2014 Fiat 500l Trekking on 2040-cars

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Apple picks up former FCA quality boss Doug Betts

Apple made a significant personnel move that further signals its entry into the automotive world, hiring former Fiat Chrysler executive Doug Betts for an unspecified role. The information was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, which cites Betts' LinkedIn page. His career included stints at Toyota and Nissan before joining Chrysler Group (now FCA US LLC) in 2007, although his time there didn't end well. He left FCA, where he served as the automaker's head of quality, after the company's dismal showing in Consumer Reports' 2014 Annual Auto Reliability Survey. According to Betts' LinkedIn profile, which has since been pulled down, his job title reads "Operations – Apple Inc" in the San Francisco Bay area. Apple, meanwhile, was unwilling to divulge anything to the WSJ, although there's plenty to infer based on the hire. Betts wasn't the only big auto-related hire. According to the WSJ, Cupertino also lured an unnamed but "leading" autonomous vehicle researcher from Europe, who will be part of a team being setup to study driverless systems. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 1977 Fiat 124 Sport Spider

The Fiat 124 Sport Spider was sold in the United States for the 1968 through 1982 model years, after which Malcolm Bricklin imported the car under the Pininfarina brand for another couple of years. During the car's heyday in the middle to late 1970s, 124 Sport Spiders could be seen all over American roads... and a surprising number of these cars have survived long enough to appear in wrecking yards on a regular basis. Here's a '77 in a Denver junkyard. A 1970s 124 Sport Spider in restorable but rough condition isn't worth much; these cars were very affordable when new and beat-up ones have been available for three-figure prices for the last 30 years. This means plenty of them sit around as unfinished projects for year after year, then show up in wrecking yards. I see so many discarded 124 Sport Spiders that I don't even bother photographing most of them. Still, they're interesting cars, and it's a plus for those who do want to restore them that parts can still be found. The 1.8-liter dual-overhead four-cylinder in the '77 Sport Spider made 86 horsepower, which gave this car a performance edge over its arch-rival, the MGB (which had just 62.5 horses and weighed 100 pounds more). The MG was just $5,150 in 1977, though, versus the $6,115 price tag on the Fiat (that's about $22,100 and $26,300, respectively, in 2018 dollars). This one has some rust in the usual places, which might have been worth fixing on something like an Alfa Romeo Spider. With this car, it was a death sentence. Related Video:

Renault wants to merge with Nissan, then go after Fiat Chrysler

The late Sergio Marchionne used to say consolidation would be the only way to compete against the biggest global carmakers. The company looks certain to fulfill that goal, but perhaps not in the way he intended. The Financial Times reports that Renault wants to begin merger talks with Nissan in the next 12 months. Assuming a merger gets completed, the plan is for the combined company to then pursue another merger, with Fiat Chrysler a prime target. Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi have been busy since cutting ties with ex-alliance boss Carlos Ghosn. They formed a new alliance board with Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard at the helm, Renault has shrunk the size of its board while Nissan added more outside directors, and the two agreed to a new governance structure to ease operational decision making. All three automakers have walked away from Ghosn-era goals to sell 14 million cars and find 10 billion euros in savings by 2022. New strategic plans for all three car companies are in the works. With stability in sight, it's said Senard wants to succeed where Ghosn failed — a full-fledged merger between Renault and Nissan with talks to begin "as soon as possible." Ghosn's pursuit of a merger last year in attempt to make the 20-year-old alliance "irreversible" is part of what led to his downfall, with Nissan executives including CEO Hiroto Saikawa against the push. The new effort is presented as larger scale being the only way for the alliance to take on companies like Volkswagen and Toyota. But the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi trio sold 10.76 million cars around the world last year, second to Volkswagen with 10.83 million sales, ahead of Toyota with 10.39 million. If Nissan hadn't suffered a 2.8 percent dip in sales, the alliance would have taken the top spot. If a little scale is good that means more is better, right? Pulling Fiat Chrysler into the alliance would add around 5 million annual sales, and would be another move in Ghosn's footsteps. The former honcho is said to have "held talks with FCA" about some kind of union within the past three years. The French government, which has a 15 percent stake in Renault and double voting rights, shut down the initiative. It's not clear if FCA will be an independent company by the time a potential Nissan-Renault merger closed, though.