Fiat buying Chinese engines

[Michael N. Marcus]

Following in the tradition of Marco Polo, who allegedly discovered pasta in China and brought it to Italy, Fiat announced today it would buy engines from Chery Automobile, expanding the ambitious Chinese automaker's foreign ties just a month after it made a deal with Chrysler to export cars to the United States.

The agreement comes as global automakers look to China as a low-cost production base for export and as the small but fast-growing Chinese competitors try to expand sales abroad.

Chery, the biggest Chinese automaker, will supply 100,000 1.6- and 1.8-liter engines a year for use in cars manufactured by Fiat in China and abroad, the two companies said in a statement.

"The agreement will give Chery increased competitiveness on the international market," Yin Tongyao, president of 10-year-old Chery, said.

Chery and Fiat Group of Italy are looking at "further cooperation," the chief executive of Fiat Group, Sergio Marchionne, said.

(from the Associated Press)

[So Cal Mark]

brings a whole new meaning to the name Chia Pet

[Gerard Del Monte]

What with the recent hoo-hah about tainted Chinese foods and shoddy Chinese workmanship, I hope Fiat has done due diligence... all they need to drive a stake through them is a recall of Chinese engines whose steel was bad or something.