VW To Magna: "Us Or Opel"

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

It has been commented widely (and it doesn’t take a tall IQ to do so) that Magna might get problems with its parts customers (a.k.a. OEMs) when Magna starts competing with them through Opel. Didn’t take long: “Volkswagen AG said Wednesday Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International Inc. will face conflicts of interest following the planned takeover of General Motors Corp.’s (GM) Adam Opel GmbH unit,” Dow Jones Newswire reports from Germany. The threats are carefully worded:


According to VeeDub’s spokesperson Michael Brendel, “Volkswagen will monitor this development very closely.” Translation: Volkswagen Purchasing is talking to other bidders.

Volkswagen is a direct rival of Opel. Volkswagen is also a major customer of Magna. Magna also supplies components to Porsche, Volkswagen’s largest shareholder. Conflict of interest? Looks like it.

Large parts suppliers enjoy a tight relationship with auto makers. They often are embedded in the development process of a new car. If you want to know in detail what a auto maker plans for five years down the road, become one of their components suppliers. You will work with them, and they will work with you. Unless you also own a direct competitor like Opel. If you do that, your mugshot will be posted at Wache Sandkamp, the main entrance to Volkswagen’s HQ in Wolfsburg.

Volkswagen has another beef: “Tax money has been used to a large extent for Opel’s rescue.” Volkswagen would have rather seen Opel dead. Being propped up with tax money, AND run by one of their suppliers is a bit much for them to swallow. Other makers most likely see it the same way as Volkswagen.

Magna will have to decide: Auto maker or parts maker. I’d choose the latter.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Kurt. Kurt. on Jun 05, 2009

    Agree with psarhjinian, All the automakers are tied up with each other anyway. The parts suppliers sell to multiple makers. The makers buy from each other (Routan ring a bell?). This is just political posturing.

  • Bimmer Bimmer on Jun 05, 2009
    psarhjinian and charly, it's not Serbank, it's Sberbank. And why would you add shares of Magna (with Canadian owner) to Sberbank (Russian government owned)? I don't see any logic in it.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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