Rumor: Ford and GM to merge, form vortex of suck.

[YF19pilot]

Originally Posted by Prost264

I think it is since the imports dominate the market already, it's not like GM and Ford own the American roads these days and we can't buy anything else.

I think the idea is that most imports only own 3 brands at most (not including Daimler-Chrysler). Where as Ford and GM both own something like 16 brands between each other, of which 12 or 13 are available in the US. (DC has what, 4? Not including their heavy truck industries). So unless their merger includes some serious down sizing (which would only happen if one bought the other), anti-trust laws could very easily come from this. On their own they may not dominate, but together...

And I doubt they would merge. Maybe a brief "partnership" that would allow for the sharing of some technologies (like maybe another Delphi) could be acceptable.

[Kebab gud]

Originally Posted by Cobol74

The execs may be thinking Merc and Chrysler - MERC and Chrysler were - in their own ways - well run companies and it almost did not work for them.

dont forget that ..that saved merc..
daimler-benz was having real roblems in he yesr before the dooped the "uhmurikans" in that "merger"..

[Magnet]

Originally Posted by Redliner

I remember "Autolatina" when Ford and VW joined forces to produce cars in Brazil. Man, that was quite a fiasco...after ONE crappy car, it was all over.
Anybody wanna see pics?

You mean this, the VW Pointer which was a rebadged Ford Escort?

[GraemeH]

Originally Posted by The_Clincher

jag isnt profitable because nobody buys any...

if jaguar is to survive the next gen S and X-types are going to have to be really damn good!

Jag isn't profitable because their engines, all wheel drive systems, steering systems etc. go into other Ford brands and make THEM look more profitable and Jaguar less. It's not that simple to say "they're unprofitable". They benefit Ford as a whole.

[fbc]

Though I can't see this ever happening, and I don't believe the story - it would be amusing to see it happen and see just how truly appallingly it would work out. Kinda like watching a train wreck.

[BlitzR]

[Redliner]

Originally Posted by Magnet

You mean this, the VW Pointer which was a rebadged Ford Escort?

That car in the picture is, and always was a VW Gol (at least in Brazil). They're VW's goldmine here.
The rebadged Escort was the VW Pointer (which had low sales):

And it's sedan brother, the Logus (also low sales):

And the fiasco was about those two:
VW Apollo

And Ford Verona

[Leonidae]

okies, are those FordWagens or what?

[Momentum57]

Originally Posted by Prost264

Ya know, you would think the two largest companies could come together to make awesome cars, but no.. they are not intelligent enough to make that happen.

Maybe if they would stop buying every other company out there and just worry about themselves they could take that money and make a quality automobile.

GM should go back to only Chevy, Cadillac, Pontiac and Buick.
Ford should do the same and drop Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, Mazda etc....

American auto companies need to save some money by not wasting it on other crap and build a decent enough car so I can stop buying imports... oh wait, the Challenger and Camaro are already on their way.

GM will phase out Pontiac in five years and Buick is under a performance review. Ford said it will keep its line up the same with Aston looking for the right price. Mazda does most of the engineering and does it well making the focus handle right and sell so well, but most importantly they brought the expertise in lean manufacturing to Ford that kept them competitive. To sell or drop those brands would be more expensive than keeping them. The problem in both companies is lead time. I agree they need to build some cheep, well handling cars that will rival the Kia Hyundai. As for your conjecture that GM and Ford are not intelligent enough to come together, that might be so, but it might be more intelligent not to come together as that it would add another layer of competitive, non cooperative, cost cutting, management