raton_laveur
Established member
Fiat and Chrysler have been in talks recently about future cooperation.
Chrysler is in a big mess at the moment, with sales down 27% so far this year. This is worse than either Ford or GM. 70% of Chrysler's recent production has been light trucks and SUV's, highest of any of the Big Three. With high fuel prices, those vehicles have not been selling very well. Worse yet, most of their cars are on the big side as well. Long gone are the days of the "K" Car (the SIMCA or Talbot Horizon for those old enough to remember) which was a big seller in the US market for many years.
Chrysler has a fair amount of excess capacity at the moment and is negotiating with Fiat about leasing some of it to them. Yes, really!!! Can you imagine at least some Fiat models being made in the USA in the future? I knew that Alfa was looking for a US partner that could assemble cars as well as distribute them to get back in that market. Could that partner be Chrysler? As Fiat can't make 500's fast enough in Europe, could Chrysler start building 500's in the US for both the US and Europe? And the 500 is also the new Ford Ka, which has never been sold in the USA. Interesting possibilities start to appear with this.
I'll keep everyone informed if I hear anything more.
BTW, Ford will be selling the new Fiesta, Tourneo/Transit Connect, C-Max and European Focus in the US by 2010. The Fiesta hasn't been sold there since the original version. The US Focus is the previous European generation with new sheet metal. The others have never been in the USA before. Wonder if they will have diesels available over there.
Chrysler is in a big mess at the moment, with sales down 27% so far this year. This is worse than either Ford or GM. 70% of Chrysler's recent production has been light trucks and SUV's, highest of any of the Big Three. With high fuel prices, those vehicles have not been selling very well. Worse yet, most of their cars are on the big side as well. Long gone are the days of the "K" Car (the SIMCA or Talbot Horizon for those old enough to remember) which was a big seller in the US market for many years.
Chrysler has a fair amount of excess capacity at the moment and is negotiating with Fiat about leasing some of it to them. Yes, really!!! Can you imagine at least some Fiat models being made in the USA in the future? I knew that Alfa was looking for a US partner that could assemble cars as well as distribute them to get back in that market. Could that partner be Chrysler? As Fiat can't make 500's fast enough in Europe, could Chrysler start building 500's in the US for both the US and Europe? And the 500 is also the new Ford Ka, which has never been sold in the USA. Interesting possibilities start to appear with this.
I'll keep everyone informed if I hear anything more.
BTW, Ford will be selling the new Fiesta, Tourneo/Transit Connect, C-Max and European Focus in the US by 2010. The Fiesta hasn't been sold there since the original version. The US Focus is the previous European generation with new sheet metal. The others have never been in the USA before. Wonder if they will have diesels available over there.