FCA GM merger talk again

[spidernut]

I know there have been some Fiat partnerships with GM's Opel division, but I'm not a fan of Fiat partnering with GM. It didn't go well for GM last time they went to share platforms. So what do GM and Fiat have in common right now? The Chevy Cruz and Fiat 500L were rated two of the three worst cars for reliability. O.K., maybe that's an argument FOR a merger. They could develop better quality control together.

But how about Chevy's great technology? The Volt may have been an early front-runner in electric cars, but has been a financial disaster for GM and the car has a terrible driving range. Newcomer Tesla blew GM's R&D to pieces with a far superior (albeit costly) car with at least moderately acceptable range. The Solstice was not more than a blip on the radar and a commercial failure. How about a 124 Spider based on a Solstice. I think not!

Let's go back to my 79 Spider - GM automatic transmission is clunky, heavy, inefficient and prone to leaks. The GM emissions equipment breaks more often than even the Marelli electronics. The GM electric window regulators are weak at best. I'm unimpressed with their past partnership results. It was more parts swapping than shared R&D.

GM has been at the bottom of quality until FCA beat them at building a less reliable car. Wouldn't you want a partnership with someone who is doing it right? It's like saying: hey, let's have two F grade students work together to improve their grades, instead of having one F grade student being tutored by an A grade student. I don't get it.

If Fiat is going to do some merging, why not with Mazda since they're partnering on the new 124 Spider? It seems like a better option to me since Mazda has some rather reliable cars that are appealing to buyers, and have already worked out the bugs in much of their small car platforms. They could use the help on full sized vehicles.

Ralph Nader once said: The only thing worst than GM building a car is the Federal Government building one. Is that who Fiat should merge with? I think not.

I'll step off my soap box now.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 848569.cms