Ford, GM have discussed merger, alliance

Apparently Ford and GM have discussed a merger, which if it became a reality, would most likely create the largest automobile manufacturer in the U.S., and quite possibly the world. If such a merger should happen, I would not be surprised to see the Ford-GM super-company begin to gobble up small auto manufacturers and parts manufacturers, becoming fatter and more potent in the global economy.

From Rueters

Senior executives at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have discussed a merger or alliance, industry newspaper Automotive News reported on Monday.

Such a huge company could conceivably control the U.S. automarket, perhaps influencing everything from successfully covering up dangerous flaws in vehicles to controlling auto prices all across the U.S. I shudder to think of what such a huge company could do? Do I think such a merger is a bad thing? I really don't know. I think it would deffinately save the two companies from going under and keep many people employed, but I worry that a merger between Ford and GM would create such a huge entity that the consumer would suffer.

The article referenced above indicates that such a merger will most likely not happen, but if the big U.S. auto makers continue to have falling sales and profits, such a merger may be closer than we might think.

God this company is going to be huge! I hope they don't though cause they both are great by them selfs. It just there make crap car latey (both GM and Ford) are having a hard time selling and now they have to merge. It is to bad.

If they merge, they may go on to become a huge mega-corp, buying up all sorts of smaller companies, aftermarket suppliers, casting plants, etc.

But there is one thing they cannot buy and that's the consumer. I have bought American cars all my life, and currently own a 2005 Chevy product. However my next car will definitely NOT be a GM, Ford or Chrysler product.

Their cars and trucks are not reliable vehicles, IMO and I will be shopping elsewhere. I wish them luck. They'll need it because I don't think I'm alone in the way I feel.

Hey, Toyota...you're terrific

lol!! an alliance of GM and ford? it will never happen!!! and if it did i doubt it would make the biggest car company in the world. both companies are doing so bad right now that a merger would simply keep them in business. ford+gm doesnt even equal 1 toyota lol

what would happen to the great ford/chevy debate?

would you really wanna drive a mustaro, or a expedurban?


fix
or
repair
daily

I grew up in Detroit and around the automobile industry for the formative years of my life. My dad was a model maker for Chrysler's engineering department, I worked at Cadillac and many of my friends and even their folks work or have worked in Detroit's car industry. Although, over the years, the automobile sector in Detroit has shrunk, it's still by far the most important aspect of that city. In one way or another, the cars dominate everything about Detroit and, for that matter, Michigan. Thats perhaps why I follow the news from the Motor City closely. But I also love sniffing out the skuttlebutt and rumors from whereever I can find it be it the assembly line floor to the water coolers on Michigan Avenue (Ford HQ) and West Grand Blvd (GM HQ).

I hadn't heard of any rumor of a merger between GM and Ford. That piece of gossip is totally new to me. Frankly, I wish I had thought of that one myself. If one were inclined to start rumors, that would be a great one to start. It would get MoTown abuzz, that's for sure.

The one rumor that I've been following is one that is actually shaping up to possibly become reality; that the Ford Motor Company is investigating the possiblity of reverting back to a private company. That is, the Ford Family is interested in "buying back" their stock at greatly undervalued prices (in terms of hard physical assetts) to, once again, become a private company.

There's not a lot on the web about it yet, but CBC carried the story on television and radio.

Here's another item I found to substantiate the chatter.

www.chron.com...

Executives of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have discussed a possible merger or alliance, the trade journal Automotive News reported Monday. Both companies declined comment.

Automotive News quoted what it said were several people familiar with the talks as saying that discussions involving senior executives began in July and are not taking place now.

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edit to add...dang, it's the same story as in the OP, but by another newspaper





[edit on 18-9-2006 by masqua]

I grew up in Detroit and around the automobile industry for the formative years of my life. My dad was a model maker for Chrysler's engineering department, I worked at Cadillac and many of my friends and even their folks work or have worked in Detroit's car industry. Although, over the years, the automobile sector in Detroit has shrunk, it's still by far the most important aspect of that city. In one way or another, the cars dominate everything about Detroit and, for that matter, Michigan. Thats perhaps why I follow the news from the Motor City closely. But I also love sniffing out the skuttlebutt and rumors from whereever I can find it be it the assembly line floor to the water coolers on Michigan Avenue (Ford HQ) and West Grand Blvd (GM HQ).

I hadn't heard of any rumor of a merger between GM and Ford. That piece of gossip is totally new to me. Frankly, I wish I had thought of that one myself. If one were inclined to start rumors, that would be a great one to start. It would get MoTown abuzz, that's for sure.

