills. It's on Bridgestone Duellers, whatever mud/snow rating they have.

Edited by mss1tw on 13/07/2018 at 21:26

DOnt agree. There is plenty of evidence showing the CRV in 4 wheel mode. It has helped me in the local snowdrifts in recent bad weather.

Checkout the YT channel if you are interested.