By Frank Williams
April 15, 2008 - 5,418 Views
Let's recap. Chrysler builds pickup trucks for Mitsubishi. Chery is working on a U.S.-market subcompact for Chrysler. Chrysler is selling a rebadged Chery as a Dodge in Mexico. Volkswagen is selling Chrysler-built minivans in the U.S. Nissan is building small trucks for Suzuki to sell in the U.S. and Versas to be sold as Chryslers in Brazil. Chrysler has been talking with Great Wall Motors in China about something. Now, just in case all these relationships aren't confusing enough, The Detroit Free Press reports that Chrysler and Nissan announced Chrysler will build a version of the Ram pickup in Mexico for Nissan to sell in the U.S. In return, Nissan will build a North American-bound small car in Japan for Chrysler. In a way, all this makes sense, particularly the Chrysler-Nissan deals. After all, Chrysler has a well-established presence in the truck and van market while Nissan and Chery specialize in small cars. All they're doing is capitalizing on each other's strengths. However, the more Nissan and Chrysler snuggle-up together, the more it seems that Nissan is testing the waters for establishing an American partner– something Carlos Ghosn has promised, eventually. Don't be surprised if in the next few years you hear that Chrysler's building vans for Nissan or that Nissan's supplying Altima drivetrain components for the Sebring/Avenger. And when Cerberus starts the flip 'n strip with Chrysler, Nissan will be right there to pick up the pieces. You heard it here first.
Subscribe to Newsletter13 Responses to “ Chrysler/Nissan/Chery/Suzuki/Mitsubishi Inbreeding Explained ”
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April 15th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I shudder to think of a Nissan-badged version of the craptastic new Chrysler minivan. I’ve been in several (both Caravan and Town and Country models), and they’ve got one of the cheapest interiors out there. I thought Chrysler was supposedly improving their interiors… Must not have happened yet in the product cycle, because every new Chrysler I’ve been in recently has been worse than the model it replaced (Sebring, Avenger, minivans, everything).
April 15th, 2008 at 8:59 am
How many people walking onto a Cry-sler lot think they are buying American for the good of the country and the UAW?
April 15th, 2008 at 9:04 am
GS650G, The people walking onto a “Cry-sler” lot are upside down on something that they must ditch and hoping for escape.
Out of the frying pan…
April 15th, 2008 at 9:05 am
I’d rather buy a Nissan Titan as it is now over a Dodge Ram…why throw away all the money they’ve spent on developing the Titan for that?
April 15th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Nissan has announced that the Quest is leaving the line for at least a year, so this may make quite a bit of sense — use the new Chryler minivan platform for their next generation van.
With the dollar devaluation, I would think that all car companies are considering ways to make more product in North America or in the cheap Asian markets.
And with the recession in general, I doubt that too many of them are anxious to invest in new plants or tooling, when a partnership can leverage someone else’s capital expense.
No reason Magna (for instance) can’t take become the manufacturing company for multiple car makers. In theory its much more efficient.
It may be the only way the 2.8 have a chance at surviving.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I for one think this is good news. It’s so expensive now to develope new product that only automakers like Toyota can be in all markets at once - oh wait - they can’t, that’s why they’re snuggling up to Fuji Industries (Subaru) to develope vehicles together.
Nissan already supplies the CVT tranny used in Caliber/Compass/Patriot. Making a Ram for Nissan to sell must be about the all new Ram that is going on sale this fall. Why would Nissan want to can their current Titan model? Well for one it’s a sales failure, there have been quality glitches, and the new Ram will be much nicer than the current Titan, and if the pictures are any indication the interior will be very nice.
It’s all about synergy. Look at Chrylser-VW. VW wants a minivan and a pickup truck. Chrylser needs better designs, interiors, a US legal diesel for cars and a DSG if their joint effort with Gertrag falls thru.
We could spend all day looking at various pairings of automakers and playing what if? with their strengths, weaknesses, and product lines.
Question: Does Renault make anything that would sell in the US mrket rebadged as a Nissan or Chrysler/Dodge? It seems that Carlos has done more with Nissan than he has with Renault.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Orian,
Nissan announced last week they’re ditching certain models in order to offer a commercial series of vehicles in the U.S.
Out is the Nissan-built minivan (Quest), which tried to be different yet never caught on, and the Infiniti Q behemoth SUV (to be followed shortly by the slow selling and fugmongous Nissan Armada SUV, though they didn’t say it…yet).
Hmmm, said industry insiders. Going commercial is not as simple as the saying. Toyota, you recall, said immediately when the new half-ton Tundra came out that we should all watch for Heavy Duty versions (three-quarter and full-tons), diesels, etc to follow shortly. They quietly backed off those promises.
The problem is you can’t just throw a more powerful engine in a half-ton chassis and call it good. The load stresses and torque on a half-ton frame will leave it sorely wanting — if not broken. No, if you want to go commercial grade, you must design a whole new truck from the ground up.
And today, we have Nissan’s announcement that Dodge is soon to be building full-size trucks for Nissan in exchange for a competent small car.
Aha, said industry insiders. Nissan realized that in order to fulfill its promise of a commercial line-up of vehicles, the shortest and easiest path is to borrow, not invent, your ticket for admission.
No question the Titan was a competent truck. It had many unique new features which forced the domestics to rethink the space and utility features of their offerings (factory bedliners, cargo management systems, cubbies, laptop-sized consoles, etc). However, the Titan would need a ground-up reinvention to become a Heavy Duty (commercial) offering.
One may complain about domestic manufacturers’ cars, but they do trucks pretty good.
The new Ram has some new features that’ll continue to push truck evolution forward, including coil-over rear springs (taming rear-end hop when unloaded without compromising towing or payload capacities — a neat trick).
Nissan is just repackaging Chrysler’s truck and skipping millions in R&D — which would have taken Nissan decades to recoup, given their truck volume (put it this way, this past March, Dodge sold 26,318 Ram trucks; Nissan sold 3,869 Titans. And market-leader Ford sold 54,465 F-Series pickups.)
Frank couldn’t be more correct: someday before this decade is out, Nissan and Chrysler Corp will be one and the same.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:20 am
windswords - I believe the Versa (Nissan) is a Megrane (Migraine?) Renault.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I think that the heavy duty Nissan trucks are going to be REAL trucks, in what is described as the Medium Truck category, in the industry. Not posier-mobiles for one fat butt to sit in to commute, and tow a bass trailer 3 times a year - maybe.
In other words, they are going to go into competition with Isuzu’s snub-nosed trucks and Hino’s smaller trucks (both part of the Toyota universe).
As I said, REAL trucks. Not “pickemup trucks”. The new rigs will be totally unrelated to the current Titan. I bet they’re snub-nose rigs, too.
As for the next Nissan Quest, yeah, unfortunately I suspect it’ll be a Dodge Caravan in drag. Just like the Volkswagen Whatheheckisthatthingcalledagain.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Par for the course. Nissan won’t be the only ones picking up the pieces.
http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/CarCompanyFamilyTree/1001026196?viewSize=thumb1280×1280