If you could put together a fantasy group to save ailing Europe-based manufacturers, what would you create?
Mine would be to merge Peugeot Group and Fiat Auto and then venture to the US to acquire Chrysler.
I'd run it along the lines of VW Group - with common platforms and technical components but different bodywork. The mass market brands would be Peugeot, Fiat and Chrysler, with Alfa Romeo pitched to rival Audi, while Jeep would compete with Land Rover. Citroen would become the group's electric vehicles brand.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 28/05/2009 at 10:36
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Nice idea, but somehow I can't quite see Alfa Romeo rivalling Audi!
Still if VAG can do bring Skoda up to scratch... Although the luxury market would be harder to persuade I reckon.
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No, but it could in the future.
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Nice idea but somehow I can't quite see Alfa Romeo rivalling Audi
Anything's possible. If someone had said 20 years ago that Lamborghinis would be beautifully built and finished, it would have sounded insane, but by all accounts they now are.
The Alfa badge twangs the heart strings of most petrolheads. It's one of the most evocative and desirable brands in motoring IMHO. If they genuinely had 75% of Audi's fit and finish, and even got close to their reliability, they'd sell like hot cakes.
Edited by DP on 28/05/2009 at 11:16
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If they genuinely had 75% of Audi's fit and finish and even got close to their reliability they'd sell like hot cakes.
Every time a new Alfa comes out there's similar claims made about how things have improved. I still don't see many of them around!
As for a Europe super manufacturer to take on VAG, I reckon Renault/Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover would have been a good match in many ways. Might yet happen if Tata run out of cash...
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If someone had said 20 years ago that Lamborghinis would be beautifully built and finished, it would have sounded insane, but by all accounts they now are.
Right! Put it down to the Audi ownership and oversight of Lamborghini!
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After VW acquired Bentley I was with a group of old car people including some from Bentley Drivers' Club. I speculated that we might see Bentleys racing at LeMans again and was met with 'I doubt it very much' type reaction.
But VW group was already doing well with Audis at Le Mans so it could have been done just by renaming the team, although in the end the Bentleys amounted to a bit more than re-worked Audis.
I sometimes wonder if my idea that appeared to fall on deaf ears was, in fact, rapidly communicated to Wolfsburg, via Crewe, on the motor industry grapevine!
Edited by Sofa Spud on 28/05/2009 at 13:02
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I would twin Ford up with a well known galvanized bucket manufacturer. Sumps would not rust and buckets would not have a plastic grip on the handle from that point - unless they were three models up from `base`
Everyone would then be happy except the working Yorkshire peasant such as myself. He would have purchased a popular plus - one up from base - bucket and his hands would freeze onto the handle in winter.
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popular plus - one up from base - bucket and his hands would freeze onto the handle in winter.
... and the swivels would start to squeak for lack of the nylon bushes fitted as standard to the Anglia de Luxe bucket (also available with baked-on enamel finish in three attractive mottled effects)...
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And a bottom that fell out at 10yrs old - revealing the message - "buy another"
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You can have a stripe round your bucket . It would be the XR bucket.
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