Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Detroit News asks why not Ford/Renault/Nissan?

Carlos Ghosn the top dog at both Nissan and Renault is considered by many to be the saviour of both those companies and the cand do guy that can fix any auto company. We've all see the news about GM and a possible alliance between Renault/Nissan being pushed by Kirk Kirkorian a major stock holder and major critic of GM. There has been talk both in favor and against such a partnership and the benefits to each side. Many pundits are blinded by the prospect of this new triumvirate emerging as the largest auto maker in the world and of course by the iconic Ghosn. And now the Detroit News asks if Ford may be a better fit for this prospective alliance.
There was much talk several months ago, about Bill Ford jr putting feelers out to Ghosn and being rejected. This after Mark Fields being made head of Ford in the Americas. Bill Ford has been quoted many times saying he would relenquish control to a man better suited to controlling America's second largest automaker.
But would Renault and Ford mix well? I know Ford has a long history of cross border partnerships and aquisitions (Premier Auto Group brands.) Ford has worked with Nissan over the years on projects around the globe including the Nissan Quest/Mercury Villager here in the US. But wouldn't an alliance with Renault compromise their relationship with PSA Peugeot/Citreon? And aren't Ford and Renault fierce competitors in the European market?
And what about Ford's platform development work with Fiat?

I'm not getting a warm fuzzy fealing about Ford/Renault/Nissan, but there was one sentence in the article that summed it up for me. Ford needs two or three sucessful new model rollouts to recover. Ford's energies should be concentrated on that and leave the speculation of mergers to journalists. Besides, Carlos Ghosn is already splitting time between Europe and Asia, so unless they clone him or develop Star Trek like transportation devices, how much effort could he devote to FoMoCo ?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cross-post to MyFordDreams2:

http://www.thefordblog.com/ford-and-renaultnissan-sitting-in-a-tree/