2016 Jeep Cherokee Latitude on 2040-cars

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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?

China's Great Wall confirms its interest — in Jeep, or all of FCA

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI — Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor reiterated its interest in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Tuesday, but said it had not held talks or signed a deal with executives at the Italian-American automaker. China's largest sport utility vehicle manufacturer made a direct overture to Fiat Chrysler on Monday, with an official saying the company was interested in all or part of FCA, owner of the Jeep and Ram truck brands. Automotive News first reported the news, quoting Great Wall Motor President Wang Fengying as saying she planned to contact FCA to discuss acquiring the Jeep brand specifically. Those comments sent FCA shares higher but also raised questions over the ability of China's seventh-largest automaker by sales to buy larger Western rival FCA, or even Jeep, which some analysts value at as much as one-and-a-half times FCA. Great Wall sought to dampen speculation on Tuesday. It confirmed it had studied Fiat Chrysler, but said there was "no concrete progress so far" and "substantial uncertainty" over whether it would eventually bid. "The company has not built any relationship with the directors of FCA nor has the company entered into any discussion or signed any agreements with any officer of FCA so far," the company said in an English-language stock exchange filing. It did not give further detail. Fiat Chrysler stock dipped on the statement on Tuesday. Great Wall said trading in its Shanghai-listed shares would resume on Wednesday after having been suspended. Fiat Chrysler declined to comment on Great Wall's statement. On Monday, it said it had not been approached and was fully committed to implementing its current business plan. FLUSHING OUT RIVALS? Great Wall Motor, which was early to spot China's love of SUVs, had revenue of $14.8 billion last year and sold 1.07 million vehicles - but that compares with FCA's 2016 revenue of 111 billion euros ($130.6 billion). Analysts said Great Wall would need to raise both debt and equity to complete any deal, meaning its chairman Wei Jianjun could lose majority control. One possible scenario, according to analysts at Jefferies, would see Wei keeping a roughly 30 percent stake, while Great Wall would raise $10-$14 billion in debt and $10 billion in equity - hefty for a group currently worth just $16 billion. Ultimately, politics could be the clincher.

Trucks with the best gas mileage for 2024

There's no denying that pickup trucks are an integral part of our culture. They've been instrumental in building our infrastructure and giving the public access to remote locations and myriad recreation activities. Trucks aren't known for being particularly fuel efficient though, with boxy silhouettes and considerable weight negatively affecting their gas mileage ratings. The times are changing and not only are trucks getting more economical, but there are also several new smaller alternatives. An efficient tuck doesn't have to by tiny, though. Some of the trucks with the best gas mileage look classically bulky. What is the most fuel-efficient truck? So what's the most fuel-efficient pickup truck on sale in the U.S? It depends on which class of trucks you're looking at. For this list, we're focusing only on internal-combustion trucks. The small crop of all-electric trucks are certainly worth considering, but it's not so easy comparing EVs to ICE trucks here. In most cases, these trucks are the two-wheel-drive versions since they return the best mileage, but there are a few four- or all-wheel-drive models that we call out.  Not surprisingly, the revival of the compact pickup has altered the truck landscape. In many cases, these petite trucks may be just the right size for many shoppers. That's great because most owners would rather not lug around a ton of weight that they don't necessarily need. The simplest answer to the question posed above is the Ford Maverick Hybrid. It tops this list of fuel-efficient truckswith an impressive 37-mpg EPA estimate for combined city and highway miles. With only 191 horsepower and a continuously variable transmission, it's not as capable off-road or for towing as other trucks, but if you just need something to haul stuff around, you really can't do any better. Its 4.5-foot bed has a slight advantage over its only rival, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which has a 4-foot bed and an estimate of 23 mpg. So now we know what truck uses the least amount of gas. 2024 Ford Maverick 2.5-liter hybrid powertrain 37 mpg combined (EPA estimate) What is the most fuel-efficient midsize truck? While not as popular as their full-size siblings, midsize strike a good balance of utility and drivability. They’re easier to navigate in a crowded parking lot, and fit down more trails earning a set of Arizona pinstripes.