The one rumor that I've been following is one that is actually shaping up to possibly become reality; that the Ford Motor Company is investigating the possiblity of reverting back to a private company. That is, the Ford Family is interested in "buying back" their stock at greatly undervalued prices (in terms of hard physical assetts) to, once again, become a private company.

an excellent link to an article that (at the bottom) gives a teaser indicating a possible privitization of Ford

I have been pushing this idea around since early February, and when Kerkorkian stepped in I knew something was going down.

The Blue Bowtie

Ford and GM are cutting costs right and left, buying out early retiree's, selling assetts, all to properly position for a merger that 'could' happen fairly soon.




The Nissan GM thing will never happen, and I honestly doubt that Ford could go private in my opinion.

But ,... I bet the merger goes down, they just cant tell you yet.

I hope they do something quick, this uncertainty is killing me. I work for an OEM supplier to the auto industry, we supply the wheels that are going on most new cars. Virtually all of our competitors have gone out of the business and our only real competitor left is some small startup called...hmmm....see if I can remember the name...oh yea, China.

Still, we're hurting at the moment. Two years ago my plant alone was shipping around 70,000 wheels a week. Now we're lucky to be shipping 25,000 a week. The mfg plant in Van Nuys is now gone. The Heber Springs plant was sold, Our Chrome plant was shut down, This week we learned the Johnson City plant is being closed down.

It stinks being in the auto supply business at the moment. Something has to give here folks....

I guess the one good sign is all the bigshots from the plants that have closed are being sent to my plant, Thats a good sign my job isn't going away. Still,

It's getting scary. I often feel i'm polishing the brass on the Titanic...

wupy

I think it'd be cool to see them merge, just because you rarely
see corporate mergers on such a scale.

Of course I have no idea what that could do to the economy.

But maybe they'll stop having stuff made in China and just have
it all made here, I'm sure that would cut the shipping costs.

PROSPECT OF FOREIGN CONTROL OVER GM CAUSES STIR IN U.S.


ALLIANCE PROPSAL: Company votes to expore lin with Nissan, Renault.

DETROIT – It’s been said that what’s good for General Motors is good for the country.
But with a proposal now on the table to link the world’s largest automaker with Japan’s Nissan and France’s Renault, the question arises: which country?
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 9.9 percent of GM’s shares, is proposing that Renault SA and Nissan Motor co. each buy stakes in General Motors Corp. and add the American industrial icon to their existing alliance. Friday, GM’s board of directors voted to pursue “exploratory discussions” with Renault and Nissan.
The idea of foreign companies exerting control over GM doesn’t sit well with some U.S. politician, union leaders and admirers of the company. Their discomfort is compounded by the fact that the French state holds 15 percent of Renault.
“I’m in favour of Michigan wining. I’m in favour of jobs coming here and the concern is that if it’s controlled by businesses on another continent or other continents, that we may end up on the losing end,” Gov. Jennifer Granholm told reporters in Lansing.

www.chron.com...

the link posted no longer works. this is from a post i made a couple months ago.

politics.abovetopsecret.com...

i think i would rather see GM with Nissan an Renault, ranther than a domestic super company.

The only way that i could see ford and gm together is if ford bought gm. what does gm have going for it? the hummer? how far can that go? I doubt it will ever compete with the f-150 that sells ever 2 seconds. If GM goes with Nissan and Renault, it could open them up more in the overseas market, that is if GM can even keep control. GM would just cramp fords style, and i would hate to see that.

They already control the market and cover up flaws and dangers.

The only way that i could see ford and gm together is if ford bought gm. what does gm have going for it?

A viable company??? This isn't a matter of 'whats better, a chevy or a ford', its a business deal between businessmen, who know more about stock options than dealer installed options.

Originally posted by Nygdan
They already control the market and cover up flaws and dangers.

The only way that i could see ford and gm together is if ford bought gm. what does gm have going for it?

A viable company??? This isn't a matter of 'whats better, a chevy or a ford', its a business deal between businessmen, who know more about stock options than dealer installed options.

of coarse its a matter of who makes a better car, which is usually reflected in how it sells. based on the article the original poster linked to GM merging with Ford, and the article that i posted (with a crappy link, however backed up in todays 'province' news paper) that it is GM that is looking for help, not ford. nothing about these meatings are being disclosed, but this is the way i would take it. GM is in trouble, or GM is looing to expand, but ford is just another prospect the same as Nissan and Renault.

this forum is kind of confused on a lot of points.

first off, GM is already the largest car company in the world and has been for over 70 years. a ford and GM merger would make this company stand as the largest for decades more for sure.

