Fiat/Mazda Alliance May Bear More Fruit, With Mazda Cars Built At Fiat, Chrysler Plants

@highdesertcat redav, I've never been a Chrysler fan. I owned several used 4X4 Jeeps over the decades and I thought they were all crap, even those from AMC. But they were relatively easy to fix and parts were plentiful at junk yards and easy to come by. The architecture of Jeeps and Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge/DeSoto cars was straight-forward and I was comfortable rebuilding Chrysler engines for my dad's dragster since I was 12, and modifying underpowered Jeeps and Chrysler products with larger engines. ('63 Dodge Slant 6 -> 383, Jeep I-6 -> 318) When Daimler owned Chrysler the culture that led to Chrysler's demise did not change. Ditto during Cerberus. But under Sergio and Fiat I believe that Chrysler will do OK. In fact Chrysler has done so well that its profits are what is keeping Fiat alive. Sergio and Fiat have marginalized the UAW representatives on the BoD and Fiat will press on without the UAW's help and make Chrysler products elsewhere at the first sign of trouble with the UAW. The UAW knows this and is unlikely to strike Chrysler or cause mayhem, unless they are just on a suicidal binge to kill themselves. That's happened before so it could happen again. For the UAW suicide is painless, it brings on many changes. Like the tax payer bail outs, for instance. I hope Chrysler will be around for the next 3 years because that's how long the warranty is on my wife's 2012 JGC. So far, no problems.

@unhittable curveball Mazda was one of the brands my brothers carried before they retired from the new-car retail business. Mazdas never sold well. When given a choice, most buyers chose the Ford equivalent even though the Mazda6 was, IMO, the better value of the two, and the Mazda3 would eat a similar Focus for lunch in ride and handling. The Mazda 2300/4000 was a rebadged Ranger. The Mazda5 was a niche vehicle without equal and the CX-9 was a better dad-mobile than anything from anyone else. If Sergio would be able to take over Mazda, Fiat would get the better end of the deal, just like Chrysler's profit and the $1.3B taxpayer money saved Fiat from certain death, the better end of the deal. Fiat has an established history of crappy vehicles and the Fiat name would not sell well on rebadged products from Mazda and Chrysler. Maybe in strong Fiat markets it would, but I can't think of any strong Fiat markets, not even Italy. Sergio would do well to market under the established names while at the same time incorporating the better quality into his own Fiat line of products.