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Fiat Looks To Renault-Nissan Merger As Inspiration For Dealings With Chrysler

Agent009 submitted on 1/21/2009 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 2:23:00 PM

6 user comments | Category: Misc News | Source: | SOURCE: www.detnews.com

A few years ago, Fiat Auto struggled with the same kind of challenges that Chrysler LLC faces now.

Its rivals expected the Italian automaker to collapse. Auto analysts said Fiat's quality lapses, its lopsided model range, its reliance on its home market and mounting losses had caught up finally with the company.

When Fiat SpA hired Sergio Marchionne, an Italian-Canadian businessman with scarcely any automotive experience, to run the group, Fiat Auto's prospects seemed gloomy indeed.

"Fiat was on the verge of collapse when he took over in 2004," said Pierluigi Bellini, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight's offices in Milan. But "he did a very good job in a desperate situation."

In the cutthroat Western European auto market, Fiat has boosted its share to 8.2 percent from 6.6 percent in 2004, and it is a consistently profitable company now.



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Fiat Looks To Renault-Nissan Merger As Inspiration For Dealings With Chrysler

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Agent009

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."

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User Comments

david999

Nissan is doing ok?

— david999 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/21/2009 2:47:20 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

222max

Nissan is taking a beating just like everyone else in the industry right now but they are still in the black and have money in the reserves. Before the downturn they were among the most profitable car makers around.

— 222max (View Profile)

Posted on 1/21/2009 3:11:00 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

LauderdaleDriver

Of course, Nissan went belly up during the Asian debt crisis, and had to sell itself to partially state-owned Renault to survive......oh, and by the way.... did you read that the French government has petitioned Brussels to allow it to totally nationalize Renault (and by extention, Nissan/Infiniti)?

Nissan is hardly a healthy company, don't kid yourself. Renault/Nissan is a basket case, just like the rest of them.

— LauderdaleDriver (View Profile)

Posted on 1/22/2009 1:00:00 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

BarackBush

Where is Chuck? lol

— BarackBush (View Profile)

Posted on 1/22/2009 1:17:30 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Type707

It seems that Fiat is trying to take/merge with every automaker. Hostile takeover perhaps?

— Type707 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/22/2009 2:45:45 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Badgewhore

Sergio Marchionne is about to add more than ten minutes of fame to his name. Now he will be the only guy responsible for driving two automobile company to the ground at the same time. Nissan was a great company with awesome world class engineering talents, they just had designers with really poor taste run the show in the 90s and almost bankrupt the company. Nissan was an easy fix, Ghosn really can't take much credit for turning Nissan around. But Chrysler is a lost cause, no one can turn it around nor is it worth it.

— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 1/23/2009 12:59:37 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

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