FCA "Bold and creative" future

[Muther]

FCA isn’t going anywhere. There are Wall Street punks into FCA that want FCA to “go someplace”, it they are just punks. All they want is short term gain. They care only about the size of their yachts, and the resale of their Central Park apartment.

GM is a mess. Even GM diehards are saying their products are ugly, and it is showing in sales. If there was to be (unlikely still) an FCA+GM anything, it wouldn’t be until GM is in deep trouble, and at that point FCA would pro’ly need all of its cash to weather the storm that put GM into trouble again. It would take another gov’t loan to allow FCA to buy enough of GM to control it.

I see it all as very unlikely still.

 

[AlexB]

FCA isn’t going anywhere. There are Wall Street punks into FCA that want FCA to “go someplace”, it they are just punks. All they want is short term gain. They care only about the size of their yachts, and the resale of their Central Park apartment.

GM is a mess. Even GM diehards are saying their products are ugly, and it is showing in sales. If there was to be (unlikely still) an FCA+GM anything, it wouldn’t be until GM is in deep trouble, and at that point FCA would pro’ly need all of its cash to weather the storm that put GM into trouble again. It would take another gov’t loan to allow FCA to buy enough of GM to

I see it all as very unlikely still.

Only limited cash would be spent, mostly a swap GM shares for FCA's shares.
Takeover don't have to involve cash , and they mostly have a mix of stock & cash..
It would create a line up of Maserati,Alfa,Cadillac as a well Denali with GMC.
Chevy, Chrysler would likely be the long term losers of the FCA takeover.

 

[Mopar426]

FCA isn’t going anywhere. There are Wall Street punks into FCA that want FCA to “go someplace”, it they are just punks. All they want is short term gain. They care only about the size of their yachts, and the resale of their Central Park apartment.

GM is a mess. Even GM diehards are saying their products are ugly, and it is showing in sales. If there was to be (unlikely still) an FCA+GM anything, it wouldn’t be until GM is in deep trouble, and at that point FCA would pro’ly need all of its cash to weather the storm that put GM into trouble again. It would take another gov’t loan to allow FCA to buy enough of GM to control it.

I see it all as very unlikely still.

Wall street is the reason for the ever increasing higher "transaction prices" of FCA vehicles - they want GM and Ford to crank their prices as well. FCA's CFO said this was going to be happening in one of the recent investor calls. Its where $80,000 Ram 1500's, $60,000 Jeeps and $90,000 Dodge's came from.

 

[Bili]

Wall street is the reason for the ever increasing higher "transaction prices" of FCA vehicles - they want GM and Ford to crank their prices as well. FCA's CFO said this was going to be happening in one of the recent investor calls. Its where $80,000 Ram 1500's, $60,000 Jeeps and $90,000 Dodge's came from.

No... It's done because of shareholders with EXOR/Agnelli's at their helm. Average transaction price coupled with a high margin car means high profits.

FCA is capacity constrained in North America and they've made all actions to switch North American production to a products with a high average transaction price.

So far they are succeeding. We'll see what will happen with a future Jeep models.

 

[Mopar426]

You seems not to understand what "Hostile" means . There's nothing needed to cooperate from Mary as she would likely be fired by "Hostile" means before a deal is signed.
Second, the debt was the reason they (FCA) didn't go down "Hostile" avaenue, but FCA's debt been taken care of.

I am well aware of what a hostile takeover is - Chrysler isn't going to do one to GM in this lifetime, they can't even afford to update half their fleet.

 

[Mopar426]

No... It's done because of shareholders with EXOR/Agnelli's at their helm. Average transaction price coupled with a high margin car means high profits.

FCA is capacity constrained in North America and they've made all actions to switch North American production to a products with a high average transaction price.

So far they are succeeding. We'll see what will happen with a future Jeep models.

That's fine but not when you keep turning up the prices on vehicles that use to be value priced. Higher prices is fine but the cars better be worth it. Lord help them if a redeye buyer decides to have a look at the hi-po Audi's, Benz's and BMW's.

 

[Jared B]

I am well aware of what a hostile takeover is - Chrysler isn't going to do one to GM in this lifetime, they can't even afford to update half their fleet.

They have the money, they're evaluating a changing market and making tons of cash on vehicle lines that have long since paid for themselves. Grand Caravan, Journey, Ram 1500 Classic are cash cows since all the tooling etc is long since paid for. Guaranteed the margins on the L cars is good too. FCA is actually in a very good financial position right now. That said do I think they need to stop with these monthly sticker packages and just get the new product out? Absolutely.

 

[Muther]

Let me be clear...

GM and FCA are not now, not ever going to tie up in anyway. That ship sailed.. Personally, I don't think that it was ever under consideration. When the Sergio said those things, I think he was obfuscating the real plan. Such tactics were his stock in trade. He was brilliant at it. The best three card players would see him coming a mile aways and wouldn't let him anywhere near their game.

IF, let me say that again, "IF" (massive air quotes there) there ever was a chance for a GM/FCA tie up in some fashion it would only happen in a scenario not unlike 2008/9. GM would have to be in dire straights, and GM would have to be obtained at bargain basement prices. the feds (in US, Europe and elsewhere) would have to be so desperate for GM to survive in some fashion that the deal would get guaranteed loans and it would sail through regulatory agencies. The deal would also NOT be able to jeopardize any current Agnelli holdings. All current Agnelli companies would have to remain the as is, no parceling things off. THAT is more ifs than a freight train could carry.

So, no I don't see a deal going through. But hey, WTF do I know. There could be a deal in the works as we speak (he said rolling his eyes).

 

[AlexB]

I am well aware of what a hostile takeover is - Chrysler isn't going to do one to GM in this lifetime, they can't even afford to update half their fleet.

"Afford" is a really bad "inaccurate" word and term . Daimler didn't pay any money for Chrysler in 1998.
The" update half of the their fleet is your opinion.

 

[Jared B]

I am well aware of what a hostile takeover is - Chrysler isn't going to do one to GM in this lifetime, they can't even afford to update half their fleet.

FCA is in the best financial position of all the domestic automakers actually from what I've been told.

 

[GasAxe]

FCA's strategy with "zero" debt seems to be to limit spending and hold a large war chest while waiting and watching to see if a competitor gets into a financial meltdown, then swoop in to consolidate. I think Sergio believed we would already be in a downturn by now, thus a partial reason for the repeated delays in products. If segments had consolidated in 2018/19 "as expected", new product with higher margins would have had less competition and more production capacity options. To be honest, my theory makes more sense after a few beers.?