japanese cars are not necessarily better than american cars. this is a product of marketing and the gullable-ness (is that a word) of humanity. the average person thinks "american cars can't handle, can't perform and are poorly made". 1984 called: they want their stereotype back.

why are toyota and honda selling better? because of the gas crisis. if you look at stats from 2 or 3 years ago, they weren't doing nearly as well. the fact is, the japanese companies are doing better by now because they have spent nearly their entire existence making V6 and 4 cylinder cars, so they happen to be generally more fuel efficient. americans car companies have spent their heritage building cars with power- V8 american muscle. i own an f-body, i know this. my car has a 350 base horsepower V8 with several mofidications (roughly 400hp at the crank). guess my fuel economy? what do you think, 16 mpg? 17 mpg? i get 22 mpg on a mostly city-driving commute. my cousin has a mustang GT, also a V8. he gets 23 mpg with mixed driving. all you guys out there that think that american cars aren't efficient are sorely mistaken and have fallen for the lies the japanese car industry and the media have portrayed to you.

and if you think american cars can't do well on gas, my mother has a pontiac vibe and my father has a chevy cobalt. both get around 35 mpg daily driven in a mixed commute. every car at my home - 4 of them - are GM cars. they're just as reliable as anything japanese, get good mileage and are much cheaper to fix than most any jap trap out there.

japanese cars being better than american cars is simply a myth. they're slow, sound terrible and are much more expensive to fix when they do break. do you want to know why people think japanese cars are so much more reliable? market share. simply put, up until 10 years ago, nearly every car on the road was american, so what cars did the shops see? that's right, american cars - hence the bias. give it 10 years. now that the market is equaling out with domestic and foreign cars, you'll see more japanese cars in the shop. go talk to ANY transmission builder - they'll tell you one of the most commonly serviced transmission is a honda automatic transmission. honda CANNOT build an automatic transmission to save their lives. the acura NSX - made by honda - their $90,000 supercar (and i use that term loosely because my car can whoop one of these and i got it for $15k) had to be detuned by over 40 horsepower just so their automatic transmission could hold the power. it kept grenading. and let's not forget mitsubishi, one of the biggest junker car companies on the road...

i just had to set some things straight here.

[edit on 23-9-2006 by ChocoTaco369]

As far as the cobalt goes, there used to be a chevy called the cavalier, it was a peice of garbage. The name was became so strongly associated with being crap, that when GM rolled out the new 'cavaliers', they changed the name to "Cobalt".

Rather than make a better car, they gave it a re-tooling and a new name.

This is, probably, the real reason why companies like GM and Ford are in unstable (though still completely dominant) positions and considering mergers between themselves.

Here is the best business advice that either company could ever obtain.

Build more HYBRIDS!

This is the market where American car companies are being beat. SUV's have bottomed out, and the recent drop in gas prices will only last as long as the next election.

I say good luck, and keep Americans working.

Originally posted by Nygdan
As far as the cobalt goes, there used to be a chevy called the cavalier, it was a peice of garbage. The name was became so strongly associated with being crap, that when GM rolled out the new 'cavaliers', they changed the name to "Cobalt".

Rather than make a better car, they gave it a re-tooling and a new name.

This is, probably, the real reason why companies like GM and Ford are in unstable (though still completely dominant) positions and considering mergers between themselves.

cavaliers last practically forever. you can't kill their engine. my father owned a cavalier for years. it rolled over 100,000 miles. the oil still came out practically amber. he never dropped a dime into that car other than for oil changes and new brakes. the thing never so much as had a single problem outside of a single 40 cent bad wire that caused a rough idle. there were no leaks and the thing was as solid as the day it came off the the assembly line. my father traded it in for a cobalt. why mess with success?

what do you mean "a better car"? it's just as good as a honda civic. look around on the road. you will see tons of old cavaliers still being driven - many, many more than you'll see honda civics. i'd never buy an overhyped civic as an economical daily driver. they're nothing but media hype - the reason why GM and ford are falling on hard times. the japanese car companies get the media glory.

does anyone know that toyota makes it common practice to NOT have recalls?

www.detnews.com.../20060720/AUTO01/607200422/1148

yes, toyota makes it common practice to not have recalls. why? recalls are bad publicity. they're under criminal investigation. but does THIS story hit mainstream media? oh, heavens no. but if GM or ford did this...oh my goodness call the papers, those monsters. i'm proud to own cars made by a company that actually has recalls and cares about customer satisfaction other than a company like toyota that would rather shaft their customers to preserve image and get more money.

the way news is reported is almost a conspiracy in itself. what a perfect website to talk about media bias.