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Auto Mergers and Acquisitions: Suicide or salvation?

We love the Moses figure. A savior riding in from stage right with the ideas, the smarts, and the scrappiness to put things right. Alan Mullaly. Carroll Shelby. Lee Iacocca. Andrew Carnegie. Steve Jobs. Elon Musk. Bart Simpson. Sergio Marchionne does not likely view himself with Moses-like optics, but the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recently gave a remarkable, perhaps prophetic interview with Automotive News about his interest and the inevitability of merging with a potential automotive partner like General Motors. Marchionne has been overtly public about his notion that GM must merge with FCA. For a bit of context, GM sold 9.9 million vehicles in 2014, posting $2.8 billion in net income, while FCA sold 4.75 million units and earned $2.4 billion in net income, painting a very rosy FCA earnings-to-sales picture. But that's not the entire picture. Most people in the auto industry still remember the trainwreck that was the DaimlerChrysler "merger" written in what turned out to be sand in 1998. It proved to be a master class in how not to fuse two companies, two cultures, two continents, and two management teams. Oh, it worked for the two individuals at both helms pre-merger. They got silly rich. And the industry itself was in a misty romance at the time with mergers and acquisitions. BMW bought Rolls-Royce. Volkswagen Group bought Bentley, Bugatti, and Lamborghini, putting all three brands into their rightful place in both products and positioning. No marriages there, so no false pretense. Finally, Nissan and Renault got married in 1999. A successful marriage requires several rare elements in this atmosphere of gas fumes and power lust. But a successful marriage requires several rare elements in this atmosphere of gas fumes and power lust, the principle part being honesty. Daimler and Chrysler lied to each other. The heads of each unit, the product planners, and finance all presented their then-current and long-range forecasts to each other with less-than-forthright accuracy. Daimler was the far greater equal and no one from the Chrysler side enjoyed that. The cultures were entirely different, too, and little was done to bridge that gap. Which brings me back to the present overtures by Marchionne to GM. "There are varying degrees of hugs," Marchionne stated in the Automotive News piece. "I can hug you nicely, I can hug you tightly, I can hug you like a bear, I can really hug you." Seriously?

2020 Dodge Charger R/T and Scat Pack get Daytona Edition Packages

Dodge announced the Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition late last year, limited to 501 examples, one of which has already gone to that big NASCAR infield in the sky. For the rest of the Daytona fandom, Mopar Insiders says Dodge has just opened the order books for the Daytona Edition Package available on the standard Charger R/T and Scat Pack. When optioned with the package, both trims get a Mopar cold air intake under the hood, a black spoiler, and a satin black Daytona graphic across the rear decklid and fenders. Both sedans also upgrade their side mirrors to automatically adjust downward when the transmission is put in reverse, plus an automatically-dimming driver's side mirror. Inside, they share power driver's and passenger's seats in Nappa leather and Alcantara with the Daytona logo, heated seats front and rear, a premium-stitched dash panel with gloss black instrument cluster rings, and a power tilt and telescoping steering wheel. Additional upper and lower LED lighting in the front of the cabin, plus illuminated rear cupholders, memory functions for the driver's seat, radio, and outside mirrors, and black-edge premium floor mats complete the interior changes.  The Charger R/T sits on 20 x 9-inch Lights Out painted wheels, and installs a heated steering wheel and security alarm. The Charger Scat Pack sits on 20 x 9.5-inch forged and painted aluminum wheels, and affixes more satin black decals on the roof and the hood on top of a Daytona badge on the grille. The mirrors are luxxed up further than on the R/T, being powered and heated as well as fold-away, and including a blind-spot warning. Inside the Scat Pack, a Daytona badge on the instrument panel mixes with Carbonite accents throughout the interior.  The Daytona Edition Package can be ordered in any of the 12-strong color palette, including Frostbite (pictured), Hellraisin, and Sinamon Stick that are new for 2020. The kit adds $3,495 to the prices of both cars, so before any other options, the 2020 Charger R/T Daytona comes to $41,385 after destination, the 2020 Charger Scat Pack Daytona comes to $44,985. Related Video:

Peugeot's American future looks dead, but Stellantis intends to keep all brands alive

The years-old promise of a Peugeot return in the U.S. is looking bleaker by the second. Peugeot said the French brand would come back to sell cars in the U.S. five years ago, but now that FCA and PSA have transitioned to one Stellantis, that promise is looking a lot shakier. This news comes via a report from Car and Driver. When queried about Peugeot, Carlos Tavares, Stellantic CEO, offered this in response: “For the time being, I don't think that is part of the things that we want to prioritize for the next time window," Tavares said. "I think it's better that we funnel the talent, the capital, and the engineering capability of our Stellantis company to the existing brands to improve what needs to be improved and to accelerate where we need to accelerate, because we already have a very strong presence in this market." Tavares hasnÂ’t ruled it out entirely, but any kind of a Peugeot American renaissance is being pushed onto the backburner.  In good news for American brands, though, Tavares expressed great interest in keeping them all. Chrysler was the most worrisome of the bunch, as it only sells the aging 300 sedan and Pacifica minivan variants. Nevertheless, Tavares sees Chrysler as one of the “three historical pillars of Stellantis” and is eager “to give this brand a future.” Specifically, Tavares sees a high-tech future for the once-great American car company. Motor Trend reported on what Tavares spoke about in a call with the media. "It needs to rebound,” Tavares said. “We could think about what could be the next technologies in the automotive industry.” The obvious hint here is electrification and greater autonomy. Chrysler could theoretically become StellantisÂ’ electric showcase brand. ItÂ’s partway there with the Pacifica Hybrid PHEV minivan, but thereÂ’s still a long way to go for it to become the conglomerate's tech pillar. And then thereÂ’s Dodge and its powerful but emissions-heavy lineup. "We have the technology to deliver the torque, dynamics, and acceleration feeling, while also dramatically reducing the emissions," Tavares said. The Hellcat canÂ’t have a window-shattering 6.2-liter supercharged V8 forever, but it looks like Stellantis is at least committed to keeping the performance of DodgeÂ’s current lineup. Related video: