General Motors, Ford have discussed possible merger or alliance

[KILLER74Z28]

News bulletin
Report: General Motors, Ford have discussed possible merger or alliance

September 18, 2006

High-level executives at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have discussed possibly forming a merger or alliance, Automotive News reported today.

The negotiations began in July after Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and Renault SA CEO Carlos Ghosn broached the possibility of an alliance among Renault, Nissan and GM, according to several people familiar with the talks, Automotive News reported.

It is not clear who launched the talks. One person said GM CEO Rick Wagoner contacted Ford Motor the day after Ghosn disclosed his plan. A second person disputed that.

In August, GM CFO Fritz Henderson discussed the proposed alliance with Ford
CFO Don Leclair, said a person familiar with the talks.

But it is not at all clear whether the negotiations will bear fruit. As of now, the two
companies are not holding talks, and one person says there is a slim chance that anything will come of it.

GM spokesman Tony Cervone declined to comment on the report.

"We regularly talk to a number of people in the industry regarding business
opportunities of mutual interest," Cervone told Automotive News on Friday. "As a matter of course, we don’t comment on any of those because in many cases, they simply don’t lead to anything."

Ford spokesman Oscar Suris also declined to comment.

“It would surprise me if there were a coming-together on the grand level,” said David Cole, head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

“I don’t see it from a business standpoint,” said analyst Charles Fleetham of
Project Innovations in Farmington Hills. “They have the same high health costs,
high union costs, ineffective white collar work force that they want to get rid of.”
Somewhere down the line, though, the number of companies that make cars is going to shrink, Cole said.

“There’s going to be more consolidation. I think it’s going to accelerate,” Cole said.
Ford and GM very well could start more joint efforts similar to their current work to develop a six-speed automatic transmission, Cole said, adding, that contacts between automakers “go on all the time at the senior level.”


Talk of alliances involving GM came after GM shareholder Kirk Kerkorian, who owns a 9.9% stake in the company, called for GM, Renault and Nissan to pursue an alliance.

Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Renault and Nissan, has said the benefits from an alliance would be similar to the gains from the Renault-Nissan alliance, which have included cost savings from joint purchases of auto parts.

Ford earlier declined to comment on an August Wall Street Journal report that then-Chief Executive Bill Ford approached Ghosn about a Ford alliance with Renault and Nissan.


Sources: PR Newswire news release and Associated Press

[TAG UR IT]

So GM was supposed to talk about an alliance w/ Renault and Nissan. However, Ford was talking about a possible alliance w/ Renault and Nissan. So, now GM is possibly talking about a possible alliance w/ Ford?
Who, or what, is Renault?...Or is Renault Ford???
I'm freakin lost!

[boxmonkeyracing]

Originally Posted by TAG UR IT

Who, or what, is Renault?...Or is Renault Ford???
I'm freakin lost!

Well Renault is a European brand. not sure if it's french or not. but I'm pretty sure it's french.

[Hyperknight]

Wow GM and Ford? That's like Coke and Pepsi joining forces.

[chevy4824]

This sucks what should happen is people should stick with an american brand not go to some forein company i am no big fan of ford but i would still buy a ford before i buy a forein car. GM has had big success over the years and with this little trouble they are about to go bankrupted I think they should get rid of some of there lower sellin cars like Saab maybe Saturn (i want none of the GM family of cars to go but if they have to do it). Gas prices are starting to go down hopefully for a long time so that will help the American car companys out. I think this new warrenty will help GM out and the Camaro will help. This Hydro car phase will be done in 5 to 10 years just like in the 70's I just think that you should buy american cars unstead of the forien crap that people are buying

[boxmonkeyracing]

Originally Posted by chevy4824

This sucks what should happen is people should stick with an american brand not go to some forein company i am no big fan of ford but i would still buy a ford before i buy a forein car. GM has had big success over the years and with this little trouble they are about to go bankrupted I think they should get rid of some of there lower sellin cars like Saab maybe Saturn (i want none of the GM family of cars to go but if they have to do it). Gas prices are starting to go down hopefully for a long time so that will help the American car companys out. I think this new warrenty will help GM out and the Camaro will help. This Hydro car phase will be done in 5 to 10 years just like in the 70's I just think that you should buy american cars unstead of the forien crap that people are buying

hmm lets see by american I assume you mean united states. because if you just say american you have to include every country in north american central america and south america. so then if you buy a car that's built in canada you are buying a forien car as you put it.

Also GM has other brands overseas not all of them are good brands. opel has several cars that are crap while having a few that are really good. holden is where the gto came from. I have never delt with vauxhall. but those three brands are gm.

OH and several of the new new suvs and cars have parts from places like china. the chevy equanox and the saturn vue have engines in them from china. gm is doing what it feels it needs to.

granted I don't agree with several of GM's moves but all we can do is tell them we don't like it and hope they listen. but there is really nothing wrong with a car from overseas. I've lived over there but owned a jeep. I have experience with opel and the van I got to spend a month driving sucked arse. it's worse then what people say about saturn. and I own a saturn. but yea. life goes on.

[KILLER74Z28]

There is no such thing as U.S. made any more… In order for Big Corporations to survive today they must think Globally. This sucks because we are going to see more U.S. jobs lost to India and China… The U.S. is importing its self jobless…

[boxmonkeyracing]

we are becoming a country of services not products.

[chevy4824]

Opal is GM too

[boxmonkeyracing]

yea that's what I said man. but they have some crappy cars. seriously. I spent a month driving one of their vans in germany and that thing was bad. felt like it was going to fall apart. especially at 180 km/h. lol where as the vw vans we had could do over 200 km/h and they felt fine. granted I'm a huge gm guy but opel sucks.