Beats me why they've bought Chrysler, an appalling range of cars. Yanks do not, and never will, build to European quality standards. O.K. maybe Eastern European standards.
The main problem with Fiat in previous years has been the management.Take for instance the croma,never advitised anywere.Most people never heard of one never mind seen one.My father has just replaced his C5 with a 2006 croma 1.9 mj,nothing but agro with the C5.Takes it to work,everybodys out in the car park looking at it.The remarks were "what is that","a croma what"."never heard of it"His best mate with a 320d goes for a run in it,comes back and says "were can i get one brand new,takes the pi.. out of the BMW,just look at the head room"
What were Fiat thinking about?
As far as I know The HDI technology was developed & patented by Fiat & Bosch for use in lorries. All the other manufacturers have to pay to use itwhen you look back over the last 30 odd years,
it is the engines that stand FIAT out from the run of the mill..,
Lampredi twin-cams ( Lancia)
FIRE product ( 1982 ?)
JTD - world 1st Common Rail Diesel ( apparently FIAT didn't patent it, and the world's manufacturers took the TECH to heart)
Mutli - Twin Air tech too,
Charlie
It was always the floorpan that cost the big bucks. (One of) the first big floorpan sharing schemes was the Saab 9000/Croma/Alfa 164/Lancia Thema of the '80s, perhaps the main difference between that and current engine sharing is that they all had different engines. The 9000 an in-line 16V Four, Croma an in line 8V twin cam Four, 164 a Twin Spark 8V Four as well as a 3-Litre V6 and the Thema in line Fours and a 2.8 litre V6. The odd one out here is the Thema's V6 which was actually a version of the PRV engine used in the Volvo S80 and Peugeot 604.pretty sure you,ll find the 1956cc mjet is a straight development of the 1910 mjet,very little to do with gm and ironicaly the only input gm had on the 1.3mjet was the adoption of the timing chain which is the part that fails on a regular basis.One huge cock up getting mixed up with gm and giving them fiat technology.Only good thing was the Croma floor pan.I always wounderd why they never used a 159 floor pan.
I would think that FIAT bought Chrysler for the dealer network in order to re-launch Alfa over there, plus access to Jeep 4X4 technology, especially if you bear in mind that European Chryslers are made in Austria. If FIAT want to compete in the SUV market in Europe as Vauxhall/Opel (and virtually everybody else) have done. Despite Marchionne's assertion that Alfas will only be built in Italy, he'd have to be galactically stupid to not use Chrysler manufacturing facilities because of import tarrifs. That is why the likes of the BMW Z3 & Z4 as well as the Mercedes ML were built there.Beats me why they've bought Chrysler, an appalling range of cars. Yanks do not, and never will, build to European quality standards. O.K. maybe Eastern European standards.
HDI is Peugeot-Citroen nomenclature. The FIAT Croma was the first production car to be fitted with a Direct Injection diesel back in the '80s, but the problem was noise. Ford had a similar problem with the Transit as did Austin/Rover with the Maestro van. Until that Croma came out diesel cars were powered by Indirect Injection, although HGVs have used DI for donkey's years. The Cummins B-Series was (according to Wikipedia) developed by Cummins and Case tractors in the US, although there is something lurking at the back of my mind that it was actually developed in conjunction with IVECO. This is backed up by the fact that both Cummins and IVECO introduced the range at the same time and both firms offer a 3.9 litre Four and a 5.9 litre Six. I'm also pretty certain that they dissolved the "partnership" and each concern went there own separate ways. Of IVECO's diesel offerings, the small engine range up to 3 litres as well as the aforementioned 4 & 6 cylinder Tector motors are all Common Rail as is the 8.5 Cursor. The larger HGV engines are not.As far as I know The HDI technology was developed & patented by Fiat & Bosch for use in lorries. All the other manufacturers have to pay to use it
There's probably something in what you say about being cash strapped, but I read an article in an Italian magazine while on holiday several years ago that stated that FIAT had invented CR but couldn't take it's development any further so enlisted Bosch to carry it on.Fiat developed the common rail in the early 90,s.For what ever reason-probably strapped for cash sold the design to Robert bosch.Its like VW,s now defunct PD system,better known as unit injectors.Everyone praises it but it wasnt their invention,Detroit diesel and Cummins pioneered the system back in the 1940,s nothing to do with the Germans.