GM and Magna: Still Friends
Magna’s abortive attempt at buying Opel burned a few bridges for its supplier business, most notably drawing the ire of Volkswagen. But now that the deal is off, Magna has been forgiven by VW, and it seems even GM is ready to bury the hatchet. Reuters reports that GM has awarded the manufacture of their 3rd generation frames for full-size light-duty pickups and sport utility vehicles to Magna’s division Cosma International. “This is the third generation of frame business that we’ve been awarded by General Motors,” said Tracy Fuerst, a Magna spokeswoman. “To keep that business is certainly a win for us.” Curiously, the value of the contract wasn’t disclosed and no new jobs would be created but it sent the value of Magna’s share up by 1.9%. Life, and business go on… meanwhile, this is the first sign that GM is actively investing in a new generation of body-on-frame vehicles.
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Cosma developed hydroformed frame rails for a huge cost savings for the GMT800 program, and stole the business away from the entrenched suppliers (Smith and/or Tower, I believe). At the time, it was perceived to be a huge risk, no one thought you could do hydroform rails at the volume needed to support 1 million frames per year. Today, hydroforming is the baseline method for frame rails, Cosma continues to reap the benefits of their solid engineering back in the 90's and a couple older frame plants have closed.....
"But now that the deal is off, Magna has been forgiven by VW". Au contraire.VW-Porsche just pulled the Boxster and Cayman assy. contract from them. Just came across on the newswire. Never try to screw Ferdinand especially after they bought the Karmann manufacturing site.