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Court ruling to delay Fiat's Chrysler buyout?

We've already reported on the attempts of Fiat to purchase the remaining 41.5-percent stake in Chrysler, currently owned by the United Auto Workers' VEBA healthcare trust. And while the issues still aren't resolved, Fiat has received both a bit of good news and a bit of bad news from a Delaware judge.
The good news is that the court ruled in favor on two key arguments of Fiat's, relating to what is a fair price for the Chrysler shares. The rulings essentially slash half a billion dollars off the price of the 54,000 shares owned by VEBA, according to a report from Reuters.
The bad news is that this makes the UAW an even more difficult opponent in negotiations. Its VEBA fund is meant to cover ever escalating retiree healthcare costs, so naturally, the UAW wants to get as much money as possible. Losing a big chunk of cash isn't likely to make the union more cooperative.

Final Toledo Jeep decision may have nothing to do with city's efforts

Toledo, OH is doing all that it can to keep production of the Jeep Wrangler in its boundaries, but the biggest issue facing the plant may be insurmountable, no matter how desperately the city wants to keep the Wrangler local. The Wrangler is built in a rather interesting manner at the Toledo Supplier Park: Fiat Chrysler only handles the very final assembly of each vehicle, while two other companies, Kuka, a German firm, and Hyundai-Mobis, a member of the sprawling Hyundai empire, produce the body and chassis, respectively. The vehicles are then transferred over to the FCA part of the park, where they're painted and completed. This was, as The Detroit News explains, a convenient arrangement back in 2006 when the supplier park opened. Chrysler, which was still owned by Daimler at the time, arranged for Kuka and Mobis to handle production, saving it a huge sum of money. Both suppliers own their own machinery and buildings and employ their own workers. Now that FCA is a relatively healthy entity, though, there's not a lot of need to be sharing profits with two other companies. "What [FCA boss Sergio Marchionne] would like is to have the advantages of high-capacity utilization, owning that capacity and taking advantage of that for himself versus having a supplier doing some of the things his competitors do internally," David Cole, chairman emeritus at the Ann Arbor, MI-based Center for Automotive Research, told The News. "It really adds another level of complexity to the situation." While Sergio Marchionne is a man that generally gets what he wants, it seems unlikely that either Mobis or Kuka would give up their role quietly. According to Jon Zapf, Mobis North America's chairperson for UAW Local 12, the company "definitely wants to maintain their part of this production process." According to The News, Jeep is likely to announce the location of next-generation Wrangler production in June. Expect to hear much more on this one in the coming months.

Stellantis dealers plead that letting Chrysler die is not an option

Executives and dealers have recently cautioned that a dark cloud looms over Chrysler's horizon, and figuring out why doesn't require an MBA from Stanford. And yet, Stellantis dealers say bright days could be ahead, if only the company reinvigorates the Detroit-based brand with long-awaited and much-needed new products. "This whole thing started with Chrysler. I don't want to get emotional about a brand, that's not the case. But, I don't want to see a brand like that left at the sideline and just thrown out to pasture," said David Kelleher, the head of the Stellantis National Dealer Council, in an interview with industry trade journal Automotive News. Kelleher added he would feel "violated" if the 96-year-old carmaker shut down. Keeping it around is relatively easy, but transforming it into a thriving business is far more difficult. Years of underinvestment have crippled the brand. It's almost exclusively dependent on North America, where it sells two models: the 300 and the Pacifica/Voyager duo. Sales in the United States totaled 110,464 units in 2020, down from 126,971 in 2019. To add perspective, Ram, Jeep, and Dodge sold 624,642, 795,313 and 267,328 units, respectively, in 2020.  While enthusiasts and analysts understandably worried Chrysler would die under Stellantis, Kelleher opined that the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and PSA Group can make the brand stronger. Products and technology from the French side of the partnership can be leveraged to help Chrysler expand its range and increase its sales while keeping development costs in check, he said. He stopped short of revealing which vehicles he has in mind, but his comments are interesting because PSA's lineup is almost entirely made of up small, European-flavored cars that are diametrically opposed to the models Chrysler's reputation is built on.  Hatchbacks are dropping like flies in the American market, so putting a Chrysler badge on, say, a Peugeot 208 and bringing it to America is out of the question. Wagons are unpopular, too, which leaves crossovers and SUVs. Oddly, the Chrysler brand is not represented in one of the most popular market segments in the United States. PSA doesn't dabble in burly SUVs, like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but it does small crossovers reasonably well. Could Chrysler move into the space occupied by the Toyota C-HR and the Hyundai Kona, among others?