Volkswagen Hasn't Given Up on Getting A Baker's Dozen
A few weeks ago, one of our overabundance of resident Germans wrote about how Volkswagen wanted to marry the Italian bride, Signorina Alfa Romeo. The project was colloquially called “Italian dressing” (Those Germans and their crazy sense of humor(!)). But it was soon dismissed as a throwaway comment from a company hell-bent by taking over ze vorld. Well, now Piech himself is getting involved, and if Piech wants something …
The Economic Times of India reports that Ferdinand Piech has spoken at the Paris Motor Show about the Alfa Romeo acquisition. Although he was a bit more direct, he still wanted to leave some wiggle room. “We are patient and have time…you won’t hear anything though for the next two years,” said Piech when asked about market speculation on Volkswagen buying Alfa Romeo. Herr Piech, then, showed his lighter side by commenting on the fact that acquiring Alfa would leave Volkswagen AG with 13 brands. “Thirteen is my lucky number,” joked Piech. Then Piech said something rather interesting, “Seat would be to Alfa Romeo what Skoda is to Volkswagen”. Say what? Are you implying that Seat would be a cheaper version of Alfa Romeo? I wouldn’t play that game, Piech and I certainly wouldn’t use Skoda and VW as an example. Look how that turned out.
How did Fiat feel about Volkswagen making eyes at their Alfa brand? Well, they denied any interest in selling it. Even Sergio Marchionne said how the brand has huge potential. “Alfa is the one brand with the biggest potential for improvement,” said Marchionne. It seems like this saga is far from over.
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BTW, lovely Ti Super at the track! Captures the essence of the Alfa brand. Fiat doesn't have the cash to do Alfa justice. Sergio, invest in Alfa or sell it to someone who will!
If Ford will sell its stake ( 11 % ) in Mazda ( and probably will ), VW Group could emerge as possible suitor for Mazda . Its market capitalization is today $4.29B, and corporate law in Japan says that you only need 33.4 % of the stock to run the company . 33.4 % of Mazda is worth $1.42B whitch is no problem for VW . Controlling both Suzuki and Mazda, VW could challenge Toyota not only worldwide but even in Japan where Toyota is by far the market leader .
It makes an awful lot more sense for Fiat to sell Alfa than Ferrari: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/fiat-to-sell-ferrari-to-finance-chrysler-would-be-a-shame/ After selling Alfa, Fiat could perhaps develop the Lancia brand to cover the current Alfa market.
@stingray BMW would be the ideal company to run Alfa. BUT, a properly developed Alfa would compete head on with BMW. Alfa could be the lightweight, sporty divison of BMW since most agree that BMWs have moved more towards the luxury side to compete directly with Mercedes Benz. Whoever ends up running Alfa I certainly hope the cars do NOT end up like BMWs which have entered a death spiral of more mass for luxury items followed by simply bigger engines to (poorly) compensate for the extra mass. BMW: too much Cadillac not enough Lotus. Selling Alfa is a non-sense. It’s a STRONG brand. Alfa has strong *potential* but this potential has not been realized since early 1990s with the SZ/RZ (ES-30) cars (and the glorious 1993 DTM championship). The longer Sergio dithers the less the brand is worth as its past glories become but dim memories for fewer and fewer.