Investors Rally As Speculation Of The Sale Of Maserati And Alfa Romeo Begin To Swirl

This will be a sale like Ferrari. Ferrari was spun off to keep someone from getting it once Chrysler was to be spat out. FCA will "sell" Alfa and Maserati--and it would not surprise me if Ferrari "buys" them--so that the cash raped American carcass can be thrown away.

There is no value to Maserati or Alfa as neither has any truly outstanding product or market share. If a legitimate company were to buy them, they would be looking at a minimum of a decade of massive cash outlay without any prospect of ROI.

What this means is that Chrysler will go belly up and will land in Trump's lap.

I was sure Tesla wouldn't make it into 2017/2018 but it is holding on. We'll see how the Model 3 does - hope it gets launched on time and profitable for them. Tesla needs a win.

However, I was stunned by the breadth and depth of FCA's problems. Like many, I knew FCA was saddled with some sucky products and pretty incompetent management, combined with poor product planning and low quality.

FCA hasn't been especially forthcoming about costs to fix the transmission problems but its my sense that the problem is going to cost up there in the 'dieselgate' money category. Multiple variations of problematic transmission controls abound (the 'dial' (Durango and trucks), the 'speedboat lever' (Cherokee, 300), and another odd variation in the Maserati lineup that looks just like the BMW selector but boy is the Maserati one hard to use (I test drove a Quattroporte and its as bad as the 'speedboat lever' in my opinion).

I think FCA has some gigantic problems and aside from Jeep, the remaining brands are of little value.

FYI the problem with the "speedboat lever" or joystick lever in the Grand Cherokee and others has already been fixed with a NHTSA approved recall. It is all software;no hardware. Takes a couple of hours; the technician plugs the vehicle into the FCA computer, tech goes on to other jobs while the computer does the rest. With this precedent in place as a fix and the customer events reported for the rotary selectors being similar to the joystick events, FCA will do the same thing. Even with a million vehicles, it won't be anywhere the billions VW has to shell out.

Wouldn't surprise me if Chinese or Korean company buy these prestige brands to go up market with instant recognition and heritage. They have the capital, the need and see what Volvo has become with the right stewardship. FCA needs cash influx badly and Chinese need high end market presence. Time will tell.

@Mdarringer your assessment is wrong. The US side of FCA (more specifically Jeep, Ram and Minivans) is the profit engine of the entire operation. Fiat is a cash bleeding mess and Maserati/Alfa are making no profit if any. They can not simply ditch Chrysler as you say and keep Jeep/Ram and the Minivans as much of the engineering and manufacturing is shared.
I don't think this recall will cost FCA all that much as at worst all they would have to do is replace the electronic controls for the transmission and add a park button like BMW does with the ZF transmissions. The rotating dial transmission is likely not a design problem but the issues occur because drivers are not used to this, Jaguar and Land Rover are have had similar roll away issues as well.
I don't see them getting rid of Alfa unless things get really bad as they put all this money into developing the Guilia and its platform/engines, and they need a mainstream luxury brand as that is where the big profits are.

Tell me where I said that Jeep WASN'T the profit engine.

They most decidedly WILL ditch Jeep and Ram. Chrysler and Dodge are the walking dead.

Fact #1: Alfa Romeo/Maserati has gotten more than its fair share of platform attention
Fact #2: Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati will never be foreign owned.
Fact #3: Selling Jeep and Ram for big bucks gives the Italians a parting gift.

There's no money in selling the worthless, but there is big money in selling what has value.

You'd know that if you were a business person, which OBVIOUSLY you aren't.

For Fiat, Chrysler was a temporary funding strategy for the Italian brands.

Everyone knows that.

My point is that they can't separate the American operations from the Italian at this point...there is no way Fiat can survive financially without the American profits. They are making some good moves by cutting back on unprofitable models at Chrysler/Dodge and by pumping money into Alfa.

Your point is incorrect. The two halves are legally separate right now.

You're a moron if you believe pumping money into a dead brand (Alfa) while cutting models to mainstream brands (Dodge and Chrysler) that can be making money is a good move.

The correct move was to put 100% of the money into making Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler and then to use a bit of the profit it FIRST attempt to relaunch Maserati and IF that were successful (it wasn't) THEN attempt to relaunch Alfa Romeo.

Not only do you have no business awareness, you have NO COMMON SENSE.

Fiat can EASILY survive without Chrysler IF it sells to a company that they can get a platform sharing agreement from.

Hyundai platforms would result in the best, safest, most reliable, highest quality Fiats of all time.

Nowhere did I say that they should not have spent money to improve Jeep/Chrysler, I was alluding to them cutting back on the unprofitable segments of the Chrysler/Dodge lineup.
I have said before that FCA needs to figure out a partnership with Mazda to share platforms for small cars for both Chrysler/Dodge and Fiat. BUT without the cash coming in from the Chrysler side it will be impossible to resurrect the fiat lineup. Alfa is a good move because the brand still has tremendous appeal and value. Also, you fail to recognize that the mainstream luxury market (le. not at Maserati prices) is among the most profitable in the industry. Profits from a revitalized Alfa plus Jeep will allow for the huge expense of rebuilding Fiat.
Your suggestion of selling Fiat to Hyundai or another foreign player is a non-starter as Italian government protectionism will not allow this to occur