Now that Jaguar’s sale to Tata is as good as a done deal, it has been revealed that Fiat could team with Jaguar to produce premium rear-wheel drive vehicles for its Alfa Romeo brand and possibly even share some of the same dealerships — easing the Italian automaker’s re-entry into the U.S. market.
“I think I would be more than pleased to collaborate with Tata in terms of Jaguar/ Range Rover, if in fact it ends up being owned by them,” Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s chief executive, told the Financial Times.
Fiat already has close ties with Tata — the Indian automaker purchasing Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford — as the two companies currently produce cars, engines and transmissions together in India. Tata head Ratan Tata also sits on Fiat’s board.
The possible deal could also see Fiat using Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships for U.S. distribution, which would eliminate Fiat’s need to start a dealer network from Scratch.
Fiat is also entertaining the idea of teaming with one of the Big Three U.S. automakers.
However, just as Chrysler has learned, it’s not always a smart move to sell redundant vehicles under one roof.
03/25, 6:52 PM
posted by:
jayjc08
Oh boy. We’ll just have to wait this one out for a while and see. I’d rather not have Fiat with Land Rover and Jaguar, by the way. I think they’ll be fine just the way they are, keep them that way or independent. They don’t need to share any platforms with any other vehicles, just keep your paws off, I’m already sick to my stomach of platform sharing. Come up with something creative yourselves, or get out of the business.
03/25, 6:59 PM
posted by:
DeansterTJ
“However, just as Chrysler has learned, it’s not always a smart move to sell redundant vehicles under one roof.”
Ooooohhh, the ominous warnings of the LLN staffers. Take heed automotive execs, the wise gooch has spoken
03/25, 8:28 PM
posted by:
SS4LIFE
Preferably I’d rather see an Italian auto company having it’s cars at a showroom with other Italian auto companies. Just as many Maseratis are shown off at Ferrari dealerships, even though that may be due to the dual ownership and deal with Fiat. However it sure would make my shopping experience pleasant if I was looking at an Alfa Romeo that had a Ferrari on the other side of the showroom. Certainly wouldn’t hurt Alfa’s image any more now would it?
03/25, 10:21 PM
posted by:
400horseSS
(Sarcasm)2 very reliable car companies.
03/25, 10:30 PM
posted by:
autonut
I have to agree with 400horses. 15 or 20 years ago Alfa left US not because of impeccable product reputation. About same time Jaguar cars were given along with hard to sell apartments in NYC (apparently it was much more laborious task to sell Jaguars).
03/25, 10:48 PM
posted by:
MurcieMe
What on earth are they getting at with “it’s not always a smart move to sell redundant vehicles under one roof.”?? What redundant vehicles could there possibly be in either a Jag / Land Rover / Alfa dealership or ANY Alfa / Big Three dealership?
Selling the 8C with the XKR is nowhere near the same thing as Chrysler selling one car under three brands. WTF?
03/25, 11:36 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
GM, Ford and Chrysler have spent their history force feeding badge engineering on the unsuspecting and gullible public. LLN’s remark has so little to do with the subject matter they might as well have been talking about pussy farts affecting the ozone layer.
03/26, 1:44 AM
posted by:
sharpie
Agree with MurcieMe and johnnycanuck. Using an existing dealer network is a smart move for Fiat to minimize cost initially. With the weak dollars and car prices being lower than Europe, why would Fiat want to further increase the starting-up or re-entering cost for the N.A. market?
I also fail to see the “redundant vehicles” analogy. Sharing platform doesn’t have to result in redundant vehicles. Here are a couple examples: Mazda3 / Volvo C30 (two cars of similar size, serving different class of customer) or Toyota Highlander / Camry (Same platform used for an SUV and a car).
That is different than “badge engineering” or simply rebadging a car with minor cosmetic change under different brands (See the entire Mercury brand! G5/Cobalt, Outlook/Acadia/Enclave, Compass/Caliber). LLN knows better than making dumb statement like that.
03/26, 9:21 AM
posted by:
global_lightning
Ford and Chrysler are squeezing out under-performing dealerships. This may be an opportunity to establish an independent Fiat/Alfa Romeo/Maserati/Ferrari/Jaguar/Land Rover operation.
03/26, 11:37 AM
posted by:
SS4LIFE
Surely these cars only sell on the coasts anyway
03/26, 2:32 PM
posted by:
SS4LIFE
WTF??? Ok **** YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE THAT IS DOING THIS. We all know it’s you LP so get a life and go do something productive for once in your life!
03/26, 3:01 PM
posted by:
SS4LIFE
ATTENTION EVERYONE. As of todau 3/26/08 I will no longer be posting comments on here due to the lack of maturity, and problems of whoever is using our LLN handles and trying to impersonate me and anyone else, and therefore causing problems.
If any comments after this post are said by my handle, they will have a hyperlink to a gay porn site (Do not click on it) and are deemed offensive to anyone just know it wasn’t said by the real me. After using LLN over the past 7 months, it’s sad it’s come to this. Good luck everyone.
03/27, 7:34 PM
posted by:
bigp
cant wait to see what comes out of this